| dc.description.abstract | Previous research has explored several ways in which human fertility influences
attraction in both men and women. One of the frequently replicated effects found in this
literature is that men tend to rate vocal samples taken from women during highly fertile
stages of their ovulatory cycle as more attractive than vocal samples taken during less
fertile times. However, ovulation is a relatively ancient adaptation that females from
many species, including humans, have maintained for several million years. Researchers
have largely ignored more recent adaptations, such as symbolic ingroup preferences, that
could potentially moderate these effects. The present work uses a phylogenetic lens to
examine the influence of ingroup and outgroup cues on men’s attraction to the voices of
fertile and nonfertile women.
In Study 1, fertility and target ethnicity interacted to predict attraction, such that
men found highly fertile target voices more attractive than nonfertile target voices;
however, this effect reversed for female targets who exhibited foreign-accented speech.
Study 2 replicated this finding and also demonstrated that a similar effect occurs in
response to a subtle manipulation of the female targets’ school membership (same-school
versus rival school). Study 3 shows that these results generalize to an older, more
diverse sample but suggests that the effect does not persist under certain subtle
manipulations (i.e., a minimal group paradigm). Together, these results provide support
for a phylogenetic approach to understanding human adaptation by demonstrating that
humans’ relatively recently evolved preferences for ingroup partners can refocus older reproductive drives. Future research should continue to pursue a potential mechanistic explanation for this effect. | en |
