WEBVTT - Fertility, Ovulation and Consumer Decision Making 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.160 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from housetop works 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:14.560 dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.119 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Seger and 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.120 I just got back from south By Southwest in Austin, Texas. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.600 And while I was there, I saw a lot of 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:29.400 live podcasts, especially science podcasts. Uh. And as we have 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.400 been mentioning all throughout the month, we're doing the whole 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.920 tripod hashtag things. So if you're unfamiliar with this, Basically 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.560 the idea here is to promote other shows by letting 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.080 people know what you listen to. Uh, you say out 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.360 on social media, Hey I like stuff to blow your 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.680 mind hashtag tripod. People can search the tripod hashtag and 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.680 find new stuff because let's let's admit it, it's a 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.240 Podcasts aren't the easiest in terms of discover ability, right, Yeah, 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.520 there's so many of these days, and that's a lot 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.440 of bad podcast out there, but there are some really 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:05.880 good ones, and then there's just a rich variety. And 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.119 what constitutes a podcast is it? Is it people having 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.480 more of a real conversation. Is it a type we 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.640 produced product, is it all music or is it one 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.399 of those silent podcasts that I'm hearing more and more about. 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:21.319 Those are the best. It's just it's not even white noise, 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.840 is just nothing, just absolutely emptyness you can just pour 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.240 yourself into. Well. The one one of the ones that 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.360 I saw at south By that really grabbed my attention 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.319 was this it's pretty new podcast it just started this 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.200 year called Slings and Arrows, and they had a guest 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:43.000 named Christina Duranti, and she is a professor. She's at 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:48.520 Rutgers University right now, and she specializes in studying ovulation 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.680 and how it relates to consumer decision making. And so 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.280 I was just fascinated by the stuff she was talking about, 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:56.520 and I came back and I was like, we got 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.440 to do an episode on this woman's research. So we 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:04.080 took a eap dive into her cv. Basically, we read 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:09.080 a lot of her articles in this episode is about ovulation, 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.519 but then it's also about the research that she's conducted 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.320 over the years how people have reacted to it, because 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.160 there's been a lot of criticism of her work. But 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.960 also the real wrap around here, the real takeaway is 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.400 that there's a sort of insidious marketing aspect to this 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.400 as well, which is that, Uh, if you're able to 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:36.800 track when a woman is ovulating, and ovulation leads to 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:42.280 different styles of decision making, then you could potentially market 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.960 in a manipulative way to women when they're ovulating to 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.480 get them to spend more money on something. Uh. And 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:55.079 that was what Durante's whole kind of framework was. Uh. So, 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:59.440 so for instance, like, um, you know these ovulation tracking apps, 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.480 like my wife uses one of those. Yes, yes, I 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.040 think I've heard of these. Yeah, so there's the possibility 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.520 of using those to have like pop up ads or 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.679 two for them to like sell the information of when 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.800 you're ovulating to a third party. Uh. The the other 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.520 idea here is that like, based on your purchase history, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.520 that somebody working in marketing might be able to figure 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.519 out when you're ovulating. It's real strange stuff. So I thought, 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:25.560 this is something that we really need to take a 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.720 look at. Um, and this would be just one detail 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.839 of our biometric information that we're going to be increasingly 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:36.320 totally giving to machines and giving to potential advertisers, etcetera. 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:38.200 You know, pop up ads like Hey, I see that 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:42.080 you're sweaty, maybe you stink, Maybe you should buy this product. Yeah. 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.040 I want to throw a couple of disclaimers in here 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.560 up front, the first being I really wish that our 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.360 colleagues Christen Conger and Caroline Irvine were still here, so 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.440 that maybe one or both of them could sit in 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.600 with us and talk to us about this topic, because 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.520 they have just you know, having worked on stuff Mom 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.320 never told you for so many years. They've encountered so 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:03.920 many studies like this and have a lot of experience 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.880 with the controversy surrounding things like this. I think they 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:08.800 could have given us a perspective on it that would 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.600 be interesting, But I think this research is interesting enough 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.040 that we should just go ahead and share it with 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.480 our audience anyway. Now that being said, we're going to 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.080 tackle the subject with the same level of care and 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.920 decorum that we tackle any topic here on stuff to 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.960 blow your mind. Yeah, and another note I want to 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.440 say before we start. We're definitely going to address this 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.360 at the end. But these studies could be seen as 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.920 very deterministic in that they seemingly propose that a single 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.480 factor such as ovulation drives the decision making of many women, 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.680 and I think it's worth stepping back and acknowledging that 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.560 before we even start that there are many other factors 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.800 that influence decision making in both men and women, right, 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.320 And I think Durante would probably agree with us on that. 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.839 But most of all, it's important not to read this 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.520 research and assume, oh, means that women aren't capable of 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.320 making rational, logical decisions outside of their reproductive cycle, right, 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.560 Like I could. I can imagine somebody listening to this 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.400 and being like, oh, this completely confirms everything that I've 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.520 ever thought about women, you know, and like, please don't 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.680 take that. That's always the danger of with studies like this, 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.279 right that, because ultimately, nobody wants to be reduced to 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.960 a mirror meat puppet or a hormonal meat puppet. Uh, 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.520 especially if there's just one string. And generally what's going 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.680 on with studies like this and any so many studies 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.640 that cross our desks that that boil down the human behavior. 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.320 It's about looking at one potential string on the meat puppet, 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.800 and nobody wants to We want to be a very 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.159 complex marionette pulled in different directions by a number of strings. 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.160 And that's more in keeping with what the reality is totally. 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.719 It's just that when stuff like this gets published and 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.839 then the media takes it and they kind of boil 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.080 it down to reduce it to it's like the lowest essence. 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.760 There's misinformation that goes around, and in particular, there's been 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:03.280 considerable controversy around these studies as well, even causing CNN 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.960 to pull one of their stories covering one about ovulation 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:08.760 and voting, and we're going to talk about that at 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.400 length later. Some people have called the pseudoscience. Other people 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.720 have referred to it as quote stupid, offensive, and sexist. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.800 I think that there is something of value here. So 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.320 we're gonna look at this stuff. Well, first of all, 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:26.000 we're gonna just establish the ground rules of what ovulation is. 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.240 But then we're gonna look at these studies and we're 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.320 gonna step back, look at the criticism, and then you 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.520 and hopefully us together can kind of come to a 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:35.920 conclusion of what we think. All right, well, let's jump 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.680 into it establishing just what ovulation is. Many of you 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.880 already are are well informed on this, but we have 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.360 we have both genders listening in, and we have people 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.320 of different ages. So let's let's get down to break. Yeah, 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.040 I'm gonna call this section awkward sex education with Coach 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:56.120 Christian Seger. UH. So here we go. This is a 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.559 lot of this information is right off of how stuff 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.279 Works dot com, and we have many articles about the 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.960 reproductive cycle UH and specifically ovulation. So here we go. 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.800 Women are born with millions of immature eggs and these 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:14.840 are contained in multicellular structures called follicles. Now, each of 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.920 these is about the size of a pinhead and roughly 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.960 once a month, or actually it's about every twenty eight days, 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:25.000 though cycles can vary. The hypothalamus in our brain sends 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.560 a signal to the pituitary gland and that says, well, 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.560 you should release these follicle stimulating hormones. Now that's important 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.960 because that's the first hormone that comes into play here 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.600 with these ovulation studies. These prompt the follicles to develop 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.560 into mature eggs. One grows more dominant than the others, 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:48.280 and within two to three days following its maturity, the 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:52.200 egg will react to the release of another hormone, and 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.680 this is a lutinizing hormone. This stimulates the sex hormones 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.760 needed for pregnancy. It pushes the egg through the wall 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.680 of the ovary. The follicle itself then sends out a 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:06.200 call for an increase in estrogen production. So we've already 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.480 got what like three different types of hormones that are 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.720 being increased in decreased in various ways right now. Between 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:18.040 their periods, women ovulate usually. Uh, Now, this is interesting. 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:20.600 In the research it said usually a week before or after. 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:22.720 And my wife corrected me on this and took out 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.160 her little app and showed me exactly where it fell. 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.160 I think it's like it's sort of at the halfway point. 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.080 It can be a regular though, uh, and it can 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.520 occur even during a woman's period. Generally, though, most women 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.720 ovulate between day eleven and day twenty one, counting down 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.200 from their last menstrual period. So how do you know 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.160 when you're ovulating, Well, it's supposed to happen on the 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.400 four day of your cycle. It's the time when you 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.080 are the most fertile. And the symptoms include being able 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.400 to feel an ache in the ovary area, a change 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.240 in cervical secretion, a dip in body temperature and then 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:05.280 subsequently a spike, as well increased sex drive, light spotting, 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:10.960 a bloating feeling, and heightened senses of taste and or smell. Now, 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.800 oral contraceptive though they can suppress all of these symptoms, 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.640 and that's important to these studies as well. Now, how 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.520 can everyone else tell when you're ovulating? Well, they can't. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.720 Unlike many other species such as the noobos in particular, 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.560 humans undergo what's called concealed ovulation, and most primates have 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:34.480 semi concealed ovulation. Now, why their number of theories here? 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:40.440 There's a parental investment, infanticide, reduction, sex and reward, social bonding, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.280 and there's even a theory out there that it's just 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.880 a mere byproduct of being a biped. Yeah, but like 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.200 Durante and many of her studies kind of establishes this 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.440 upfront in the papers, basically saying, like, you know, with 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:57.319 primates you can sometimes tell that they're ovulating because their 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.440 genitals are swelling, right, and so subsequent both male and 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.000 female primates no and that sort of changes how they 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:09.560 socially interact with another. Now, normally the one egg passes 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.840 from either of the ovaries through the fallopian tubes. This 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.360 happens once per cycle, and then when or if two 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.280 eggs are released within a single twenty four hour span 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.319 and both are fertilized, this can result in fraternal twins, 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:25.600 and we have a whole brain stuff episode all about 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.640 how twins work. Uh, if you want to learn more, 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.520 you can go check that out. Inside the flopian tubes 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.160 are tiny hairs called cilia, and they helped pass that 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.560 egg through the tube toward the uterus. This takes several 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.880 days and the egg exists in a perfect environment that 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.640 provides it with the nutrients that it needs. Now, while 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.719 this is going on, the uterus, which is prompted by 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.640 signals released by the follicle that formed the egg originally, 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:56.520 has formed an internal lining called endometrium. This is rich 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.719 in blood and nutrients, and it's prepared to house and 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.720 nurture the egg if it gets fertilized. Now, fertilization does 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.520 not occur. The egg disintegrates into the uterine lining that 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:12.479 passes out of the body during the period. So that's 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:17.040 the real basic sex said class uh, that we're going 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.160 to introduce here. That's the science up front of like, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.680 here's how the body works, right, and we've related that 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.040 there's a definite ebb and flow of behavior that's associated 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.200 with this. Yeah. Absolutely, And that's where Christina Durante comes in. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.679 So she is an associate professor of Marketing currently at 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.600 Rutger's Business School. She's a social psychologist that's interested in 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.960 the biology of decision making. Most of her research mixes 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:46.200 social psychology, evolutionary biology, and consumer decision making. She was 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:50.679 actually an entertainment marketing executive before she entered into academia, 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.559 but now she focuses on women's consumer choices and luxury spending, 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:59.280 family consumer spending, and how hormones like all the ones 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.400 we were just talking about, influence those decisions. Overall, her 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:08.720 research presents a theory that ovulation leads women to prioritize 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:13.040 the securement of genetic benefits from a mate who possesses 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:18.160 indicators of genetic fitness. Subsequently, her research shows that ovulating 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:22.400 women have an increased desire for short term sexual relationships 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.120 with men that possess markers of genetic fitness. And so 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.320 if you're wondering what that means physical symmetry for instance, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.960 or masculinity or social dominance. She has a ted X 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:37.679 presentation that is available on YouTube. It's from in that 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.520 she actually references the Yurkeys National Primate Research Center that's 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:45.720 here in Atlanta, and she's talking about how and often 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.840 cases there there are fewer male primates than there are 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:53.120 female primates. Uh. And when the females approach ovulation, they 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.400 become more aggressive and they even attack one another. And 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.959 that's because they're becoming more competitive for reproductive of resources. 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:06.120 And that is really the very simplistic, broad framework for 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.000 almost all the research that we're going to talk about today. 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.320 Now we've already touched on the fact that, yes, when 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:15.000 when humans ovulate, there's not there's not like a drastic 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:19.920 change in colorization of the individual. And yet we're humans. 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.839 We wear clothing, so this makes us, this actually makes 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:29.280 this capable of any number of colorization and appearance changes. 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.240 There are subtle ways in which we maybe do let 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.240 one another know if we're ovulating, and we don't even 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.679 know it ourselves. Let's take a quick break, and when 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.840 we get back, we're gonna look at Durante's first big 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.480 paper on this, which specifically talks about ovulations effect on 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:57.160 clothing choices. All right, we're back. So Durante, I believe this, 0:13:57.559 --> 0:13:59.960 So this comes from two thousand eight, and I believe 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.480 that this is maybe something that she was working on, 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.319 what like it might have been her dissertation, or it 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.679 might have been something she was working on in grad school. UH. 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:12.080 She and others tested a hypothesis that women prefer clothing 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.520 that is more revealing and quote sexy when their fertility 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.160 is at its highest within their ovulatory cycle, and the 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:25.480 results suggest that clothing preference shifts and could reflect an 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.840 increase in female to female competition near ovulation. So, going 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:33.120 back to that your keys center metaphor of the primate 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:36.080 sort of fighting each other, the ovulation, the feeling of 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.440 intense competition with other females from mates, and therefore the 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:46.560 desire to to essentially improve one's UH selectivity. Yeah, exactly. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.400 So the methodology they had they brought eighty eight women 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.120 in to report to their lab twice, and first on 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.800 the first visit was on a low fertility day of 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.320 their cycle, and then the second visit was on a 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.760 high fertility day. UH. And this was confirmed by using 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.480 hormone tests. That's important. We're going to come back to 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.479 that later. How they track whether these women are ovulating 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.640 or not is extremely important to how these studies get criticized. 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.760 So in each instance, they had the participants posed for 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.880 full body photographs in clothing they wore to the lab, 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.600 and then they had them draw illustrations to indicate on 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.320 an outfit that they would like to wear if they 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.400 had a social event that evening. They also took surveys 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:36.800 about their relationships, their social sexual orientation, and their desirability. 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:38.920 Now I want to read this part from the study, 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.720 the instructions on how they should do the illustration. Basically, 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.960 they handed them a bunch of colored pencils and there's 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:46.560 like a piece of paper that had like a pre 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:51.280 drawn female body on it and it said this. Imagine 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:53.680 that you were attending a social gathering at a friend's 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.680 apartment tonight. From what this friend tells you, it is 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:58.960 a large party where there will be a lot of 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:04.040 single attract of people. The party starts around ten pm. Geez, 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:08.880 it's so late. I know it's here we are. I'm 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.680 going to be in bed by eleven. Begin to decide 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:13.800 on what you are going to wear to this party. 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.400 Using the colored pencils provided, indicate on the paper doll 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:19.720 what you will be wearing to this party by drawing 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.760 an outfit showing where the neckline will start on your 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.560 shirt to where the shirt will end. Also indicate where 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:31.680 your pants, shorts, skirt, etcetera. Will begin and end. So 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.280 they had to these eighty eight women do this. They've 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.320 got all these drawings right, and to analyze them, they 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.960 ran measurements on variables such as the total amount of 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.880 skin that was revealed, the sexiness and the revealing rating 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.280 of the illustration, and a composite rating of all those 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.600 photographs that they took as well their choice. There was 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.240 a lot of like statistical stuff involved in there. I 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.280 skipped over that because I didn't want to bore you 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.480 the audience. You know, there's a lot of math there. 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.120 But if you want all this stuff is available on 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.200 her CV site, you can read any of these studies. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.480 So they found that the choices that these women made 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:14.280 were moderated by other factors beside fertility, including their social sexuality, attractiveness, 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:20.159 relationship status, and relationship satisfaction. So, for instance, sexually unrestricted 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:25.480 women showed greater shifts in preference for revealing clothing worn 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:30.119 to the lab when they were near ovulation. Now there's 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.720 you know, in studies like these, they've got to do 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.720 a lot of literature review up front, and uh, this 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.840 is no difference. So related research they turned to indicated 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:45.879 the following that women's mating psychology is sensitive to fertility status, 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:49.040 and that ovulation could shift a woman's social motives and 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:54.920 behaviors in adaptive ways. Women may experience greater sexual desire 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.920 during these fertile windows in their cycle, but the desire 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.520 may be direct did toward what are referred to as 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:06.480 non primary partners if their primary partner specifically lacks indicators 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:11.520 they find attractive. So let's say I don't know you're married, uh, 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:16.600 and you your husband doesn't have a symmetrical face. Okay, Uh, 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.920 during this particular time, you may be attracted to people 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.840 who aren't your husband whose faces are more symmetrical. I 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.400 think that's what they're kind of getting at here. Additionally, 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:31.120 ovulation can include an increase and a woman's self perceived 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:35.560 attractiveness and a greater motive for them to attend social gatherings. 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.840 Hence this whole you know methodology of draw what you're 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.680 going to wear to a party. Other research has found 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:46.000 that reward related brain areas of women experience more activation 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.919 during the mid follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, So 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.000 this implies that they experience an increase in desire for 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:59.080 immediate rewards. Another study argues that women become more competitive 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:05.000 with their women during ovulation. Similarly, another study found that 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.720 women closest to the expected day of ovulation were less 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:13.439 likely to share a monetary award and more likely to 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:18.119 reject a low offer to share a monetary stake specifically 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.479 with another woman. So, as you can tell, there's a 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.159 lot of research in this specific field about ovulation and 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:29.200 sort of social psychological behaviors. And I think already people 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:31.800 listening to to the show here you're hearing these these 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.399 arguments and you can already feel maybe a certain amount 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.960 of of outrage or sympathy for outrage regarding what may 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:43.240 sound like a sort of one string marionette um interpretation 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.400 of human behavior, right exactly. And that is a criticism 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:50.000 that has absolutely been leveled against these studies. Um. But 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:52.880 when you add all of this research together, not just Durante's, 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.240 but this this other stuff, it suggests it seems to 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.000 suggest that women are competitive for resources during the most 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.960 most fertile part of their cycle. Okay, but remember how 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.480 we were talking about those monkeys and how they could 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.879 detect ovulatory shifts. What if it was possible for human 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.880 beings to detect those in women based on their social behaviors. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.840 So some women report that their primary partners get more 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:23.920 jealous or possessive when they're near ovulation. So the question 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.080 then is like, how do these partners like detect an 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:31.400 extra variation and flirtation or what about this? What if 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.800 men can smell changes in hormones through body scent. So 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.480 several studies have shown that men actually rate the smell 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.080 of t shirts worn by women on fertile days of 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:47.360 their cycle as smelling more attractive than those that are 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.760 worn on non fertile days. This reminds me of the 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.439 I think there's like a scent based speed dating. Is 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.679 that right? That I don't know to what extent it 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:58.760 It lasted, but it was making the realms and various 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.560 headlines if you years back, because the idea was, oh, 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.720 well we have this acent is going to be such 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.439 a powerful indicator that you should be able to at 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.920 least weed out potential romantic partners just based on smell 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:12.960 of and so if you know this, then the ideas 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:14.600 that you want to make sure you bring a shirt 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:17.520 that you wore on the day when you're ovulating. I 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:20.120 guess so we kind of get into one string marionette 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.679 territory totally. Uh, So there's also another study. Here's a 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:27.399 study that would should really be a runner up for 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:31.520 the Ignoble prizes. A research study found that lap dancers 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.640 earned more tips when they were near ovulation than other 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.159 cycle phases. I believe I remember this study, and I 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:42.600 believe it did win an Ignoble. It didn't. Okay, all right, 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:47.800 there's growing evidence that complete strangers can actually detect cues 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.440 of ovulation in women. But I think, like what they 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:52.720 mean here is that a lot of this is subconscious. 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.600 It's not like I walk by a coworker and I go, oh, 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.800 she's ovulating today, right, you know, It's it's like these 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.960 subtle cues. Yeah, it's the idea. Yeah, this is a 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.959 subconscious understanding of what's going on, as opposed to like 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:11.360 terminator read out of saying ovulating individual. Right, all right, 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:14.240 So all of this comes down to this paper's hypothesis 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.840 that women may alter their appearance to appear more physically 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:22.280 attractive when their fertility is at its highest, or alternatively, 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:26.560 that they feel more attractive near ovulation, and so they 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.480 put more effort into their appearance as a result. Now 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:31.800 there's a third possibility to which is that it could 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:35.040 be a result of the increased competition that I was 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.840 talking about, so that women alter their physical attractiveness to 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.720 enhance their ability to compete with other women for those 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:48.520 quote higher quality mates that like genetic territory. Again, what 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:50.639 made this study different from all the others was that 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.080 it examined a larger sample of women who were both 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:57.240 partnered and unpartnered. And this was in addition to women 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.199 who had and who had not experienced sexual in or 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:05.000 course uh. And this was because psychological mechanisms regulating behavioral 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.600 changes may be sensitive to sexual experiences, so they added 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.840 the illustration method. They also took into account the individual 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:15.560 difference variables that we mentioned already, and instead of using 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:20.040 counting methods to estimate high fertility days like counting down 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:25.639 from when your period ended, they utilized ovulation devices to 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:30.440 pinpoint and verify fertility. Again totally important because this is 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:35.600 something they attacked for later. The researchers considered high fertility 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:37.440 to be no more than two days prior to their 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:40.800 lutinizing hormone surge and no later than four days following 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:44.360 their lutinizing hormone search. They did not include women who 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:48.560 used hormonal contraceptives. Or who had irregular cycle links, or 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:53.000 who had had recently performed childbirth, or were currently breastfeeding, 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:57.160 or experienced dramatic weight changes, or used antidepressants or smoked 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.959 cigarettes regularly. So there's like this, why had variety of 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:03.679 factors that they just completely swept out of the study 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:08.919 because those factors could potentially alter the cycle. So what 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:12.800