Mate Choice Lab Report

Introduction: MIRANDA
The importance of understanding human evolution is intrinsic to nature. It is vital for
people to understand the process of how humans came to be, as well as how they have developed
and adapted to their environments throughout time. The process of mate choice and how it has a
direct effect on reproduction, for example, is a key point to note in the study of human evolution.
It has been concluded through a great number of scientific experiments that scent, being a
prominent factor in mate choice and sexual selection, is correlated to survival instincts and how
they have an impact on mate preference. When a woman is ovulating, or in other words the most
fertile, she subconsciously gives off a distinct scent that results in men being more attracted to
her. This scent reflects a womans healthy fertile system that will increase her chances of
reproduction.
A womans menstrual cycle on average lasts 28 days and has four key phases that
distinguish when a woman is her most fertile. The four phases in order are: the menstrual phase
(Days 1 to 5), follicular phase (Days 1 to 13), ovulation phase (Day 14), and the luteal phase
(Days 15 to 28). The menstrual and follicular phases overlap and ultimately are the phases in
which menstrual fluid start to exit the body and when a pituitary gland secretes a hormone that
stimulates the egg cells in the ovaries to grow (Menstrupedia 2016). The Ovulation phase,
otherwise known as the phase in which a woman is most fertile, is the phase in which the ovary
releases the egg cell that has matured throughout the cycle. The ovulation phase ultimately
extends along into the luteal phase. The luteal phase is the last phase in a womans menstrual
cycle and is the phase in which the egg cell released during the ovulation phase remains in the
fallopian tube and is the most fertile to sperm.
The fact that men are subconsciously able to detect when a woman is her most fertile is
vitally important to human reproduction. A woman has a short time span of about 24-48 hours in
a month of being fertile, in contrast to a mans ability to remain fertile at any time within a
month. Thus, mens ability to detect a womans ovulation is fundamental to human reproduction
because ovulation directly correlates to a womans capability of being fertile, and thus being able
to reproduce offspring.
A previous study conducted by Finnish scientists detected whether men are in fact more
attracted to an ovulating womans scent, as opposed to a non-ovulating womans scent.
Kuukasjarvi (2004) tested whether the ability to detect ovulation is limited to solely males. The
experiment was conducted by male and female raters who rated the sexual attractiveness of Tshirts' odors worn by 42 women using oral contraceptives and by 39 women without oral
contraceptives. Males conclusively rated highest the sexual attractiveness of those women who
did not use oral contraceptives at mid cycle. There was no significant preference in female raters
of users and nonusers. The results ultimately concluded that men use olfactory cues to
differentiate between ovulating and non-ovulating women.

Although experiments such as ours have been conducted many times before, our
approach is slightly different in the sense that we will be noting down the ages and ethnicities of
the male participants. We are doing so because ethnicity and age ultimately might have a
significant effect on scent preference. For example, a Latino man might find the scent of a Latin
woman more attractive, and subsequently prefer that scent.
Methods: JESSIE
Two female participants and fifty male participants are involved in this study. One of the
two female is in her ovulating period (Shirt B) which occurs between 12 and 14 days before
your period starts when one has a regular 28 days menstrual cycle, and the other female is not
(Shirt A). They were each asked to wear one identical shirt over night, and put them in a zip bag
every time they take it off for two nights. Fifty male participants are randomly selected at
Pasadena City College. First, their age and ethnicity was asked and recorded because the culture
influence and age could possibly impact the result of this study. Then, they were asked to smell
those two t-shirts and rate their scent based on attractiveness, pleasantness, and intensity at the
scale 1 to 7 which 1 is the lowest and 7 is the highest. Pleasantness and intensity are included in
this study because we want to avoid the bias it might emerged when the experiment target is too
obvious. Data didnt show an obvious correlation between either two variables. One box and
whisker diagram will be created for each shirt which will provides a more clear result.
Results: JOHN
The box-plot below shows the data gathered for Shirt A (Figure 1) and Shirt B (Figure 2).
For attractiveness, 75% of our participants gave Shirt A a rating of 3 and below. In comparison,
75% of our participants gave Shirt B a rating of 5 and below. Also, the median for Shirt B is 4,
which is twice the median of Shirt A. Regarding pleasantness, the majority (75%) of our
participants rated each shirt between 1-5. However, Shirt As median is one point above the
median of Shirt B. Under intensity, the results almost parallel the results found in measuring
pleasantness. The majority of our participants rated each shirt between 1-4. In this case, the
intensity of the scent from Shirt A was 0.5 above the intensity of the scent from Shirt B. Overall,
Shirt B had a much higher rating for attractiveness, but its ratings for pleasantness and intensity
were almost identical to those of Shirt A.

Figure 1: The results for Shirt A. As seen above, Attractiveness has a median of 2,
Pleasantness has a median of 3, and Intensity has a median of 3. This data shows Shirt A is
less attractive than Shirt B.

Figure 2: The results for Shirt B. As seen above, Attractiveness has a median of 4,
Pleasantness has a median of 2, and Intensity has a median of 2.5. This box-plot shows our
participants found Shirt B more attractive than Shirt A.
Discussion: SAMANTHA
The results of the experiment supported the hypothesis that men are attracted to the scent
a woman excretes when she is ovulating. The scent produced by the ovulating participant (shirt
B) was rated more attractive than that of shirt A. The pleasantness and intensity of the scent
produced similar results on both of the shirts. However, the median for intensity and
pleasantness were higher in shirt A. Because shirt B was deemed more attractive, men may be
more likely to select the ovulating woman to mate. Preference between ethnicities was similar
and did not produce any substantial differences.
Although most men were interviewed alone, in some of the cases, the participants were in
groups. This might have cause some bias and might have produced different result if every
participant was interviewed alone. The exact time period of ovulation is also tricky since there
was no clinical way available to test the participants point in her cycle. It was just assumed that
the participants midpoint in her cycle meant that she was ovulating. If infact the ovulating
participant was not in the follicular phase, the data would be invalid. Another point is that
pleasantness, intensity, and attractiveness may have a subjective definition, and might possess
different meanings to the individual participants. This is why it is important to look into research
done by others.
A previous study done by Kuukasjarvi (2004) used the similar t-shirt experiment, but
instead tested scent attractiveness of women using oral contraceptives versus none. This
experiment also let women and men smell the shirts. The results were similar in that males
prefered odors from women in their ovulatory phase. Attractiveness ratings also peaked in a
study by Havlek, Dvokov, Barto, and Flegr, (2006) in the follicular phase in contrast to the
lower ratings during menstruation. Instead of the three categories in this experiment, their study
consisted of four: attractiveness, pleasantness, intensity, and femininity. Intensity in their study
was also similar to the results shown in this study: higher scent intensity in the non ovulatory
phase than in the ovulatory phase. It is important for males to detect a womans fertile phase as
shown in these studies. When a female ovulates, she gives off signals to the male that she is
ready to mate and produce offspring. For animals and humans alike, more offspring makes a
subject more biologically fit.
In the future, many other experiments can be conducted to determine the true
attractiveness of men to scents released by women during ovulation. One important topic is
finding exactly where in the brain these specific pheromonal actions take place, and how they
relate to animals. The scent was previously thought to be concealed, but detectable by men. In
turn, human pheromones are important to learning more about sexual selection and human
behavior.

Works Cited
Havlek, J., Dvokov, R., Barto, L., & Flegr, J. (2006). Non-Advertized does not Mean
Concealed: Body Odour Changes across the Human Menstrual Cycle. Ethology, 112(1), 81-90.
doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01125.x
Kuukasjarvi, S. (2004). Attractiveness of women's body odors over the menstrual cycle: The role
of oral contraceptives and receiver sex. Behavioral Ecology, 15(4), 579-584. Retrieved February
12, 2016.
http://menstrupedia.com/articles/physiology/cycle-phases