1. Ovulatory Shifts in Women’s Mating Psychology: New Methods, Evidence and Best Practices Ekaterina Netchaeva, PhD Adar Eisenbruch, MA Eli Finkel, PhD James Roney, PhD

2. Lady in Red: Hormonal Predictors of Women’s Clothing Choices Adar B. Eisenbruch 1, Zachary L. Simmons 2 & James R. Roney 1 1 University of California, Santa Barbara; 2 University of Portland 1/29/16

3. Enter the red shirts Beall & Tracy (2013): Women were more likely to wear a red or pink top during the fertile window of the menstrual cycle Red is a sexual signal in humans (e.g. Elliot, Greitemeyer & Pazda, 2013; Elliot & Niesta, 2008) Men find women in red more attractive Women wear red when trying to attract a mate Women appear to prioritize mate attraction in the fertile window (e.g. Haselton et al, 2007; Roney & Simmons, 2013)

4. Red light! Mixed replication results (Tracy & Beall, 2014; Prokop & Hromada, 2013) Common methodological problems

5. Problems with many cycle phase studies Between subjects Counting methods  discrete fertile window Reduced accuracy / power (Gangestad et al, 2015; Gildersleeve, Haselton & Fales, 2014) Researcher degrees of freedom? (Gelman, 2013; Wood et al, 2014) Self-reports No evidence of hormonal mechanisms

6. What would a better design look like? Within-subjects Confirmation of ovulation Timing Occurrence Objective measures Hormonal mechanism

7. Hormonal Mechanisms

8. The present study Existing dataset (Grillot, Simmons, Lukaszewski, & Roney, 2014; Roney & Simmons, 2013) 46 women (mean age = 18.80 years, SD = 1.22) Daily saliva samples (estradiol, progesterone and testosterone) Weekly lab sessions over 1-2 menstrual cycles Saliva samples (estradiol, progesterone and testosterone) Outfit photographs

9. Daily Saliva Samples Ovulatory cycles achieved progesterone ≥ 300 pmol/L (Ellison, Lager & Calfee, 1987) 53/82 cycles were ovulatory Fertile window analyses were restricted to ovulatory cycles Ovulation = as the second of two consecutive days (after or including the estradiol peak) between which there was the greatest drop in E. FW is day of ovulation plus 5 preceding (Wilcox, Weinberg & Baird, 1995)

10. Lab sessions Saliva samples E, P, T & E:P ratio Photos Coded by two female RAs Colors: black, blue, gray, green, pink, red, white, yellow, or other Items: dress, shirt/blouse, jacket/sweatshirt, pants, shorts, skirt, and accessories DV = red or pink top (shirt/blouse, jacket/sweatshirt, dress) “red”

11. Statistical methods Level 1 IVs: Session hormones, FW (1 or 0) DV: Red top (1 or 0) Level 2: subject Random intercept at level 2 Models effectively look at within-cycle effects of hormones or FW, controlling for women’s baseline of wearing red.

12. Fertile Window Results b = 0.93, Odds Ratio = 2.53, p =.04

13. Hormone effects Hormone Variable bOdds Ratiop Estradiol-0.030.97>.250 Progesterone-0.270.76>.250 Testosterone-0.240.79>.250 E:P ratio0.631.88.01

15. Mediation of the FW PredictorbOdds Ratiop Fertile Window0.471.60>.250 E:P ratio0.651.92.041 Mediation of the FW Monte Carlo method with adjustment for dichotomous outcomes (Herr, 2014; Selig & Preacher, 2008) Indirect effect = 0.042, 95% CI = [0.002, 0.09]

16. Discussion Replication of FW effect Hormones > counting methods Beall & Tracy’s counting method agreed with hormonal identification of the FW in only 64% of cases Counting method misclassified 46% of FW days as low fertility Frequent hormone sampling can solve some of the problems in the cycle phase literature E:P ratio mediated the FW effect (see also Roney & Simmons, 2013; Wang, Hahn, Fisher, DeBruine & Jones, 2014)

17. Remaining Questions What is it all for? Growing evidence that women reallocate energy across different adaptive problems in response to fertility fluctuations across the menstrual cycle. Why red? Sex flush E promotes vasodilation, P promotes vasoconstriction Red skin may have the look of arousal and fertility

18. Thank you! Ellise Fallon Samantha Wilcoxon Rachel Grillot Shelly Gable Eisenbruch, A. B., Simmons, Z. L., & Roney, J. R. (2015). Lady in Red Hormonal Predictors of Women’s Clothing Choices. Psychological Science, 26(8), 1332-1338. Funding: Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship to J. R. Roney UCSB Academic Senate Grant to J. R. Roney Hokkaido University Global Centers of Excellence Program Grant to UCSB Center for Evolutionary Psychology