New Scientist
Image: Robbie Biller
Take a bunch of lap dancers, some lustful men and a fistful of dollars, and you have the best evidence yet for the controversial idea that women send out signals which reveal their fertile periods.
Last month, biologist Randy Thornhill challenged the orthodoxy that women do not undergo regular bouts of hormone-induced oestrus, or “heat”, when they are at their most fertile – something most female mammals experience (New Scientist, 15 September, p 18). Now a study of the tips men give to lap dancers, conducted by a colleague of Thornhill’s, lends further support to the argument for oestrus.
Geoffrey Miller and his team at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, compared the earnings of lap dancers who were menstruating naturally with those of dancers taking the hormonal contraceptive pill. During the non-fertile periods of their menstrual cycle, both sets of dancers earned similar tips. But when naturally cycling lap dancers entered their fertile period they earned significantly more in tips than their co-workers on the pill (Evolution and Human Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.06.002).
This is the first evidence that oestrus, and its influence on attractiveness, has “a real effect on women’s earnings”, says Miller. Read more on newscientist.com…
