Cited by 89Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorAnimal Behavior and ReproductionReproductive Health and Contraception

Oral contraceptive use in women changes preferences for male facial masculinity and is associated with partner facial masculinity

Open access
Little, Anthony C., Burriss, Robert P., Petrie, Marion, Jones, Benedict C., Roberts, S. Craig·2013·Psychoneuroendocrinology

Abstract

Millions of women use hormonal contraception and it has been suggested that such use may alter mate preferences. To examine the impact of oral contraceptive (pill) use on preferences, we tested for within-subject changes in preferences for masculine faces in women initiating pill use. Between two sessions, initiation of pill use significantly decreased women's preferences for male facial masculinity but did not influence preferences for same-sex faces. To test whether altered preference during pill use influences actual partner choice, we examined facial characteristics in 170 age-matched male partners of women who reported having either been using or not using the pill when the partnership was formed. Both facial measurements and perceptual judgements demonstrated that partners of women who used the pill during mate choice have less masculine faces than partners of women who did not use hormonal contraception at this time. Our data (A) provide the first experimental evidence that initiation of pill use in women causes changes in facial preferences and (B) documents downstream effects of these changes on real-life partner selection. Given that hormonal contraceptive use is widespread, effects of pill use on the processes of partner formation have important implications for relationship stability and may have other biologically relevant consequences.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.02.014

Cites

46 of 46 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Hormonal contraception (HC) use alters women's pair-bonding behavior.

    “Importantly, HC use alters women's pair-bonding behavior, evident in decreased attractiveness ratings of masculine faces (Little et al., 2013), reduced neural response to the expectation of erotic stimuli (Abler et al., 2013), a preference shift towards olfactory cues of genetic similarity (Roberts et al., 2008) and increased sexual jealousy (Geary et al., 2001).”
  • Cyclical shifts in partner preferences are diminished in women using HC.

    “In line with our own data, these cyclical shifts were found to be diminished in women using HC (Cobey et al., 2013;Little et al., 2013).”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Little, A. C., Burriss, R. P., Petrie, M., Jones, B. C., & Roberts, S. C.
Affiliations
  • University of Stirling (GB)
  • Newcastle University (GB)
  • University of Glasgow (GB)
Corresponding author
  • Little, Anthony C.
  • Roberts, S. Craig
Venue
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2013-09
Volume
38
Issue
9
Pages
1777-1785
ISSN
0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2155802275
Cited by
89
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 8
FWCI
16.71
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychoneuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Stirling Online Research Repository (University of Stirling) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (submittedVersion)
  • Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (submittedVersion)
  • Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I008217/1)
  • Royal Society University Research Fellowship
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
Keywords
oral contraceptives, hormonal contraception, mate preferences, facial masculinity, facial attractiveness, partner choice, mate choice, sexual selection, relationship stability, women's preferences
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Choice Behavior, Contraceptives, Oral, Face, Female, Humans, Male, Marriage, Menstrual Cycle, Photography, Sex Characteristics, Sexual Partners, Young Adult, Masculinity

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review