Original Articles
Variation in Risk Taking Behavior Among Female College Students as a Function of the Menstrual Cycle

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(98)00016-6Get rights and content

Abstract

There is some evidence that women are less likely to be raped during the mid-portion of the menstrual cycle. In order to determine if women might be behaving in ways to decrease their chances of sexual assault when they are most likely to conceive, female college students were asked to complete a questionnaire about their activities during the past 24 hours and indicate the first day of their last menstruation. A statistically significant decrease in risk taking behavior during the ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle was obtained for respondents who were not taking birth control pills.

Section snippets

Methods

The subjects were 300 female undergraduates from upper division psychology classes at the State University of New York at Albany. Their ages ranged from 18 to 54 years with a mean of 21.9 years.

The survey, which was administered in a classroom setting, contained basic demographic questions, a question about the date of the first day of their last menstruation, and a checklist of activities they may have participated in during the past 24 hours (Table 1). The subjects were also asked to respond

Results

The results are summarized in Fig. 1. For students taking birth control pills there was little, if any, variation in risk taking as a function of phase of the menstrual cycle. However, for those not taking birth control pills there was an apparent decease in risk taking behavior during the mid-portion of the cycle.

Because of heterogeneity of variance, the risk taking scores were subjected to a log transformation prior to analysis. An independent groups t-test was performed on the risk taking

Discussion

If rape has been a feature of human evolutionary history, one might expect females to have been selected to develop a variety of counteradaptations (Shields and Shields 1983; van der Dennen 1992). Conception resulting from rape carries a number of decisive costs for females: inability of the female to exercise mate choice, lack of care and provisioning of the female and infant by the father, possible abandonment of the female by her current mate, and/or a reduced likelihood of attracting future

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Leslie Buckle, Sean Hogan, Julian Keenan, and Daniel Shillito for suggestions concerning this project, and Randy Thornhill for comments on a previous draft of this paper.

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    If alcohol was reliably present during human evolutionary history women might have evolved decrease its use during periods of high fertility in order to avoid dangerous and coercive sexual situations. Moreover, if women at high fertility also avoid contexts associated with these risks (e.g., go out dancing with friends; see Bröder and Hohmann, 2003; Chavanne and Gallup, 1998), women could decrease their alcohol and cigarette consumption because of less exposure to the situational cues that elicit the use of these substances. Other evidence indicates that women may experience generally elevated mood and feelings of attractiveness around ovulation (e.g., Haselton and Gangestad, 2006; Schwarz and Hassebrauck, 2008).

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