Read the research article added here, read-only study 1, and answer the question:
What type of variable is fertility status?
Group of answer choices
A. Quasi-independent variable
B. Predictor variable
C. Outcome variable
D. Quasi-dependent variable
E. Independent variable
F.Dependent variable
Transcribed Image Text: Female Fertility and Judgments of Sexual Orientation
Accuracy (A')
.90
.80
.70
.60
.50
.40-
Table 1. Accuracy (A) and Response Bias (B') in Judging Sexual Orientation in Studies I
Through 3
.30
-1.00
Study and condition
Study I
Study 2
Study 3a
Control
Mating prime
Study 3b
Control
Mating prime
*p<.001.
M
.61
.61
.60
.66
.64
.63
7-point scale. The judges showed consensus in their assess-
ments (Cronbach's a = .85), and the judgments were therefore
averaged across raters for each target. The mean attractiveness
ratings were then correlated with the dichotomous ratings of
the targets as gay and straight from the main study, and these
sensitivity correlations were converted using Fisher's r-to-Z
transformation to produce an estimate of the relationship
between each participant's categorization and the attractive-
ness of the faces. The relationship between attractiveness and
the categorizations of the faces was not significant (a = .05),
as the 95% confidence interval (CI) surrounding the mean
Fisher Z-transformed correlation contained 0, 95% CI=
[-0.03, 0.07].
A'
SD
.12
.06
.08
.12
.06
.07
t
t(38) = 5.52*
t(33) = 10.39*
t(18)= 4.93*
t(20) = 6.13*
1.00
t(20) = 10.88*
t(20) = 7.64*
-.50
.00
.50
Time From Estimated Ovulation
Fig. 1. Results from Study I: women's accuracy (A) in categorizing men's
sexual orientations as a function of distance in time from estimated ovulation.
The graph presents individual data points and a trend line showing the
quadratic fit.
Effect size (r)
.67
.88
.74
.81
.89
.81
M
.08
.14
.04
.10
Downloaded from pss.sagepub.com by Michael Slepian on July 20, 2011
B'
SD
.15
.13
.09
.20
.22
.19
.20 .17
883
Discussion
Women's accuracy in judging men's sexual orientations from
their faces was greater the nearer the women were to peak ovu-
lation. Targets' sexual orientation may therefore be more
salient or legible for perceivers when it is more relevant. In
previous work, we found that gay men were more accurate
judges of male sexual orientation than were straight men (Rule
et al., 2007). This could be because gay men are more familiar
or experienced with distinguishing sexual orientation, or
because information about male sexual orientation is more rel-
evant for gay men than for straight men. The present data pro-
vide some support for this relevance hypothesis. Specifically,
women's success in conceiving is greater nearer to peak ovula-
tion. One factor assisting their reproductive success is the abil-
ity to identify a suitable mate. Thus, women may be more
attentive to sexual orientation nearer to ovulation because tar-
gets' candidacy as mates would be more relevant. Yet it is also
possible that women may be more attentive overall to nonver-
bal appearance cues nearer ovulation. To investigate this pos-
sibility, Study 2 measured heterosexual women's ability to
judge other women's sexual orientation from their faces.
Study 2
Thirty-four heterosexual women not using systemic contracep-
tion (cycle length: M= 30 days, SD = 4.6 days) were recruited
as in Study 1. Procedures were identical to Study 1, with the
exception that participants viewed the faces of 100 lesbian and
100 straight women. Photos were validated in earlier work
(Rule et al., 2009). The photos were gray-scale images stan-
dardized for size, and none of the targets had adornments.
Moreover, the lesbian and straight women did not differ in emo-
tional expression, attractiveness, or the use of makeup.
Data were again analyzed using signal detection theory.
Accuracy was significantly greater than chance guessing
(Table 1) but was unrelated to participants' fertility; accuracy
Transcribed Image Text: Mating Interest Improves Women's
Accuracy in Judging Male Sexual
Orientation
Nicholas O. Rule', Katherine S. Rosen², Michael L. Slepian², and
Nalini Ambady²
'University of Toronto and Tufts University
Keywords
sexual orientation, social perception
Received 12/17/10; Revision accepted 3/22/11
Abstract
People can accurately infer others' traits and group memberships across several domains. We examined heterosexual women's
accuracy in judging male sexual orientation across the fertility cycle (Study I) and found that women's accuracy was significantly
greater the nearer they were to peak ovulation. In contrast, women's accuracy was not related to their fertility when they
judged the sexual orientations of other women (Study 2). Increased sexual interest brought about by the increased likelihood
of conception near ovulation may therefore influence women's sensitivity to male sexual orientation. To test this hypothesis, we
manipulated women's interest in mating using an unobtrusive priming task (Study 3). Women primed with romantic thoughts
showed significantly greater accuracy in their categorizations of male sexual orientation (but not female sexual orientation)
compared with women who were not primed. The accuracy of judgments of male sexual orientation therefore appears to be
influenced by both natural variations in female perceivers' fertility and experimentally manipulated cognitive frames.
Recent evidence has shown that perceivers are capable of
extracting information from the nonverbal behaviors and
appearance of other people. Teachers' nonverbal behaviors
predict their students' and principals' evaluations (Ambady &
Rosenthal, 1993), facial maturity predicts job opportunities
and court verdicts (Collins & Zebrowitz, 1995; Zebrowitz &
McDonald, 1991), and inferences of personality from faces
can predict leaders' success in business and politics (Rule &
Ambady, 2010). One domain in which perceivers are particu-
larly efficient is categorizing people according to group
memberships (Macrae & Bodenhausen, 2000). Perceivers
effortlessly categorize people according to age, race, and gen-
der, in part because the physical characteristics distinguishing
these groups are somewhat obvious (Brewer, 1988). Yet per-
ceivers also have a capacity to categorize people according to
characteristics that are not as visually obvious, such as sexual
orientation (Ambady, Hallahan, & Conner, 1999). In the study
reported here, we explored one factor that might influence
judgments of other people sexual interest in a particular
domain judgments of sexual orientation.
Previous work has found that sexual orientation can be
judged with surprising accuracy by guessing from facial cues.
Psychological Science
22(7) 881-886
©The Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permission
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0956797611412394
http://pss.sagepub.com
SSAGE
Both male and female sexual orientation were judged signifi-
cantly better than chance when participants viewed faces for
as little as 40 ms (e.g., Rule, Ambady, & Hallett, 2009). One
question that arises from these demonstrations of accuracy
concerns individual differences. Regarding sexual orientation,
gay men tend to make more accurate judgments than do
straight men (Rule, Ambady, Adams, & Macrae, 2007). This
could be because gay men are more attentive to differences in
targets' sexual orientations or because gay men have more
expertise judging sexual orientation. These hypotheses are
common to theories of in-group effects in perception and
memory (Sporer, 2001). For instance, individuals perform bet-
ter at distinguishing emotions from the faces of in-group ver-
sus out-group members (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2003).
Yet there are also group- and individual-level variations in
judging nonverbal behavior that are not directly related to in-
group effects. Women tend to be better judges of nonverbal
Downloaded from passagepub.com by Michael Sepan on July 20, 2011
Corresponding Author:
Nicholas O. Rule, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St.
George St. Toronto, Ontario, Canada MSS 3G3
E-mail rule@psych.utoronto.ca
behavior than men are (e.g., Hall & Andrzejewski, 2008), and
extraverts are often better judges of other peoples' traits than
are introverts (Lieberman & Rosenthal, 2001). In the domain
of deception detection, people are slightly but significantly
more accurate than chance in judgments of deception from
nonverbal cues (Bond & DePaulo, 2006), but there is consid-
erable interindividual variation in this ability (Bond &
DePaulo, 2008).
One biological factor known to exert an influence on per-
ceptions of other people is variation in women's fertility
cycles. Women have been found to categorize male faces
faster than female faces at periods of high fertility (around
ovulation) compared with periods of nonfertility (Johnston,
Arden, Macrae, & Grace, 2003; Macrae, Alnwick, Milne, &
Schloerscheidt, 2002). Similarly, women nearer ovulation
rated masculinized faces (Penton-Voak et al., 1999) and mas-
culine body gaits (Provost, Troje, & Quinsey, 2008) as more
attractive. These effects did not apply to men, women using
systemic contraceptive medication, and pregnant women
(Johnston et al., 2003). Moreover, lesbian women actually
showed opposite effects: They categorized female faces faster
than male faces during high fertility (Brinsmead-Stockham,
Johnston, Miles, & Macrae, 2008). Attention to sexually rele-
vant targets thus varies depending on women's fertility status,
and women's fertility can have multiple effects on social per-
ception (Jones et al., 2008).
It seems reasonable, then, that women's accuracy in judg-
ing male sexual orientation might also depend on fertility
cycles and sexual relevance. We therefore tested heterosexual
women's accuracy in judging sexual orientation across the fer-
tility cycle; our hypothesis was that accuracy for male faces
would be greater nearer to peak ovulation (Study 1) but that
ovulation would not affect the categorization of sexually irrel-
evant women's faces (Study 2). Finally, we examined whether
increasing women's sexual interest through cognitive priming
might increase their accuracy in judging sexual orientation,
just as natural variations in sexual interest are brought on by
the fertility cycle (Study 3).
Study I
Although it is fairly well established that fertility influences
women's attention to sexually relevant cues, it is not known
whether this increased attention might also benefit the accu-
racy of person judgments. In Study 1, we therefore asked het-
erosexual women to judge sexual orientation from men's
faces, and we related the women's accuracy to their fertility
status.
Method
Participants. Forty heterosexual undergraduate women
responded to an advertisement requesting female under-
graduates not using systemic contraceptive medication to par-
ticipate in a psychology study in exchange for monetary
compensation. Respondents verified that they were not using
any contraceptive medications at the time of scheduling and
at the end of their respective experimental sessions. One
participant reported irregular cycles and was excluded from
analysis.
Stimuli. Photos of faces of self-identified gay men (n = 40)
and straight men (n=40) were taken from a stimulus set vali-
dated in earlier studies (Rule et al., 2007; Rule, Ambady,
Adams, & Macrae, 2008). The photos were gray-scale images
standardized for size, and none of the targets had adornments
(e.g., jewelry, facial hair). Moreover, the gay and straight men
did not differ in emotional expression or attractiveness (see
Rule et al., 2008, for details).
Procedure. Participants were instructed that they would view
men's faces on a computer screen and would be asked to indi-
cate each man's probable sexual orientation as gay or straight
by pressing a key. Participants were encouraged to use their
intuition in making judgments and not to think about any one
face too much. Afterward, the women volunteered their own
sexual orientations and reported the duration of time since last
menses and the typical length of their fertility cycle. These
data were used to estimate each woman's point in her cycle
using a backward-counting method implemented in previous
research (e.g., Brinsmead-Stockham et al., 2008).
Results
Accuracy and response bias were calculated using signal
detection theory (e.g., Sporer, 2001). Accuracy was signifi-
cantly greater than chance guessing (.50; see Table 1) and,
more important, varied according to fertility status. Peak ovu-
lation was estimated as 14 days prior to next expected menses.
For women who were postpeak, the distance in time from peak
ovulation was calculated by dividing the number of days post-
peak by 14, and for women who were prepeak, the number of
days prepeak was divided by the difference between peak ovu-
lation and reported cycle length (cycle length: M- 30 days,
SD-4 days). This yielded positive proportions for postpeak
women and negative proportions for prepeak women, with
peak ovulation centered at 0.
These proportions showed a significant curvilinear rela-
tionship, such that the nearer women were to peak ovulation,
the more accurate they were in judging men's sexual orienta-
tions, F(2, 36)-4.71, p.02, R-21 (Fig. 1). Response bias
showed a tendency for women to perceive men as straight
rather than gay, but it was unrelated to the women's fertility
and thus showed neither linear nor curvilinear trends, Fs<
1.86, ps>.17.
Although our previous work found no differences in attrac-
tiveness between the gay and straight men in this stimulus set
(Rule et al., 2008), perceptions of attractiveness are known to
be related to women's fertility. We therefore asked 24 separate
participants to judge the attractiveness of the faces along