Shifts in Female Facial Attractiveness during Pregnancy

Dariusz P. Danel, Kasper Kalinowski, Natalia Nowak-Szczepanska, Anna Ziomkiewicz-Wichary, Anna Apanasewicz, Krzysztof Borysławski, Sławomir Kozieł, Danuta Kornafel and Pawel Fedurek
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Dariusz P. Danel: Department of Anthropology, Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, 53-114 Wrocław, Poland
Kasper Kalinowski: Independent researcher, 10-346 Olsztyn, Poland
Natalia Nowak-Szczepanska: Department of Anthropology, Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, 53-114 Wrocław, Poland
Anna Ziomkiewicz-Wichary: Department of Anthropology, Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, 53-114 Wrocław, Poland
Anna Apanasewicz: Department of Anthropology, Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, 53-114 Wrocław, Poland
Krzysztof Borysławski: Department of Anthropology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 51-631 Wroclaw, Poland
Sławomir Kozieł: Department of Anthropology, Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, 53-114 Wrocław, Poland
Danuta Kornafel: Department of Human Biology, University of Wroclaw, 50-138 Wroclaw, Poland
Pawel Fedurek: Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA Stirling, UK

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-10

Abstract: It has been proposed that women’s physical attractiveness is a cue to temporal changes in fertility. If this is the case, we should observe shifts in attractiveness during pregnancy—a unique physiological state of temporal infertility. The aim of this study was to examine how women’s facial attractiveness changes during the subsequent trimesters of pregnancy and how it compares to that of nonpregnant women. Sixty-six pictures of pregnant women (22 pictures per trimester) and 22 of nonpregnant women (a control group) were used to generate four composite portraits, which were subsequently assessed for facial attractiveness by 117 heterosexual men. The results show considerable differences between facial attractiveness ratings depending on the status and progress of pregnancy. Nonpregnant women were perceived as the most attractive, and the attractiveness scores of pregnant women decreased throughout the course of pregnancy. Our findings show that facial attractiveness can be influenced by pregnancy and that gestation, even at its early stages, affects facial attractiveness. Considerable changes in women’s physiology that occur during pregnancy may be responsible for the observed effects.

Keywords: pregnancy; women; facial attractiveness; cues of fertility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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