Sarah E. Hill

Ovulation, Female Competition, and Product Choice: Hormonal Influences on Consumer Behavior

Recent research shows that women experience nonconscious shifts across different phases of the monthly ovulatory cycle. For example, women at peak fertility (near ovulation) are attracted to different kinds of men and show increased desire to attend social gatherings. Building on the evolutionary logic behind such effects, we examined how, why, and when hormonal fluctuations associated with ovulation influenced womens product choices. In three experiments, we show that at peak fertility women nonconsciously choose products that enhance appearance (e.g., choosing sexy rather than more conservative clothing). This hormonally regulated effect appears to be driven by a desire to outdo attractive rival women. Consequently, minimizing the salience of attractive women who are potential rivals suppresses the ovulatory effect on product choice. This research provides some of the first evidence of how, why, and when consumer behavior is influenced by hormonal factors.

Boosting Beauty in an Economic Decline: Mating, Spending, and the Lipstick Effect

Although consumer spending typically declines in economic recessions, some observers have noted that recessions appear to increase womens spending on beauty products--the so-called lipstick effect. Using both historical spending data and rigorous experiments, the authors examine how and why economic recessions influence womens consumer behavior. Findings revealed that recessionary cues--whether naturally occurring or experimentally primed--decreased desire for most products (e.g., electronics, household items). However, these cues consistently increased womens desire for products that increase attractiveness to mates--the first experimental demonstration of the lipstick effect. Additional studies show that this effect is driven by womens desire to attract mates with resources and depends on the perceived mate attraction function served by these products. In addition to showing how and why economic recessions influence womens desire for beauty products, this research provides novel insights into womens mating psychology, consumer behavior, and the relationship between the two.

The Cognitive Consequences of Envy: Attention, Memory, and Self-Regulatory Depletion

In a series of 4 experiments, we provide evidence that--in addition to having an affective component--envy may also have important consequences for cognitive processing. Our first experiment (N = 69) demonstrated that individuals primed with envy better attended to and more accurately recalled information about fictitious peers than did a control group. Studies 2 (N = 187) and 3 (N = 65) conceptually replicated these results, demonstrating that envy elicited by targets predicts attention and later memory for information about them. We demonstrate that these effects cannot be accounted for by admiration or changes in negative affect or arousal elicited by the targets. Study 4 (N = 152) provides evidence that greater memory for envied--but not neutral--targets leads to diminished perseverance on a difficult anagram task. Findings demonstrate that envy may play an important role in attention and memory systems and deplete limited self-regulatory resources available for acts of volition.

The Mere Presence of Opposite-Sex Others on Judgments of Sexual and Romantic Desirability: Opposite Effects for Men and Women

Mens and womens mate preferences impose on each a unique set of adaptive problems that must be solved when judging the desirability of prospective mates. One potentially revealing source of information about an individuals desirability as a romantic partner is contained in the decisions made by same-sex others. The present studies predicted that mens and womens desirability assessments would be affected in opposite ways when target persons were depicted with members of the targets opposite sex. Study 1 (N = 847) documented that women rated men more desirable when shown surrounded by women than when shown alone or with other men (a desirability enhancement effect). In sharp contrast, men rated women less desirable when shown surrounded by men than when shown alone or with women (a desirability diminution effect) . Study 2 (N = 627) demonstrated similar sexually divergent effects for estimates of the desirability of same-sex competitors.

Courtship, Competition, and the Pursuit of Attractiveness: Mating Goals Facilitate Health-Related Risk Taking and Strategic Risk Suppression in Women

Two experiments explored the possibility that specific health risks observed among young women may be influenced by attractiveness-enhancement goals associated with mating. Study 1 (n = 257) demonstrated that priming women with intersexual courtship and intrasexual competition increased their willingness to go tanning and take dangerous diet pills. Study 2 (n = 148) conceptually replicated these results and revealed that increased willingness to take these risks is mediated by diminished feelings of vulnerability to the negative health effects associated with these behaviors when mating goals are salient. Findings provide evidence that mating goals play a role in the continued popularity of these dangerous behaviors in women. Furthermore, the current results bridge the existing gap between health belief and self-presentational models of risk behaviors to yield novel insights into the psychology of risk taking.

Do Women Feel Worse to Look Their Best? Testing the Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Fertility Status Across the Menstrual Cycle:

Two studies measured self-esteem across the menstrual cycle to test the prediction that self-esteem will vary interindividually as a positive function of mate value and intraindividually as a negative function of fertility status. Study 1 (n = 52) found that self-esteem was positively related to mate value between women but that women experienced a self-esteem decrease nearest to ovulation, when women tend to be more attractive to men. Study 2 (n = 59) replicated these results and demonstrated that the self-esteem decrease at high fertility was positively related to women’s reported long-term mating motivation. Additionally, the magnitude of the self-esteem decrease at high fertility was found to be related to increased willingness to spend money on items to enhance attractiveness at high fertility. A self-esteem decrease at high fertility may motivate mate value enhancement efforts when such efforts are most critical.

The role of model female quality in the mate choice copying behaviour of sailfin mollies

Female mate choice copying is a socially mediated mate choice behaviour, in which a males attractiveness to females increases if he was previously chosen by another female as a mate. Although copying has been demonstrated in numerous species, little is known about the specific benefits it confers to copying females. Here we demonstrate that the mate choice behaviour of female sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) is influenced by the phenotypic quality of model females with whom males are observed consorting. Test females choosing between two males of similar body length were found to significantly increase time spent with previously non-preferred males after having observed them with a relatively high-quality female. Conversely, females were found to significantly decrease time spent with previously preferred males after having observed them with a relatively low-quality female. Female mate choice copying might be maintained by selection based on the heuristic value it provides females choosing between males whose quality differences are not easily distinguishable.

Does This Recession Make Me Look Black? The Effect of Resource Scarcity on the Categorization of Biracial Faces:

In-group biases are a ubiquitous feature of human social life (e.g., Brewer, 1979; Halevy, Bornstein, & Sagiv, 2008; Mullen, Dovidio, Johnson, & Copper, 1992; Tajfel, 1982). One explanation offered for these biases is that they arise from resource competition between groups (e.g., Kurzban & Neuberg, 2005; Schaller, Park, & Faulkner, 2003; Sherif, 1966). In this view, hostility toward the out-group is predicted to occur when people’s access to a resource is constrained (Pettigrew & Meertens, 1995; Takemura & Yuki, 2007; Wildschut, Pinter, Vevea, Insko, & Schopler, 2003) or when they seek to justify an existing resource advantage (Sidanius & Pratto, 1993). In the studies reported here, we extended this logic to test a novel prediction about in-group boundary formation—specifically, whether resource scarcity decreases the inclusiveness of racial in-groups. The cost of having unrestricted in-group boundaries may be relatively low during times of abundance. During times of scarcity, however, individuals may narrow their definition of belongingness to include only those whose group membership is unambiguous (Miller & Maner, 2012). We conducted two experiments in which people were primed with cues to scarcity or abundance and were then asked to categorize biracial faces as being Black or White. We predicted that willingness to include racially ambiguous individuals as part of their racial in-group would be lower in participants primed with scarcity cues than in participants primed with abundance cues.

Low Childhood Socioeconomic Status Promotes Eating in the Absence of Energy Need

Life-history theory predicts that exposure to conditions typical of low socioeconomic status (SES) during childhood will calibrate development in ways that promote survival in harsh and unpredictable ecologies. Guided by this insight, the current research tested the hypothesis that low childhood SES will predict eating in the absence of energy need. Across three studies, we measured (Study 1) or manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) participants’ energy need and gave them the opportunity to eat provided snacks. Participants also reported their SES during childhood and their current SES. Results revealed that people who grew up in high-SES environments regulated their food intake on the basis of their immediate energy need; they ate more when their need was high than when their need was low. This relationship was not observed among people who grew up in low-SES environments. These individuals consumed comparably high amounts of food when their current energy need was high and when it was low. Childhood SES may have a lasting impact on food regulation.

Friends with Benefits, but without the Sex: Straight Women and Gay Men Exchange Trustworthy Mating Advice

Although research has made progress in elucidating the benefits exchanged within same- and opposite-sex friendships formed between heterosexual men and women, it is less clear why straight women and gay men form close relationships with one another. The current experiments begin to address this question by exploring a potential benefit hypothesized to be uniquely available to straight women and gay men in the context of these friendships: trustworthy mating advice. Experiment 1 revealed that straight women perceive mating-relevant advice from a gay man to be more trustworthy than similar advice offered by a straight man or woman. Experiment 2 demonstrated that gay men perceive mating advice offered by a straight woman to be more trustworthy than advice offered by a lesbian woman or another gay man. Overall, the results provide initial experimental evidence that relationships between gay men and straight women may be characterized by a mutual exchange of mating-relevant benefits in the absence of sexual interest or competition.