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Dissing The Opposition - Female Intrasexual Competition

February 16, 2004

In a study believed to be the first of its kind researchers from York University in Toronto, Canada have found clear evidence that women engage in intrasexual competition for mates. The work to be published in Biology Letters, an online journal of the Royal Society, compared how women rated the attractiveness of other women's faces during periods of high and low fertility. It was found that women in a highly fertile / high oestrogen period of their menstrual cycle rated other women's facial attractiveness significantly lower than women in a less fertile / low oestrogen period of the cycle.

Womens' rating of male facial attractiveness remained almost identical during periods of high and low fertility. In both cases women's rating of male facial attractiveness was much lower than their rating of women. The average rating of men's facial attractiveness by men themselves was slightly higher than the womens' average rating of males.

Evolutionary
"Evolutionary theory predicts female intrasexual competition will occur, when males of high genetic quality are considered a resource," says Maryanne Fisher who led the research. "Intrasexual competition is the use of strategies to compete with members of the same sex for mating access to the opposite sex. Since males vary in their ability to protect offspring and provide resources female intrasexual competition is driven by an unequal ratio of 'a few good men' to many available women."

Studies indicate that female attractiveness is a trait of evolved importance and a potential vehicle for competition. "One potential strategy for competition is competitor derogation - using tactics to make a rival inferior to oneself," continues Fisher. "Devaluing the facial attractiveness of a same-sex rival would indicate this phenomena occurring and it was further hypothesised that during periods of high fertility - when the potential for conception and competition for a 'good mate' was greatest - women would be most critical of a rival's appearance."

Testing
A set of colour photographs of 35 female and 30 male faces were used to generate attractiveness ratings. Following screening for potential confounding factors, 57 women and 47 men, all first year university students were asked to rate the attractiveness of the faces. Each face was presented in a random order on a laptop computer and the students asked to rate the faces on a seven point scale from 'extremely unattractive to 'extremely attractive'. Ratings and response times were recorded. In addition the women students indicated where they were in their ovulatory cycle.

Females who were pregnant, were using or had used oral or intravenous contraceptives in the previous three months, had used antidepressant drugs, missed an ovulatory cycle in the last 12 months or were not heterosexual were excluded from the analysis, as were non-heterosexual males.

"The theory of intrasexual competition in women has been controversial, but this study shows that women's' perceptions of potential rivals' attractiveness is considerably altered depending on the state of their own fertility. This demonstrates a potential intrasexual competitive process," explains Fisher.

It is hoped to extend the work into a social context. "It would be interesting to study what women say about each other in a normal, social environment and how this changes with the state of their fertility," concludes Fisher. "Women are very willing to talk about these things and volunteer readily for these studies."

Inta Communication Ltd