Study, 2005
Can women recognize fear in faces better at certain times of their menstrual cycle?
Yes. Women recognized fear expressions significantly better during the preovulatory phase when estrogen is highest, compared to during menstruation when estrogen is lowest. This pattern was not as strong for other emotions.
What they did
Researchers showed 50 women pictures of faces with different emotions and asked them to identify which emotion was shown. They compared how well women recognized each emotion at different phases of their menstrual cycle.
What they found
Accuracy in recognizing emotions was affected by both menstrual cycle phase and which emotion was displayed. Women were significantly more accurate at recognizing fear expressions during the preovulatory surge (when estrogen is highest) than during menstruation (when estrogen is lowest). This pattern did not show as clearly for other emotions.
What it means for you
Estrogen levels may affect how well women can read fear in others' faces. This could relate to how fear processing naturally differs between men and women and might be relevant to conditions like autism or Turner syndrome. The main limitation is that this measured emotion recognition on a single task, not real-world ability to recognize fear.
50
women studied
About the study
- Original title
- Fear recognition across the menstrual cycle
- Authors
- Pearson R, Lewis MB
- Journal
- Hormones and behavior
- Year
- 2005
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 50
- What was tested
- Emotional expression recognition task
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2004.11.003
Topics
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