Preferred Name
Zoe Hannabass
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Date of Graduation
5-14-2026
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Melanie Shoup-Knox
Abstract
Human ovulation is largely concealed, yet subtle fertility-related cues, including facial and vocal changes, may influence mate selection and intrasexual competition (Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008; Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2016). These cues are thought to “leak” across the menstrual cycle and shape social perception in ways that are not always consciously detected. Pregnancy represents a unique context in which reproductive priorities shift, as women become increasingly dependent on partner resources for maternal and fetal well-being. As a result, traits signaling physical attractiveness, signaling genetic quality, become less important while those signaling partner investment may become more important among pregnant females. This heightened dependency may alter attentional processes related to potential reproductive threats, such as other fertile females. The present study investigated the degree to which pregnant women’s sensitivity to ovulation cues in other females is influenced by partner physical attractiveness and partner investment. Participants included 82 pregnant, cisgender women recruited via an online platform. Sensitivity to ovulation cues was assessed using a forced-choice vocal preference task, in which participants selected the more attractive voice from paired recordings captured during ovulatory and luteal phases. Results indicated that the sensitivity to ovulation cues was not associated with partner characteristics. Overall, pregnant women showed limited preference for vocal fertility cues. However, participants in the third trimester demonstrated ovulation cue detection significantly above chance, suggesting a potential late-pregnancy increase in sensitivity to fertility-related cues. This pattern suggests that pregnancy may be associated with a shift in attentional priorities away from intrasexual competition and toward processes related to maternal investment and fetal protection. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of considering pregnancy as a distinct psychological and evolutionary context in which typical patterns of intrasexual vigilance may be altered or selectively expressed.
