Researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada claim that women walking with a sexy sway may actually be sending out misleading messages to men; to ensure that only the males they are interested in are able to get close to them, according to research due to be published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Dr Meghan Provost and colleagues used motion capture suits to study the way women walked, and found that females are able to send out subtle signs to men they like, about when they are fertile, and are able to mislead other men into thinking they are fertile when they are not.

Saliva samples were used to identify to identify the late follicular stage and the luteal stage of their menstrual cycle. The researchers then discovered a correlation between walking style and fertility.

The women who were fertile walked with smaller hip movements and with their knees closer together. But, there was no difference between walks of women in their follicular stage and women using hormonal birth control.

In a second study, thirty-five men were shown video clips of nineteen women (who were not using the pill) walking; and were asked to rate how attracted they were to the women. Their choices were matched to the saliva tests, and contrary to expectation, the volunteers rated women in the less fertile part of their cycle as being most attractive; which prompted the researchers to retest the finding using two more groups of men.

Dr Provost said:

If women are trying to protect themselves from sexual assault at times of peak fertility, it would make sense for them to advertise attractiveness on a broad scale when they are not fertile.

An eye-catching walk would be too obvious, so women are thought to use changes in smell and facial expressions that can be experienced only at close range.

It would benefit a woman to advertise her fertility only to those men she believed would make a suitable mate. Then, if a man can pick up on the attractiveness of a woman’s walk from a long distance, a sexy walk during an infertile period would fool men that they were not interested in, but allow those men that get close to respond to actual signs of fertility.

So the advantage of having a less sexy walk around the time of ovulation is that it would allow a woman to hide her fertile period from undesirable men who might take advantage of her.

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• Women’s voices change tone at peak fertility
• Fertile women have more seductive voices
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• High hormone levels in women linked to infidelity
• Sex affects the way you walk

Posted by Jonathan in Sociobiology

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