STUDY: The influence of ovulation on female behavior.

The studies find that ovulation doesn’t always make women want more status. When women played against a man rather than a woman in the dictator game, the researchers found an even more surprising result. Whereas ovulating women became meaner to women, they became nicer to men. While non-ovulating women shared about 45 percent of the money with a man, ovulating women gave 60 percent of the money to the man.

“These findings are unlike anything we have ever seen in the dictator game. You just don’t see people giving away more than half of their money,” noted Durante. “One possibility is that we’re seeing ovulating women share more money as a way to flirt with the men.”

“Money, Status and the Ovulatory Cycle” was published in the February issue of Journal of Marketing Research and builds on Durante and Griskevicius’ previous work that has shown how the ovulatory cycle alters preferences for romantic partners, clothing, food and even politics. Based on studies rooted in theory and research in evolutionary biology and evolutionary consumer behavior, their findings that ovulating women jockey for position over other women is consistent with the literature on animals. For example, studies have shown that female monkeys become more aggressive toward other females when fertile.