Women more racist when fertile

Via TGGP:
Race Bias Tracks Conception Risk Across the Menstrual Cycle.

Psychol Sci. 2009 May 4. [Epub ahead of print]

Navarrete CD, Fessler DM, Fleischman DS, Geyer J.

Although a considerable body of research explores alterations in women's mating-relevant preferences across the menstrual cycle, investigators have yet to examine the potential for the menstrual cycle to influence intergroup attitudes. We examined the effects of changes in conception risk across the menstrual cycle on intergroup bias and found that increased conception risk was positively associated with several measures of race bias. This association was particularly strong when perceived vulnerability to sexual coercion was high. Our findings highlight the potential for hypotheses informed by an evolutionary perspective to generate new knowledge about current social problems-an avenue that may lead to new predictions in the study of intergroup relations.
PDF. Discussion at Mind Hacks.

2 comments:

David Smith said...

Recently I've come across several studies that show that women are much less willing than men to date outside of their race. Here's a link to an article about one such study:

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/single-female-seeking-same-race-male/

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Nature's defense against miscegenation.