I am fascinated with the notion that much of what drives our behavior results not from conscious decisions, but from “intuition” or subconscious perception. For this reason, one of my favorite scientific studies of last year was the simple, clever one reported in The Economist about fertile lap dancers. Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico looked at whether lap dancers who were in oestrus, and thus fertile, earned more than lap dancers that were taking birth control pills, and thus were not fertile. The results?
The results support the idea that if evolution has favoured concealed ovulation in women, it has also favoured ovulation-detection in men. The average earnings per shift of women who were ovulating was $335. During menstruation (when they were infertile) that dropped to $185—about what women on the Pill made throughout the month. The lessons are clear. A woman is sexier when she is most fertile.
“Ovulation-detection” is not something that is conscious, yet this study suggests that it is a very real driver of behavior. How is it communicated? Scent? Physical changes? How many other behaviors are subconsciously driven? I suspect more than we like to believe.
Categories: Science