Does fertility status influence impulsivity and risk taking in human females? Adaptive influences on intertemporal choice and risky decision making

Informed by the research on adaptive decision making in other animal species, this study investigated human females’ intertemporal and risky choices across the ovulatory cycle. We tested the hypothesis that at peak fertility, women who are exposed to environments that signal availability of higher quality mates (by viewing images of attractive males), become more impulsive and risk-seeking in economic decision tasks. To test this, we collected intertemporal and risky choice measures before and after exposure to images of either attractive males or neutral landscapes both at peak and low fertility conditions. The results showed an interaction between women’s fertility status and image type, such that women at peak fertility viewing images of attractive men chose the smaller, sooner monetary reward option less than women at peak fertility viewing neutral images. Neither fertility status nor image type influenced risky choice. Thus, though exposure to images of men altered intertemporal ch...

本研究借鉴其他动物物种的适应性决策研究成果，探究了人类女性在整个排卵周期（ovulatory cycle）内的跨期选择（intertemporal choice）与风险选择（risky choice）行为。我们验证了如下假说：当处于生育峰值期（peak fertility）时，若女性接触到可传递优质配偶可得性信号的环境（即观看具有吸引力的男性图像），其在经济决策任务中会表现得更为冲动，且更倾向于风险寻求。为验证该假说，我们分别在生育峰值期与低生育期条件下，采集受试者在观看具有吸引力的男性图像或中性风景图像前后的跨期选择与风险选择数据。研究结果显示，女性的生育状态与图像类型之间存在交互效应：相较于生育峰值期观看中性图像的女性，同期观看有吸引力男性图像的女性，选择小额即时货币奖励的比例更低。生育状态与图像类型均未对风险选择行为产生显著影响。由此可见，尽管观看男性图像会改变女性的跨期选择行为...