Menstrual cycle changes in mate preferences for cues associated with genetic quality: The moderating role of mate value

From the book : Evolutionary Psychology 11 issue 1 : 18-35.
The purpose of the study was to explore the influence of mate value and fertilitystatus on women’s implicit and explicit preferences for male traits associated with geneticquality.
It was hypothesized that a woman low in mate value would experience greaterfluctuation across her menstrual cycle in her preferences for characteristics associated withgenetic quality than a woman high in mate value.
Specifically, a low mate value womanduring the non-fertile part of the cycle would experience a reduction in a desire for traitsassociated with health and reproductive success.
To test the hypothesis, the college agefemale participants completed two measures of mate value and a self-report measuredesigned to gauge fertility status.
Then the participants performed an Implicit AssociationsTest (IAT) designed to measure implicit associations with a male trait related to geneticquality and a questionnaire designed to measure their explicit responses to the same trait.As predicted, mate value moderated the relationship between fertility status and implicitpreferences.