| You are invited to take part in a new study to look at facial attractiveness. |
| Previous research has shown that men who have a lot of the hormone testosterone have masculine faces (e.g. heavy jaw and brow ridges), and tend to be considered attractive only at very specific times (e.g. the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle). Feminine-faced men have less testosterone, but are considered attractive most of the time. |
| I am interested in an additional hormone – cortisol. This is a stress hormone which has been shown to be higher when people have been unwell or experienced stress. Recent evidence suggests that cortisol and testosterone work together to influence attractiveness – but so far this has not been looked at in faces. |
| I’m looking for female participants who can spend 5 - 10 minutes completing a short questionnaire and rate some men’s faces for attractiveness. Some participants may be asked to complete the face preference tests again once or twice over the coming month. This means that I will have measures of some participants’ preferences for the male faces during the fertile and non-fertile phase of their menstrual cycles. |
| As I am interested in how women's hormonal status influences their preferences for cues to hormones in male faces, the questionnaire that you are asked to complete today contains questions designed to assess your current hormonal status (e.g. where you are currently in your menstrual cycle, or whether you use any form of hormonal contraception). |
| 1. Participation in this experiment is entirely voluntary. You do not have to take part today, or at any other time if you don’t want to. |
| 2. If you do decide to participate, you don’t have to answer all the questions. While it is most helpful for us if you can be honest as possible, and answer as manuy questions as possible, you are free to omit any question with no consequence (i.e. you can leave out a question and still complete the rest of the experiment). |
| 3. You may decide to stop being a part of the research study at any time without explanation. This could be in the middle of a session or between sessions (should you be asked to complete the face preferences again at a later date). |
| 4. All the information you provide is completely confidential. You will be asked to provide your email address, but this is simply so the experimenter can contact you to see if you would be interested in participating in the next phase of the research. The experimenter will not use this to identify you (you can use your university student number if you don't wish to give an email address that gives your name). Your answers will not be linked to you personally in anyway. Data will be stored in password protected files accessible only to the researcher. |
| 5. There are no known risks for you in this experiment. |
| By clicking the link below to begin the experiment, you are confirming that you have read and understood the above information and are giving your informed consent to participate |
| If you require further information about this study you can contact the researcher (Fhionna Moore) on f.moore@abertay.ac.uk or 01382 308 597. |