A Little Bling to Show Your 'Heat'

As one of the few primate species that do not show our menstrual schedules through red-butted displays, I've often wondered if any instinctive behaviors have been carried on through our evolution. Sure, there was loads of anecdotal evidence that women tend to display their, uh, receptiveness to masculine inquiries during ovulation, but now a study out of UCLA offers some proof that this behavior exists.

What caught my eye in the story, was that a communications and pyschology expert headed the research project. The reproductive cycle is certainly governed by processes which we are not self-consciously aware. Women can't inwardly consider their bodies and "know" they are ovulating. But an interesting question, posed by this study, is if women sub-consciously "knew" they were fertile. Now, communication is not a one-way street, so if a message is being put out there, someone has to be receiving it. According to the study, 60 percent of the time, other people were able to "receive" a message. That's well out of the range of random behavior, both from the women doing the extra accessorizing and the judges of the pictures who picked up on the non-verbal cues. As a male of the species, I thank the researchers for letting me know how to intepret the "Now Serving" signs.