What was Georgia O'Keeffe thinking?! April 2011

How a higher pitched voice can make you sound more attractive, and suspicious. Also, war: what is it good for? We investigate the link between warfare and sex. And how do our hormones influence perceptions of art?

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Georgia O'Keeffe's "Black Iris III". Rudski showed pictures by O'Keeffe to women when they were in the fertile and non-fertile phases of their menstrual cycle. 31% of fertile women interpreted the pictures as sexual, but only 9% of non-fertile women saw the sexual double-meaning (for the record, O'Keeffe herself always denied her art had sexual connotations. She would say that, though, wouldn't she?).

The articles covered in the show:

Fraccaro, P. J., Jones, B. C., Vukovic, J., Smith, F. G., Watkins, C. D., Feinberg, D. R., et al. (2011). Experimental evidence that women speak in a higher voice pitch to men they find attractive. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 9(1), 57-67. Read summary

O'Connor, J. J. M., Re, D. E., & Feinberg, D. R. (2011). Voice pitch influences perceptions of sexual infidelity. Evolutionary Psychology, 9(1), 64-78. Read paper

Chang, L., Lu, H. J., Li, H., & Li, T. (in press). The face that launched a thousand ships: The mating-warring association in men. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Read summary

Rudski, J. M., Bernstein, L. R., & Mitchell, J. E. (in press). Effects of menstrual cycle phase on ratings of implicitly erotic art. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Read summary