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Prague (pte038/11.07.2005/14:22) - A new study carried out at Charles University in Prague http://www.cuni.cz/index.php?lng=eng shows that women are most likely to cheat on their long-term partners when they are at the peak of their menstruation cycle.
Jan Havlícek and his colleagues also found that women were more likely to choose genetically superior men for their fling.
The study involved 48 men who completed a questionnaire, putting statements in order, such as "I am the life of the party", to score their social dominance. They were also asked to wear cotton pads under their arms to collect sweat.
A group comprising of 65 women were asked to smell the pads and rate the sexiness and masculinity of the scent. Most women in the middle week of their menstrual cycle, their most fertile point, preferred the smell of the men who scored highest on the dominance quiz. This was not reflected in the reactions of women at other stages in their cycle.
Havlícek found that the effects of a man's odour was more influential on women in long-term relationships. This shows that both menstrual phase and relationship status can have an effect on what type of man a woman prefers, he said.
"Other studies have shown that women are more likely to get involved in extra-pair affairs during their fertile period," said Havlícek. "We suppose that in such cases more socially dominant males would be preferred."
What Havlícek and his colleagues found most surprising was that women find the smell of sweaty cotton pads enticing. "Some raters found particular body odours sexy; others simply found them 'not repellent'," Havlícek admits. "But laboratory conditions are rather unnatural, and the smells would be judged more positively in more relevant, that is, intimate, conditions."
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