Women may be more likely to vote for Donald Trump if they are in the most fertile part of their cycle, a study suggests.
Researchers in New York City reviewed a 2010 study that looked at the impact of a woman’s menstrual cycle on who they voted for in the 2008 election between Barack Obama and John McCain.
The original work suggested that while ovulating – which is when the risk of pregnancy is highest – voters favored Obama because of his “genetic fitness,” such as age and attractiveness.
However, the study had a small sample size with little diversity, as the majority of participants were young white women.
This led a team of psychologists from the New School of Social Research to follow up ahead of the 2020 election against Trump and Joe Biden.
Among more than 500 participants, the researchers found a small but “statistically significant” relationship between female voters’ fertility and their candidate preference.
They observed that women in their fertile window had a slightly greater preference for Donald Trump than for Barack Obama.
Interestingly, they discovered that this was due to his intelligence rather than his attractiveness.
A study published this month found a slight link between female fertility and voter preference, with women in their fertile window having a small preference for Donald Trump.
Researchers found that women who preferred Trump were attracted to intelligence rather than attractiveness; Shown here: Female voters at a 2019 MAGA rally in New Hampshire
The team cautioned that because the link was small, factors other than fertility likely influenced political preferences.
The researchers, led by New School psychologist Jessica L Engelbrecht, recruited 549 American women between July and August 2020.
About 68 percent were Caucasian, 12 percent were Asian American, nine percent were African American, six percent were Hispanic, and the rest were another race.
The average age of the participants was 32 years.
All women had menstrual cycles of normal length (three to seven days), were not pregnant, were not using any hormonal contraceptive method such as pills or intrauterine devices (IUDs), and did not have any health problems that could affect them. affect your fertility.
The women were told that they would be asked to think about politics and consider hypothetical matchups of candidates who were not actually going to be on the ballot (Trump vs. Obama, for example).
They were presented with 14 different electoral matchups in random order, selected between Democratic (Obama, Biden, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren) and Republican (Trump, Mike Pence and Mitt Romney) candidates.
In each matchup, women were asked which candidate they would support in the 2020 election, assuming they were eligible and ran.
They then had to consider each candidate individually and rate them on a scale of how physically attractive, sexually coercive, and intelligent they were on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being “not at all” and 5 being “extremely”).
Additionally, the researchers asked whether the women intended to vote and rated their political affiliation from 1 (‘extremely liberal’) to 9 (‘extremely conservative’) and 5 as ‘in between/none’.
And the team measured the participants’ level of Dark Triad traits, which include narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, which is characterized by manipulation, deception and high levels of self-interest.
The researchers found a higher likelihood of voting for Trump over Obama in a hypothetical race during “high conception” periods, such as ovulation.
Additionally, the team observed that how intelligent participants thought the candidate was most commonly influenced preference over attractiveness. This suggests that those who preferred Trump felt this way because they thought he was smarter than his opponents.
This was a notable difference from the original 2010 study, which suggested that attractiveness significantly influenced the preferences of female voters.
And women who showed more traits associated with psychopathy, such as lack of guilt and empathy, had a slight preference for Trump.
Previous studies have found that women are more likely to make abrupt, impulsive and controversial decisions around the middle of their cycle, when they are ovulating and at their most fertile.
Experts say this is due to an increase in the sex hormone estrogen, which can have a profound impact on behavior.
The updated study was published earlier this month in the journal Psychological Reports.