Various studies have found that women are more beautiful and daring during ovulation. Now, a new research carried out by the universities of Cambridge and Northumbria (United Kingdom), also emphasizes that during this fertile cycle the face of women also tends to blush despite the fact that the human eye is unable to capture it. The study has been published in the journal Plos One .
It is the most comprehensive study on female faces during the ovulation cycle. In it, the researchers photographed the faces of 22 university women without makeup every day for at least a month, always in the same environment and using a modified scientific camera to more accurately capture colors (such as cameras used to study the animal camouflage ).
Once all the photographs had been taken, they subjected the files to software to identify small nuances in the photos, converting the images to RGB values (red, green and blue) to measure the color levels and their corresponding changes. The scientists discovered that there was a significant redness throughout the ovulation cycle, reaching a maximum tone in the period of maximum fertility , with this redness of the skin remaining during the last stages of the cycle. Once menstruation started, this coloration disappeared.
According to scientists, these subtle changes in skin color, with a color gamut not detectable by the human eye , may mean that in the past, this facial redness in women was an involuntary sign of optical fertility but that, with Over the course of evolution, physically showing signs of maximum fertility did not turn out to be beneficial, and ovulation became less visible as generations passed .
In fact, in the animal world, specifically among primates, males only show sexual interest in females when they appear to be in their fertile period . Since human sexual behavior is not linked, or at least not limited, to fertility, this involuntary signaling is unnecessary.
“We had thought that facial skin color could be an outward signal to announce ovulation, as it is in other primates, but this study shows that facial redness is not what men see, although it could be a small piece of a much bigger puzzle , ”explains study co-author Hannah Rowland.
