Shopping too much for designer clothes? Blame your menstrual cycle
Forget craving chocolate — how about a new Gucci, Louis Vuitton or Chanel piece for your collection?It turns out that ladies’ penchant for the finer things is only natural: it’s in our biology.New research suggests that women are driven to buy luxury and show off their designer logos more during a certain time of month.Being fabulous is just one perk of this monthly preference.Picking up a man could be another, researchers say.So how exactly did science determine that the luxe life is hardwired into the girls?Researchers from Korea and the US predicted that women would buy and show off more luxury items around ovulation, about two weeks before their period starts.This part of the cycle is when estrogen and fertility is highest.
During ovulation, women are more sexually motivated and more likely to initiate sex, research shows.First, researchers had a group of women draw various luxury logos.They found the participants drew larger logos around their ovulation, which authors say supports the idea that women want more conspicuous luxury during this time to get noticed by men.Second, researchers asked women about what they hoped to purchase.
Ovulating women had an increased desire to purchase luxury products in public, but not in private.Authors believe this points to the idea that buying luxury will help get them noticed.In the third study, participants near ovulation were more likely to choose a $100 gift certificate to a luxury brand (like Polo Ralph Lauren) over a non-luxury brand (like Old Navy).
But when participants were told men do not notice women’s designer clothes, the women were less likely to choose a luxury brand, even if near ovulation.“What we found most interesting is that the effect of ovulation on luxury desire is not simply a general increase in preference for expensive products,” the authors said.“Rather, it appears to be socially strategic: the effect becomes stronger when luxury consumption is visible and personally relevant but ...