Science News

Pill bad for Lapdancers' fortunes

A new study by researchers at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and published in this month's Evolution and Human Behaviour shows that female lapdancers seeking to supersize their earnings should eschew use of the oral contraceptive pill, because it makes them less attractive to tipping punters.

Geoffrey Miller and his colleagues recruited 18 lapdancers from local clubs and asked them to record their menstrual activity, earnings and contraceptive pill use over a 60 day period. The results were striking: the earnings of normally-cycling (non pill-using) women peaked in line with their fertility, exceeding $350 per shift by mid cycle. But their contraceptively-compromised (pill using) counterparts fared less well, earning an average of only $200 in tips per shift throughout their cycles. Significantly, both groups earned approximately the same amount during menstruation, indicating that the effect was not due to an overall difference in attractiveness between the women.

The results strongly argue for the existence of a female "oestrus", which prevailing wisdom claimed had been lost amongst humans during evolution. Instead the results suggest that men can subconsciously detect when women are at their most fertile and tend to judge them as more attractive, valuable and, it would seem, worthy of larger tips at this time! So as well as health consequences, there may be an economic disadvantage to taking the pill too!

14th Oct 2007