Konkvistador comments on Open Thread, May 16-31, 2012 - Less Wrong
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Ovulation Leads Women to Perceive Sexy Cads as Good Dads (HT: Heartiste)
I think it is isn't much disputed that ovulating women seem to find dark tirade and some other personality traits more sexy when ovulating, so to me the above sounded like a clear example of the halo effect. Sexy men will seems smarter and kinder than they are, because any positive trait seems to beef up our perceptions of people in other areas as well. But even as my mind slowly noted that this should effect how they see the odds of a man caring for other women's children and that I don't have any info to suggest that women are more prone to halo effect for male sexiness in general during ovulation, I saw the authors had considered this:
I guess heterosexual women should be conscious of this bias, especially those desiring family formation or perhaps when judging in other contexts about which adult men they want their children to interact with. While obviously they probably aren't wrong about how sexy they find someone, they are biased when it comes to the other traits they, judging from their stated preferences, seek to maximize in such men.