Weird Science

Friday Sex Science Minute: Strippers and exotic dancers make more money while ovulating and while off-the-pill. Via Kottke.

Psychologist Geoffrey Miller and colleagues tapped the talent at local gentlemen’s clubs and counted tips made on lap dances. Dancers made about $70 an hour during their peak period of fertility, versus about $35 while menstruating and $50 in between.

Miller links the wage fluctuations to changes in body odor, waist-to-hip ratio, and facial features. Despite operating at the upper limits of flirtatiousness already, he says there may also be subtle shifts in their behavior—”how they talk and move when enticing a customer to buy a dance, and how they perform the dance itself.”