Are there times when you would NEVER do something risky or careless and yet at other times of the month you are less bothered?
Well, you may be fascinated to know how the impact of where you are in your cycle can affect your attitudes towards risk and loss in financial decision-making.
Many of you would realise the different levels of hormones such as estrogen and progesterone in the body can impact how we behave at different times of the month. It can effect mood, reasoning and thinking and even our competitive nature. But a Canadian study also showed how it may be impacting your attitude to spending!
Estrogen and progesterone receptors are present in the nucleus accumbens, a key region in reward processing and decision-making. Since changes in brain activity related to reward and emotional processing are seen across the menstrual cycle, one might expect economic choice behaviour to be affected by the changing levels of estrogen and progesterone across the menstrual phase.
There is evidence hormone levels at time of ovulation may influence other decisions, including sexual and mating preferences, and traits in mates, as well as clothing styles.
So this particular study looked at three things, rationality, risk tolerance and loss averse.
The first topic of irrationality, was a bit of a surprise for me. As much as we want to say we feel irrational at different times of the month (most commonly in the premenstrual phase – Persephone), this study showed no evidence women act irrationally through different times of their cycle. Their behaviour was always logically consistent.
As for risk aversion, again it didn’t vary significantly, however women were slightly less risk adverse during ovulation (Demeter) than at other times of the month, so a bit more likely to take a risk at this time of the month. It may be that women may take risks during this high fertility phase in order to increase the probability of attracting a partner.
The most significant change was around loss aversion. Loss aversion refers to people’s tendency to prefer avoiding losses to getting equivalent gains, put simply, ‘it is better to not lose $5 than to find $5’. Women took significantly more gambles and were less bothered about loss during ovulation than at the other phases.
The findings of the research showed where you are in your cycle phase DOES matter in choice behaviour, although never in an irrational way.
So, in summary during the follicular phase (Daphne), and at the end of the luteal phase (later in Persephone) women are more loss adverse, so we are less risky, however during ovulation (Demeter) and early in the luteal phase (early Persephone) women may find they are less bothered by spending some dollars.
So what does this mean for you?
Well if you are on a tight budget it would be handy to know when you might be a bit looser on the purse strings, and you could put some plans in place. Maybe planning a treat of some other area of your life to combat the urge to let loose in the local shopping centre.
It might also give you some understanding why you can go and burn that hard earnt money one day and be a tight as a fish others!
This and so much more is what you can learn by starting to chart your cycle. Download your free chart today and get started. Remember all the how too information is in the Emgoddess book, why not pick up your copy today and get the best out of you.
image: @chrisliverani unsplash.com
Reference: The Impact of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Economic Choice and Rationality. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144080