It turns out the women who take oral contraceptives in order not to get pregnant are especially adept at picking which babies are the most adorable. According to Reiner Sprengelmeyer of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, this is due to the fact that female sex hormones make women more sensitive to differences in baby cuteness. Because taking contraceptives alters their hormones, women on birth control pills are especially sensitive to the cuteness of a baby. These were the results of the study conducted by Sprengelmeyer, in which images of ten new baby faces were altered digitally and adult volunteers viewed variations of the same baby's face to identify the cuter one. The demographics included in the study were postmenopausal women, men of all ages, premenopausal women not on birth control pills, and premenopausal women on birth control pills. The women on birth control pills far outperformed the other groups in identifying the cuter of the baby faces.
This experiment is an example of hypothesis based science. Sprengelmeyer had a hypothesis that he tested with an experiment. I don't think the result of this experiment has much importance to humans, I just wanted to show the irony in the fact that women who don't want babies are the ones who can really identify cute ones.
Article: Hormonal cues for baby cuteness
Author: Bruce Bower
ScienceNews pg.15
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