Female voters! Kindly tell Nate Silver the date of your last period and your relationship status so he can figure out once and for all who’s gonna win this thing November 6. What could the New York Times political polling guru possibly glean from your menstrual cycle? According to this disclaimer-heavy CNN article, “new research suggest that hormones may influence female voting choices differently, depending on whether a woman is single or in a committed relationship.”
In an Internet survey of 502 women, “researchers found that during the fertile time of the month, when levels of the hormone estrogen are high, single women appeared more likely to vote for Obama and committed women appeared more likely to vote for Romney, by a margin of at least 20%.”
Lead researcher Kristina Durante, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas San Antonio whose research focuses on how hormones affect women’s dating and shopping habits, explains.
“When women are ovulating, they ‘feel sexier,’ and therefore lean more toward liberal attitudes on abortion and marriage equality. Married women have the same hormones firing, but tend to take the opposite viewpoint on these issues, she says. “I think they’re overcompensating for the increase of the hormones motivating them to have sex with other men,’” she said. It’s a way of convincing themselves that they’re not the type to give in to such sexual urges, she said.
Please do not share this “science” with the Republican lawmaker in your life. He might actually believe it.
Update: CNN has removed the story and replaced it with this editor’s note:
A post previously published in this space regarding a study about how hormones may influence voting choices has been removed.
After further review it was determined that some elements of the story did not meet the editorial standards of CNN.
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