2012-06-01

Lap-Dance Science

Lap dancers provide evidence for human estrus | Dr Shock MD PhD

Eighteen professional lap dancers working in a gentlemen’s club recorded their menstrual cycle, work shifts and tip earnings for 60 days on a study website. A mixed model analysis of 296 work shifts showed an interaction between cycle phase and hormonal contraception use.



Ten Unusual Experiments in the Name of Science – The Ovulating Lap Dancer | UA Magazine


The results: Normally cycling strippers (not on birth control) earned about US$ 335 per 5-hour shift during estrus, US$260 per shift during the lower fertility phase, and US$185 per shift during menstruation. Why exactly? The psychologists are not sure. It could be related to smell, or sound maybe, but this should be investigated in further research.

Lap-Dance Science - New York Times

“Studies like this,” Miller says, “can tell us about the nature of human sexuality and attraction and answer important questions scientists have been debating for decades.” For example: Conventional scientific wisdom says that almost all mammals except humans go into estrus (a k a “heat”). Cats yowl and raise their hind ends in the air; female primates get visibly engorged in relevant areas. But humans, scientists have long believed, do no such things. Miller and Jordan’s research indicates otherwise. “It’s highly controversial because it’s science blurring the line between humans and other primates,” Miller says, “but our results give clear economic evidence that human estrus actually does exist.”

Next they hope to uncover how women signal that they’re in estrus: Do they smell different? Sound different? Their research could have practical applications as well. “The findings that estrus impacts earnings could have implications for women selling cars or giving big presentations as C.E.O.’s,’’ Miller says. ‘‘Should women schedule big job interviews during certain weeks of the month? We don’t know. But maybe.”