FLUCTUATING PERCEPTION OF SELECTED RISK SITUATIONS WITH RESPECT TO HORMONAL CHANGES DURING MENSTRUAL CYCLE

The aim of the study was to relate the findings concerning hormonal changes during a menstrual cycle to the area of risk perception and evaluation. Evaluation mediators, which take part in risk perception in both genders but are nonetheless inter-sexually different, have become an issue of primary interest. Women base their judgments on the probability of negative outcome, whereas men only lose their willingness to undertake risk when a serious injury is conceivable. This is a consequence of certain reproduction advantages that men are aware of when undertaking risk as well as the resulting feelings of pleasure brought by risk-taking. It is our assumption that during the fertile period the seriousness of a negative outcome plays a role of primary relevance. In a questionnaire of our own design 331 women between 19 and 26 years of age evaluated specific risky situations that encompassed potential reproduction advantages. Our findings indicate that the perception mediator whose level in this case approaches that of men, due to potential benefits from the risky situation and increased feelings of pleasure, is a specific feature of the fertile period. The evaluated seriousness of injury becomes crucial in the process of risk evaluation.