If men are to go by the results of a latest study as to how they appeal to the fairer sex they may choose to forgo their visits to the gym in favor of visits to the salon.
In this study, the report of which was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences on Wednesday, men with the commonly accepted macho looks and tough guy attitudes lose out to men who appear more feminine as choices for lifetime partners. Full lips and well arched eyebrows have turned out to be preferable to rugged complexions and prominent noses.
In the study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, Psychologist and study leader, professor Lynda Boothroyd from Durham University's Department of Psychology, states that the findings of the study lend credence to earlier research about manliness and provide a deeper look into what people consider good material when choosing their life partners.
"What I've shown is that when people look at masculine faces they see them as being associated with dominance -- which is a good thing in evolution but less good as a long-term partner," she is reported to have said.
The study asked over 400 British women and men to participate in an on-line test. Pairs of pictures, showing only the basic facial features of eyes, nose and mouth, and digitally altered to make the face look more feminine or more masculine were displayed side by side. The subjects were asked to study them and to visualize how much of a particular trait such as ambition, wealth and control, each face revealed. They clicked on a point of the scale to record their comparative judgments.
They were also asked to presume, going by appearances, how good a particular person would prove to be as a life partner.
The choices made by the participants revealed quite a few surprises. Rather than settle on the more manly looking faces, the participants selected the more feminine faces as belonging to good lifetime mates. Faces with healthy complexions rather than those with rugged complexions, and those with thinner facial features, curved eyebrows, and wider eyes, belonged, in the participants' opinions, to more desirable men.
In addition, faces belonging to older people were, for the most part, looked at more positively than younger ones.
Professor David Perrett of St Andrews University explains, “Our research also found that it is men's health that conveys all round good qualities for partnership and personality. Our results contradict claims that machismo denotes fitness and disease immunity. Masculinity may buy you dominance but not necessarily tip top physical condition. Instead women see a healthy guy as the source of wealth, and fit for family life.”
Dr Boothroyd agrees, “This research shows a high amount of agreement between women about what they see, personality wise, when asked to 'judge a book by its cover,” but also clarifies, “That decision-making process all depends on what a woman is looking for in a relationship at that time of her life.”
The research was partly funded by and the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council.
