Women Prefer Girly-Men, Says Study

Ronald Bailey | August 23, 2007

In the midst of the summer TV doldrums, I accidently tuned in last night to the new game show, The Power of 10 (turn audio down) where I was pleasantly surprised to learn that 82 percent of Americans apparently told pollsters that they would prefer to be smart and ugly rather than good-looking and dumb. 

Anyway, a new study by British researchers finds that women don't go for guys with excessively masculine features--they judge them too prone to procreate and run. The press release for the report states:

Women see 'masculine' men as unsuitable long-term partners, according to research from the Universities of St Andrews and Durham. 

Conversely, the psychologists found that men with feminine facial features are seen as more committed and less likely to cheat on their partners.

The study, which is published in the current edition of Personality and Individual Differences, asked over 400 British men and women to judge digitally altered pictures of male faces made to look more masculine or feminine.  The participants were asked to predict personality traits including sexual behaviour and parenting skills based on what they saw. 

Men with masculine faces, with features such as a square jaw, larger nose and smaller eyes, were classed as significantly more dominant, less faithful and made worse parents than feminine-featured males.  They were also thought to have personalities that were less warm when compared to their `feminine' counterparts, who had finer facial features with fuller lips, wide eyes and thinner, more curved eyebrows.  The scientists say it gives further insight into what people see in others when choosing potential partners.

Whole release here.

Kudos to an anonymous St. Andrews alum for the link. 

Comments

|8.23.07 @ 3:32PM|#

David Bowie is somehow behind this,

VM|8.23.07 @ 3:34PM|#

Or the MOZ!!!

|8.23.07 @ 3:36PM|#

"Anyway, a new study by British researchers"

C'mon....Everybody knows that American girls are self-loathing size queens.

By the way, Emily Flake might just be my favorite cartoonist person in the world.

Gahan|8.23.07 @ 3:38PM|#

So basically, women's biological predisposition is to screw the masculine-looking guy and then trick the feminine-looking guy into raising the kid.

|8.23.07 @ 3:44PM|#

This is funny, I just heard that a study recently came out suggesting that women prefer men with the cro-magnon set of features (short forehead, wide nose, etc.) to be most attractive. Brad Pitt and Will Smith were given as examples.

VM|8.23.07 @ 3:44PM|#

Gahan
Absolutely - remember "The Breakfast Club"? all the chix went off with the d00dz, leaving the nerd to write the essay.

(But Mr. Gahan, I liked your early-to-mid look with Depeche Mode. The Music for the Masses onwards, not so much. great voice, tho!)

|8.23.07 @ 3:46PM|#

"So basically, women's biological predisposition is to screw the masculine-looking guy and then trick the feminine-looking guy into raising the kid."

Marriage exists to counteract this phenomenon.

Bhamba|8.23.07 @ 3:48PM|#

"So basically, women's biological predisposition is to screw the masculine-looking guy and then trick the feminine-looking guy into raising the kid."

Marriage exists to counteract this phenomenon.

Or to institutionalize this phenomenon.

|8.23.07 @ 3:55PM|#

Gahan,

I'd like to know how many examples there are of single mothers marrying feminine looking guys later. I don't think there's a plethora of them out there. While I agree that an unschooled woman might be more likely early on to go out and screw the manly men, that's not to say that they're genetically predisposed to make the second choicers raise the unintended offspring, atleast not the intelligent women.

ktc2|8.23.07 @ 3:56PM|#

Yeah, ask all the divorced guys out there shelling out thousands a year in support for kids that are proven to not be theirs.

|8.23.07 @ 3:59PM|#

ktc2,

I'm just not aware of the extent of the problem...

Gahan|8.23.07 @ 4:03PM|#

VM,

Wish I could take the credit, but I'm actually named for cartoonist Gahan Wilson. His stuff is in Playboy and the New Yorker (don't ask me which one my parents subscribed to).

VM|8.23.07 @ 4:04PM|#

Gahan -

still a pretty cool namesake!

Why not subscribe to both? Since both are thumbed through magazines where nobody really reads the articles! (grins)

Bhamba|8.23.07 @ 4:07PM|#

that's not to say that they're genetically predisposed to make the second choicers raise the unintended offspring

Your first choice to donate genes to your offspring and your first choice to raise that offspring don't necessarily have to be the same person.

Females show a greater preference for "male" faces just when they are ovulating.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/els/10905138/2000/00000021/00000001/art00033

Underzog|8.23.07 @ 4:07PM|#

Utter bullshit!

Where to these Commies come up with this stuff? It reminds of a faghag's poem where she says the perfect man is gay!

"There's no need to fear; Underzog is here!" (and don't forget the "Underdog" movie)

Telegram from copy editor|8.23.07 @ 4:12PM|#

Females show a greater preference for "male" faces just when they are ovulating

RUSH INTERVIEW WITH OVULATING MALE FACE

Anonymous Bastert|8.23.07 @ 4:12PM|#

Gahan speaks the truth!

Gahan|8.23.07 @ 4:14PM|#

Lost,

I don't know how many examples there are either.
I was simply drawing a conclusion from what this particular study suggests. Another scenario would be that the woman marries the feminine guy to begin with and is later unfaithful. At any rate, what people are genetically predisposed to do and what they actually do aren't necessarily the same thing. I didn't mean to suggest that this sort of behavior is in any way typical of women.

LibertyPlease|8.23.07 @ 4:15PM|#

While I agree that an unschooled woman might be more likely early on to go out and screw the manly men, that's not to say that they're genetically predisposed to make the second choicers raise the unintended offspring, atleast not the intelligent women.

My experience has been that intelligent women can be equally promiscuous. Something probably does drive the promiscuity, probably the same 'thing' that drives the drama.

Bhamba|8.23.07 @ 4:16PM|#

RUSH INTERVIEW WITH OVULATING MALE FACE

FOX would love it! They could run it right after the expose on the grammar police!

|8.23.07 @ 4:25PM|#

Regardless of what genetics predispose women too, did the scientiss research whether any of the nerds from "Revenge of the Nerds" ever have a chance in hell of getting laid by a decent girl?

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Episiarch|8.23.07 @ 4:26PM|#

But do girly-men prefer women? Inquiring minds want to know.

|8.23.07 @ 4:30PM|#

What's the consensus? Do I get the sideburn implants or no?

Gahan|8.23.07 @ 4:31PM|#

Lost,

They do, but only if they put on a Darth Vader mask. ;)

|8.23.07 @ 4:40PM|#

Or maybe it means they have fun with the manly men and when they settle down they pick the girly men. Since when is what women say they want and what they actually go for the same thing*.

* Also true, though to a lesser extent, for men. Men are pretty shameless about wanting a nice rack/ass to play with.

SPD|8.23.07 @ 4:45PM|#

David Bowie is somehow behind this

Sean,

That's impossible: Bowie's in space.

|8.23.07 @ 4:58PM|#

Or the MOZ!!!

This is pretty butch (SFW). Besides he doesn't really look all that girly: square jaw, heavy eyebrows, etc.

VM|8.23.07 @ 4:59PM|#

destijl -

truedat, but his dance moves really are teh ROX!!111!!!lolz

dhex|8.23.07 @ 5:04PM|#

Where to these Commies come up with this stuff?

i believe they prefer the term Communist-American.

|8.23.07 @ 5:09PM|#

Maybe English women.

American women prefer muscles

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0929084520070710?feedType=RSS

Anonymous Bastert|8.23.07 @ 5:15PM|#

I believe that approximately 10% of American birth certificates do not accurately name the father.

darwinkilledgod|8.23.07 @ 5:24PM|#

This is a common finding in Evolutionary Psychology, but it appears to be only true of English women. US samples, at least, do NOT show this effect. I personally ran a study with 150 males and had their faces rated by women for attractiveness. The correlation between physical strength and physical attractiveness of the face was over .4 and positive. The correlation is even higher if you have women rate the man's body on attractiveness.

I'm sorry, academics, women do like strong guys!

Gahan|8.23.07 @ 5:31PM|#

"I believe that approximately 10% of American birth certificates do not accurately name the father."

Which explains the existence of the Maury Polvich show.

|8.23.07 @ 5:37PM|#

Yes, you are the father!!

Darth Sparticus|8.23.07 @ 5:41PM|#

Search your feelings...

|8.23.07 @ 5:45PM|#

The good news is, it's much easier to exercise than to become smart. According to my favorite infomercials, you can get ripped abs in just 20 mins a day....

|8.23.07 @ 5:57PM|#

Note to fertile women,

Go ahead and procreate with the macho guys if you want, but be aware that we femmy guys are too busy ironing our jeans and fellating each other to raise your children.

Sorry.

Underzog|8.23.07 @ 6:29PM|#

i believe they prefer the term Communist-American.

If the PC types use the french type phraseology of people of color, then they would probably prefer the term Communists of America.

"There's no need to fear; Underzog is here!"

|8.23.07 @ 6:42PM|#

The good news for "masculine" men is that this mostly applies for "relationships."

When it comes to F-ing, the chicks go for the manly man. And chances are, when she's married or cohabitating with the feminine-faced man, she will be trying to have me bang her on the side.

When we masculine-men want a "relationship" we can simply impregnate a chick and choose to make one.

D. Greene|8.23.07 @ 6:58PM|#

Women want wimps for long term companions and manly men for a fling. Biology trumps psychology sometimes, as ovulating women find masculine men more attractive.

So when they are thinking rationally, they prefer men they think they will be able to push around, I guess.

|8.23.07 @ 7:14PM|#

Women, I've been told, don't care if you're bald, fat, or hairy.

As long as you're rich.

|8.23.07 @ 11:14PM|#

All you can really conclude from these surveys is what those people who answered them were thinking at the time they answered. Ask the same group the same questions in two weeks and get a completely opposite result.

|8.23.07 @ 11:19PM|#

If this is true Then why aren't men more feminine looking as a whole?

Wouldn't evolution select against masculine looking men?

|8.23.07 @ 11:32PM|#

Might it be true that this study might reveal little more than a general bias against masculine looking men? The manliest looking dudes in film, tv,etc., are always the bad guys...
I suggest to you all the we're conditioned to fear manly men from early on..

Anonymous Bastert|8.23.07 @ 11:59PM|#

Jack Jaxon for the win!

|8.24.07 @ 8:36AM|#

Recently, in my workplace, one of the younger women got involved with a rather effeminate looking intern. When this guy first arrived (before they hooked up), he went around the local bar we frequented trying to make bets on when he would have her bedded (after she had left for the night, of course). So, she was just a convenient piece of tail for him. Judging someone's personality and ethics by the way they look does not get you good results.