Category: Attractiveness

In our evolutionary past, beards could carry bugs, lice and ticks — indeed, they still might.

Women who are single and want to have children prefer a clean-shaven man, new research finds.

In fact, full beards appear to put off women considering both long- and short-term relationships.

The results come from a study that asked heterosexual women to rate the attractiveness of clean-shaven and bearded men.

Part of the reason some women avoid bearded men is down to hygiene.

In our evolutionary past, beards could carry bugs, lice and ticks — indeed, they still might.

Dr Barnaby Dixson, study co-author, explained:

“We found women’s disgust towards ectoparasites—such as fleas that live on the skin—negatively affects preferences for men with beards.

This could be due to the increased cultural trends for men and women to remove hair in more regions of the body including their faces, chests, arms, legs and pubic region.

This is the first study to provide evidence to support the ectoparasite avoidance hypothesis which argues that hairlessness evolved partly in response to parasite abundance to reduce the likelihood of hosting disease carrying parasites.”

The study included 919 women who rated pictures of men showing varying levels of facial hair from clean-shaven to full beard.

The preference for clean-shaven faces emerged among single women looking to have children.

Cut it off?

Whether or not beards are attractive to women is a big area of controversy in beard-related psychological research.

Some studies find that bearded men are more attractive to women than the clean-shaven, especially for long-term relationships, other studies find they are not.

The most recent research goes against both beards and being clean-shaven and is starting to show the benefits of stubble.

But do women prefer light stubble or heavy stubble?

The jury is still out, with one study suggesting light stubble and another heavy stubble.

Naturally, beards have other functions than just attracting (or repelling) potential mates.

They make men look older, more angry and even of higher social status.

Because men with beards look older and of higher social status, they may be more likely to provide for their offspring.

That might be why some women think bearded men are good with babies.

The study was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science (Clarkson et al., 2020).

Incredibly, this smell was more attractive.

Unattached men have stronger body odour than men with partners, new research finds.

However, this could be to their advantage as it is linked to women finding them more attractive.

The stronger body odour indicates higher levels of testosterone in the body.

Women can pick up the signal from the body odour.

Along with being able to smell single men, women also found the faces of single men more attractive than those in a relationship.

For the study, 82 women rated the body odour and faces of men.

Men who had a partner got an average rating of 3 for their body odour.

Single men, though, scored an above-average 3.5 out of six.

The study’s authors write:

“Consistent with the hypothesis, single men’s BO [body odour] smelled stronger than partnered men’s BO and single men’s faces were rated as more masculine than partnered men’s faces.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (Mahmut & Stevenson, 2019).

Most people do not use this simple way to make a good impression.

Emphasising the hard work involved in your accomplishments is the key to making a good impression, new research finds.

While most people like to talk about their talents, it is describing the effort involved that really impresses people.

The reason is that effort and dedication is automatically linked to warmth and relatability in people’s minds.

So, to make a good impression — whether on a date or at a job interview — don’t forget to mention how hard you worked to get where you are.

Dr Janina Steinmetz, the study’s author, said:

“A success story isn’t complete without the hard work and explanation of why we were successful.

Did the success come easy, thanks to one’s talents, or was it attained through hard work?

Both of these attributions can be part of successful self-promotion, but my research shows that emphasising effort is more likely to garner a positive impression and people really want to know the story behind your success.”

The conclusions come from three experiments in which people imagined themselves on dates and at interviews.

An analysis of what they talked about revealed that most people focused on their talents and achievements.

Few people mentioned the hard work involved.

However, describing the hard work was what really won over interviewers and potential romantic partners.

Dr Steinmetz gives two examples:

“…if you’re on a date and talking about a marathon that you recently ran, perhaps talk about all the training that helped you to cross the finish line.

Or, if you’re in a job interview and are talking about a successful project that you led to completion, include a few details about the challenges along the way, and how you overcame them.”

The study was published in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology (Steinmetz et al., 2018).