Family values?: The new study questions the established idea that that women choose masculine men for their 'healthy' genes.

Credit: iStockphoto

Related articles

• Face facts: Women's instincts are right in mating game
• Women prefer men desired by others
• Do hidden facial features make men sexy?
• Beauty in the symmetry preference of the beholder
• Birth control pills can make you pick the wrong lover

SYDNEY: Women subconsciously judge macho men to be bad candidates as long-term partners. They are thought to be more likely to cheat and less committed than men with more feminine faces, says a new study.

Despite being regarded as more 'dominant', men with masculine-looking faces were deemed 'colder' than men with features such as fuller lips, wider eyes and thinner eyebrows.

Psychologists behind the study claim that women may be using their first impressions of men to decide whether or not to engage with them.

"That decision-making process all depends on what a woman is looking for in a relationship at that time of her life," said lead author, Lynda Boothroyd of Durham University's Department of Psychology in England.

More committed lovers

Her team's research published in the current Journal for Personality and Individual Differences bolsters previous studies which have found that – though masculine men are often found to be more attractive – men with softer, more feminine features are perceived as better potential parents and more committed lovers. The study also casts doubt on the idea that women link the appearance of masculinity directly to health.

The experiment, which was accessed by 400 student participants via Durham University's web site presented them with contrasting (masculine/feminine) faces and asked them to rate the faces on a scale.

Attributes they had to rate faces for included: dominance, ambition, warmth, wealth, faithfulness and parenting skills. Seeking to compare masculine and feminine features, the pictures were manipulated with computers to minimise or exaggerate masculine facial features defined by a square jaw, big nose and small eyes.

The researchers found no difference between the more and less macho faces in terms of perceived ambition and wealth but found that the masculine faces were perceived as less warm and less faithful, despite being more dominant.

However, a second test – comparing healthy looking males of both types to those of both types that appeared more sullen, pale and unhappy – produced a new twist on an old assumption. The research found that healthy males were regarded positively for more traits than masculine males.

"Fit for family life"

These findings question the established idea that that women choose masculine men for their 'healthy' genes.

"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," said co-author David Perrett, of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "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."

The question of how men and women pick partners is highly important, "as it impacts on the whole of the fabric of our society," commented Gregory Boyle, a psychologist at Bond University in Queensland, Australia.

However, Boyle had reservations about the conclusions we can draw from this particular study, which he said was poorly designed and had a sample size of participants that was too small. Student participants are not representative of the population overall, he said, as our perceptions of peoples' faces change as we mature.