A woman's assessment of the attractiveness of a man is influenced by how other women view him, according to researchers.
Credit: iStockphoto
PARIS: Just having a few women smile at a man in public is enough to make other women consider him much more desirable, according to researchers.
British psychologists, led by Benedict Jones of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, have discovered that, when sizing up a man, a woman takes her cues from other women around him. The more females she sees smiling at a man, the likelier she is to consider the guy a good catch.
The 'copycat reflex' is the result of Darwinian pressures, according to experts on evolution. If a female faces lots of potential mates but has difficulties in choosing the best one, or if to do so would cost too much time or energy, she can help herself by taking a steer from how rival females behave.
The research team, which reports their results tomorrow in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, recruited 28 female volunteers averaging about 24 years old. The volunteers looked at photographs of four young men wearing neutral expressions and looking directly at the camera. The men were shown in pairs, and the women were asked to choose the more attractive man, and assign him a score on an eight-point scale.
The same faces were then shown individually to the volunteers, each male face flanked by a female face shown in profile. The female either looked neutrally at the man or smiled at him. The volunteers then took another look at the paired faces, and were asked to give another attractiveness rating.
Where the female faces wore neutral expressions, many of the volunteers revised sharply downward their initial grading of the man, by more than 10 per cent on average. But they sharply revised upwards their grading - finding the man more attractive by an average of at least 15 per cent - if the woman looking at him had a smile on her face.
The reverse was true for men: 28 young male volunteers took part in the same experiment, and their rating of the likeability of the male faces plummeted if the man in the picture was being smiled at by a woman. But if the woman had a neutral look, the likeability rating improved.
The findings tell us a lot about how sexual competition affects our views, the study said. 'Desired' men are more attractive to women but pose more of a threat to other males.
Among females in other species, "mate choice copying" has already been spotted among guppies, Japanese quail and zebra finches, but this is the first time the phenomenon has been confirmed among humans.
Seeing the good ...
Last year, I found a highly compatible honey on the Internet. Wherever we go, our infectuous happiness restores women's faith in sexusl love and turns them on.
Of course, being a guy, it has occured to me that turning them on might make them easy to seduce, but I have what I want.
Of course, being a potentially jealous female, my honey has wondered whether they're responding to us or to me. She concluded it's us on the grounds that I've been Platonic friends with many of these same women for years.
So we humans can choose to see competitiveness, jealosy, and copycat reflexes, or we can observe and affirm opportunities for genuine inspiration and learning in others. Perhaps the scientists who did the research can do a more in-depth study clarifying this distinction in the future.
Interesting Research
It's fascinating to me how hard-wired 'attraction' seems to be, particularly because we're all so prone to romanticize the whole thing. One of the numbers noted in the article struck me as odd, however. To women looking at males who were being smiled at by a woman the desirability of the male was reported as 'an average of at least 15 percent higher.'
An average of at least? Which is it? An average or a baseline? Eomen rated men an average of 15% more desirable in this condition, or every single woman rated the men at least 15% more desirable? There's a huge difference statistically.
keep the awesome alive,
ephraim
TRUE TO FORM
Dis study is absolutely on point...women do dat based on wat perception they get from other women...which is absolutely DUMB!
Its alot of things women do dat cause DUMB results but then they wanna cry and pout when they engage in a failed relationship.
Yeah dudes do stupid shit but usually its because women do stupid shit or create a cause and efect.
Very simplistic. :-)
It all comes down to the principles of proportion if you see a 6ft tall person next to a 7ft person, you would percieve the 6ft to be small. And if you then the saw the same 6ft person next to a 5ft person it would follow the same idea. Just like bright light out shining and "dimming" less bright light.
Jez.
Conformity
This is not "research", it's yet another example of conformity to social pressure. I am female and I am often attracted to men that other women think are "nerds", "geeks" or "losers".
The reason for this is that I am a non-conformist. I have developed my own criteria for attractiveness based upon the traits which I believe are important (as opposed to what Society tells me ought to be important to me).
What I don't understand is why whenever "researchers" test the behavior of "a random sample of females" they act surprised when the majority of them exhibit conformity to social norms.
lol
It's more hard wired than you think. I've three very non-conformist female friends who've said the same as you. In each case, I was briefly in love & tried, but they did not want me. But I did have sex with each one, after I had another girl. In two cases, she'd even set me up with her friend, and then had sex with me. And these three friends really are nice highly educated girls. Trust me, it's biological.
I've no doubt you are avoiding the real players, that's good. But don't think your not biased by other womens reactions. Maybe you just don't respect the reactions of some bimbo in a bar? But your nice friend's opinion of a guy counts lots.
I'm a girl. But..
I'd like to avoid chooseing such guy. He is just a player for me.
u CHOOSE to be played ;)
u CHOOSE to be played ;)
I've said it for years
And then women have the nerve to cry and moan about guys being "players?" Don't they realize that their behavior condones this? If a woman sees a man alone she completely ignores him, seeing him as a potential predator. If that same gentleman had another woman on his arm suddenly that same woman would notice him and he becomes worth something. Isn't it interesting that women command attention from men REGARDLESS of company (and in actuality men PREFER women who aren't flanked by other guys). This makes me really wonder---are women REALLY into MEN, or OTHER WOMEN (if OTHER WOMEN are needed to validate a man)???
- A member of The Disposable Sex
A member of the disposable sex
I agree with what you said it appears to me the women compete for the attention of all men, if the men are already coupled in a relationship or married. It has been my experience that women dress for other women not necessarilly the men. When pursing another women's man. A woman really does not have an interest in that man truly. She just wants to prove to the other woman that she is more desireable to her man than she is. The man just happens to be there as a tool for this competition. It is very primal and disturbing it makes the relationship between a man and a woman very illusionary. The competion and jealousy that arises is pretty sick and unhealthy behavior. We are a young species.
I ran with a player and I learned a lot from him about exploiting this behavior but, I could not, as it is not in my nature. The women who pursued him were in denial, in that he had it written all over his forehead. When things went bad and they always did I was baffled when these women were hurt. The player was in fact miserable in playing this game as it all became a series of nothingness and illusionary to him. We are still a young species.
I have had sex without love or caring it is empty. Just gymnastic.
When finding that special someone the first thing a guy should do is meet the parents it will give you great insight into the girl/womans relationship with men. If she did not have a father or death or divorce impacted her relationship with the very first man in her life her father. look for trouble ahead, It's not a hard and fast rule but it is helpfull. I know because I lived it, and I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger. We are still a young species.