Women prefer stronger-looking men, study finds

Are you surprised?

Olivia Petter
Tuesday 12 December 2017 22:45 GMT
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(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

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Women are more sexually attracted to the strongest-looking men, a new Australian study has confirmed.

Researchers at Griffith University in Queensland examined what factors most influenced female attraction to males and found that physical strength reigned supreme.

After surveying 150 women, they concluded that they could almost predict how attractive a man was based on three things: how physically strong he looks, how tall he is and how lean he is.

The scientists conducted two separate experiments, during which full-length photographs of men were shown to each of the female participants who subsequently assessed the men’s physical strength levels and rated their attractiveness.

While some women favoured feminised faces when assessing the photos of the men, almost all of them preferred those who they perceived to be physically strong as opposed to weak-looking.

The results showed that the strongest men included in the image samples were also deemed the most attractive.

Further analysis also showed that height and leanness were favoured by the female participants, which, along with physical strength, accounted for 80 per cent of men’s overall bodily attractiveness.

The study’s authors concluded that women choose men based on “ancestral cues of a man’s fighting ability”, crediting their preferences to ancient mating rituals in which women chose partners they perceived as being able to provide for them.

The new research follows a series of recent studies examining male attractiveness.

When it came to height, a recent study conducted by Match.com conversely found that women were most attracted to short men.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania revealed that bald men were deemed more attractive than those with hair.

So, if you’re short, bald and muscly, the ladies are probably already lining up around the corner for you...

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