The face, not the body, attracts a mate

[Vahz]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11833

Body builders and gym buffs, look away now. It appears that the opposite sex is much more interested in your face than your bulging biceps or elegant figure, especially if you're a man. At least that's the upshot of the first study to assess how much faces and bodies contribute to someone's overall attractiveness.

Twelve women and 12 men took part in a trial to assess the attractiveness of people in photographs, on a scale of 1 to 7. Some participants saw the entire person, some saw faces on their own, and some just bodies. Marianne Peters from the University of Western Australia in Crawley and colleagues assessed the face-only and body-only ratings to see how well they predicted the "entire person" ratings.

They found that faces account for more of the variation among ratings than do bodies; in other words, faces are more important. For women rating men, 52 per cent of the attractiveness score was made up by the face rating, while for bodies it was 24 per cent. The trend was similar when men rated women, with 47 per cent of a woman's overall attractiveness accounted for by her face, and 32 per cent by her body (Animal Behaviour, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.07.012).

Peters says that women focus especially on the face because they are better at picking up emotional cues which are key to partner suitability.

[theme]

this also just came in:

road slippery when wet.

[SamuraiJack]

Body is just as important. If they see you with ripped abs and all, it probably triggers some "protector" mechanism.. I'm not a psych major, but that's my opinion on that....

As for the face, I think that the media has altered the perception of beauty so that more Caucasian faces look more attractive. That's why there are many CCBs that aren't really CCBs, but just following what they think is more attractive without thinking about race, which happens to be white guys. After all, who can resist the bombardment of white male faces in the media?

[Heyyu]

I agree that the media is definitely white-washed... however, in terms of the ideal "male beauty" in the media, I don't think there is one. Yeah, people talk about the Brad Pitt's and the Tom Cruises... but then you have the Tom Hanks who are just as famous.

The media tends to sexualize female faces more than male faces. I mean, seriously, there's a lot of plain or ugly guys that are famous, much moreso than females. I mean, if you look at a lot of the TV sitcoms out there... many times the lead star is some plain average joe like Jerry Seinfield but usually the women on those shows are always attractive (or at least more attractive than their plain joe co-stars). I mean, how many times in movies or TV shows do we see the average dude getting the hot girl? And usually never the other way around (or if it is, usually the ugly girl is played by some pretty actress who's just disguised as an "ugly" girl).

Bottom line: If you're female and you want to be famous in the media, you pretty much have to be attractive. But if you're a male, you don't necessarily have to be attractive. Again, it goes back to my theory that for girls it's about looks while for guys it's about your attributes (like power and wealth). Think of Donald Trump and all the hot models he gets as wives despite the fact that he ain't the biggest stud around.

In other words, I don't think guys are judged as much about their appearances as much as females. It's about charisma more than anything. Yeah, yeah, we hear a lot about the talk of how girls want a guy who's tall, dark and handsome. But then I walk out on the street and I see some ugly dudes with hot chicks hanging from their sides (again, it's the charisma factor).

Plus, if girls wanted tall, dark and handsome... wouldn't blacks and Latino's fit that bill better than white dudes? Especially the "dark" part :p I mean, you got guys like Antonio Banderas and Denzel Washington that I'm sure many females would find as attractive if not more attractive than your Leonardo DiCaprio's.

And while there is a certain small segment of the Asian female population that prefers blacks and Latino's... a majority of them still go for whites (because of the perceived status). So going back to my theory that for females it's about their looks and for guy's it's about their status... it's cause white guys have status and not necessarily looks if that makes sense. Otherwise all the fat middle-aged white males wouldn't be able to score chicks when they go to Asia.

[theme]

heyyu-The article Vahz referenced explicitly said that both males and females use the face as a hallmark of attractiveness. And actually, the females were judged as placing MORE emphasis on looks than the males in the survey.

[Heyyu]

heyyu-The article Vahz referenced explicitly said that both males and females use the face as a hallmark of attractiveness. And actually, the females were judged as placing MORE emphasis on looks than the males in the survey.

Not really, it just said that females value the face compared to the body... however, it does not compare the face to other attributes like wealth and status. And my only complaint against the survey is that the sample size is way too small... 12 men and 12 women.

But it also makes sense that men would value the face less compared to the body since well... I mean, the old joke is that guys look at the breasts first and then the face of a female :p

But from my experiences and from other studies I've seen... men generally value the looks of a female more than their status or wealth while for women it's a little more complicated cause in addition to looks they take into account other factors for a guy (such as wealth, status, personality, etc).

[nskripchun]

for your research:

http://www.xanga.com/consumedsoul/593530935/estelle--hyo.html

cute girl. average dude.

[kwak76]

I think the study is too small but it does sound interesting.

I always thought girls went for the guys body first and face second.

[Ike]

I personally go for face before body. Most of the people I see are fully clothed and it's difficult to tell what their bodies look like, you can only see their general size, which could be muscle or fat.

[Vahz]

for your research:

http://www.xanga.com/consumedsoul/593530935/estelle--hyo.html

cute girl. average dude.

That guy is certainly not average.

[Ike]

That guy is certainly not average.

He's rich or has a big one.

[maogirl]

no, you fools, he's a PUA with MAD SKILLZ.

[evil_FUX]

I wonder which method he used

[kwak76]

the guy looks all right to me. I think the girl looks cute because she made herself up with make up and dressing right. The guy on the other hand looks a little tired(notice the dark circles under his eyes) which probably means he works hard at his job.

If that is the case there are allot of women who are attracted to men who are hard working with decent career.