Women find thin men more attractive as potential partners rather than those who look 'macho', according to a new study.
| Researchers in South Africa found that while women do respond morefavourably to the faces and bodies of men with strong immune responses, they seem to cueinto fatness and thinness, not macho features, when making their judgements. |
Macho features have long been touted as an evolutionary asset that heterosexual women look for in a potential mate but researchers said weight may be a more powerful driver of attraction as they found testosterone levels were more closely linked with weight than with macho looks.
Researchers in South Africa found that while women do respond more favourably to the faces and bodies of men with strong immune responses, they seem to cue into fatness and thinness, not macho features, when making their judgements.
Fatness, or adiposity, "is an obvious choice for a marker of immunity because of its strong association with health and immunity," study researcher Vinet Coetzee, a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, said.
Macho features such as a strong jaw and squinty eyes advertise that a guy possesses high testosterone, according to the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis.
The trouble with the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis is that masculinity is not universally attractive to women, Coetzee and his colleagues wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Weight is consistently linked both to health and immune system functioning, Coetzee said.
