Women prefer men with full beards & heavy stubble over clean-shaven guys


Beardness or non-beardedness? 

It's a bit puzzling. Full beards and heavy stubble edged out light stubble and the clean-shaven look. The conclusion is based on a study of women's judgments of attractiveness, health, masculinity, and parenting abilities from photographs of clean-shaven men, lightly or heavily stubbled and fully bearded. How about non-beardedness? Surprisingly, men rated full beards and heavy stubble as most attractive, followed closely by clean-shaven and light stubble as least attractive. Well, a dose of male narcissism is to be expected here. Men and women agree on male beardedness, i.e., masculinity ratings increased linearly as facial hair increased. The study is overlooking a social side effect.

Keep in mind that our culture promotes and rewards a "clean" male image over its bearded counterpart (which may explain why beardedness is a less common trait than non-beardedness). How does that prove the study's conclusions regarding female courtship behavior? Shouldn't women reflect/influence cultural mores? Western cultural androcentrism notwithstanding, one would expect beardedness to figure more prominently. Let's follow the study: suppose a bearded male gets many more females than a non-bearded one. Shouldn't beardedness then, in time, become a preferred social male trait, which would, as a consequence, increase the population of bearded males? 

If so, would such a predominant trait remain a favorite amongst females? We don't know. The article doesn't follow why beardedness conveys attractiveness, masculinity, or parental abilities. Only that it just happens. According to evolutionary theory, models of sexual selection suggest that there does not need to be any underlying selection advantage to a trait. Females simply have to demonstrate an underlying sensory process favoring the stimulus. But we knew that sexual preference was redundant! 

Are women's inclinations wired to our furry ancestors? It gets more nuanced. Researchers believe that a threshold of density and distribution may be necessary for beards to function as an attractive signal; in other words, women, by contrast, may balance...a competitive masculine partner against the costs of mating with a too-masculine partner. 

As such,

Too masculine?


The Lincoln?


The Marx?


The Thoreau?


The Custer?


The Lemmy?


The Castro?


The Asimov?


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