An Eye Tracking Examination of Men’s Attractiveness by Conceptive Risk Women

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that women prefer men who exhibit an android physical appearance where fat distribution is deposited on the upper body (i.e., shoulders and arms) and abdomen. This ideal physical shape has been associated with perceived dominance, health, and immunocompetence. Although research has investigated attractability of men with these ideal characteristics, research on how women visually perceive these characteristics is limited. The current study investigated visual perception and attraction toward men in Hispanic women of Mexican American descent. Women exposed to a front-posed image, where the waist-to-chest ratio (WCR) and hair distribution were manipulated, rated men's body image associated with upper body strength (low WCR 0.7) as more attractive. Additionally, conceptive risk did not play a strong role in attractiveness and visual attention. Hair distribution did not contribute to increased ratings of attraction but did contribute to visual attraction when measuring total time where men with both facial and body hair were viewed longer. These findings suggest that physical characteristics in men exhibiting upper body strength and dominance are strong predictors of visual attraction.

Fertility Status in Visual Processing of Men’s Attractiveness

“…In a related study, Dixson and Rantala (2016) found no effect on fertility status in preferences for facial or body hair. Replicating Dixon and Rantala (2016), Garza et al (2017) found no preferences for facial or body hair based on fertility status. In a more recent study investigating the ovulatory shift hypothesis using accurate methods in determining fertility (i.e., hormonal assays: estradiol and progesterone) Dixson, Lee, Blake, Jasienska, and Marcinkowska (2018) found no evidence of women judging men with full beards as more attractive than clean shaven men across phases of the menstrual cycle.…”

“…In investigating body hair, hirsute men were judged to be older and attractive, however, that association depended on men who were considered mesomorphic (i.e., muscular) (Dixson, A. F., Halliwell, East, Wingarajah, & Anderson, 2003). In a study investigating different categories of hirsuteness (i.e., hairless, facial, chest, & facial/chest hair), Garza et al (2017) did not find any significant differences in attractiveness ratings between hirsuteness categories.…”

“…Although there are benefits in using descriptive research in quantifying attractability, they fail to account for visual perception of the cues that led to making a specific rating. Research in men's attractiveness has begun using novel methods to measure women's perceived visual interest in men, such as incorporating eye tracking technology (Dixson et al, 2014;Garza, Heredia, & Cieslicka, 2017) to specifically record the online processing of information. Nonetheless, the role that fertility status plays in visual processing of men's physical characteristics is unclear.…”

Misattribution of musical arousal increases sexual attraction towards opposite-sex faces in females

“…Second, we think that the debate on statistical power and sample size in this context frequently ignores the value of matching groups on influential background variables and the quality of the stimuli used in an experiment. Third, large sample sizes may be necessary to detect small effects of fertility on visual attractiveness ratings among women, as has been shown recently by a study on visual attributes of male attractiveness [ 50 ]. However, it is not always possible to recruit such large samples if certain restrictions, such as low musical training and no hormonal contraceptive use, need to be considered, especially not in a cohort of university students.…”

A multivariate analysis of women's mating strategies and sexual selection on men's facial morphology

“…The ectoparasite avoidance hypothesis suggests that sexual selection for reduced body hair may also have contributed to reduced hirsutism in humans [90]. While men's chest hair is judged to be sexually attractive among women from the UK and Cameroon, hairless chests are preferred among women from the USA, China, New Zealand, Finland, Brazil, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia and Turkey [95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104]. However, neither viewing photographic stimuli depicting diseases, illness and pathogens or responses to questionnaires measuring women's sensitivity to pathogens were linked to variation in women's attractiveness judgments of hair on the upper chest and abdomen in men [103,104].…”