Women's pathogen disgust predicting preference for facial masculinity may be specific to age and study design

Abstract

Facial masculinity in men is thought to be an indicator of good health. Consistent with this idea, previous research has found a positive association between pathogen avoidance (disgust sensitivity) and preference for facial masculinity. However, previous studies are mostly based on young adult participants and targets, using forced-choice preference measures; this begs the question whether the findings generalise to other adult age groups or other preference measures. We address this by conducting three studies assessing facial masculinity preferences of a wider age range of women for a wider age range of male faces. In studies 1 and 2, 447 and 433 women respectively made forced choices between two identical faces that were manipulated on masculinity/femininity. In study 1, face stimuli were manipulated on sexual dimorphism using age-matched templates, while in study 2 young face stimuli were manipulated with older templates and older face stimuli were manipulated using young templates. In the full sample for study 1, no association was found between women's pathogen disgust and masculinity preference, but when limiting the sample to younger women rating younger faces we replicated previous findings of significant association between pathogen disgust and preference for facial masculinity. Results for study 2 found no effect of pathogen disgust sensitivity on facial masculinity preferences regardless of participant and stimuli age. In study 3, the facial masculinity preferences of 386 women were revealed through their attractiveness ratings of natural (unmanipulated) faces. Here, we did not find a significant association of pathogen disgust on facial masculinity preferences, regardless of participant and stimuli age. These results call into question the robustness of the link between women's pathogen avoidance and facial masculinity preference, and raise questions as to why the effect is specific to younger adults and the forced-choice preference measure.

Women’s Preferences for Men’s Facial Masculinity: Trade-Off Accounts Revisited

“…DeBruine et al (2010) suggested that health benefits might offset the costs of high masculinity when pathogens are a greater concern, and studies have linked personal differences in sensitivity to pathogens (DeBruine et al 2010;Jones et al 2013) to an increased preference for masculine faces (see also Little et al 2011a;but Lee and Zietsch 2015). We thus tested the prediction that women with higher pathogen disgust sensitivity show a higher preference/tolerance for high levels of masculinity than women scoring low on pathogen disgust sensitivity.…”

“…2c). As a recent study suggested that pathogen disgust sensitivity might interact with age in predicting masculinity preferences (Lee and Zietsch 2015), we also re-ran the model with a three-way interaction of age, disgust sensitivity and masculinity level; age had no significant effect on its own or in any interaction, whereas the pattern of results for disgust sensitivity remained unchanged (see supplemental material).…”

The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases

“…Gender differences have been shown for the three variables, with women scoring higher than men, but the effect of age has been studied in pathogen disgust only. The influence of age over disgust sensitivity has been much more modest than that of gender, although it has been commonly found that disgust sensitivity decreases with age [22][23][24]. However, some of these studies were performed with undergraduate students whose age range was very limited.…”

“…However, some of these studies were performed with undergraduate students whose age range was very limited. Only specific stimuli were assessed, such as face masculinity and its relationship to pathogen disgust exclusively in young adult women [22], or death-related disgust in women [23]. Hence, the logical result should be the opposite: If aging is associated to a heightened threat of disease, and the biological immune system shows a lower response rate when aging, disgust sensitivity should be higher.…”

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

“…With regards women's preferences for masculine facial shape, hypothesis 1 tested whether higher facial masculinity preferences occur among women with greater concerns of pathogenic infection, measured using the Three Domain Disgust Scale [111], which assesses pathogen, moral and sexual disgust. If preferences for facial masculinity reflect facultative trade-offs between paternal investment and genetic benefits, women who are high in pathogen disgust, but not moral or sexual disgust, should give higher ratings for facial masculinity [78][79][80]. Hypothesis 2 provided a further test regarding whether women's preferences for facial masculinity reflect selection for indirect genetic benefits, wherein women's reproductive ambition measured using the Desire for Pregnancy Subscale should be positively associated with their facial masculinity preferences [107].…”