A new study has concluded that women can tell which men will make good fathers just by looking at their faces. The results of the study were published in the British journal, 'Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.'
'This study suggests that women are picking up on facial cues that are perhaps related to paternal qualities,' said James Roney, a University of California at Santa Barbara psychologist and lead author of the study. 'The more likely they could see having a longer-term relationship.'
According to the study, evolution has practically programmed women to recognize which men would be interested in becoming fathers.
The study also concluded that women can look at men's faces and instantly figure out which men have the highest levels of testosterone. Those men are rated the most masculine and tend to be the kind of guys they favor for a more short-term relationship or a fling.
'Women make very good use of any information they get from a man's face,' said co-author Dario Maestripieri, an associate professor of comparative human development at the University of Chicago. 'Depending on what they want and where they are in their lives, they use this information differently.'
The study used 39 men between the ages of 18 and 33. The men were shown ten pairs of photographs, some of infants and some of adults. They were asked to rate their preferences. A saliva test was also taken of the men to determine their testosterone levels.
Photos of the mens' faces were later shown to 29 women between the ages of 18 and 20 at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The women were asked to rank the men in four categories: 'likes children,' 'masculine,' 'physically attractive' and 'kind.'
The study showed the women were remarkably accurate at determining which men liked children and which men had higher testosterone levels. 20 of the 29 women rated the men who liked children the most as above average of higher in liking children. The men who showed no interest in children were ranked that way by 19 of the 29 women.
Also, the higher women ranked men as loving children, the more desirable they were ranked as long term partners. The men women listed as being more masculine and having higher testosterone levels were considered more desirable for a short-term fling.
The study seems to back up evidence for 'love at first sight' and shows a biological component for what women find attractive in men at different times in their lives.
