The role of mating context and fecundability in women ’s preferences for men’s facial masculinity and beardedness

The ovulatory shift hypothesis proposes that peri-ovulatory increases in women ’s sexual desire occur in response to male phenotypic and behavioral traits (Gangestad and Haselton, 2015). For example, at the peri-ovulatory phase women prefer men with more masculine facial features, including defined brows, deeply set and narrow eyes, thin lips, robust midface, and a square ja w (Penton-Voak et al., 1999; Penton-Voak and Perrett, 2000; Little and Jones, 2012, Little et al., 2008). Facial masculinity is androgen dependent (Whitehouse et al., 2015), and is positively associated with men’s current health (Rhodes et al., 2003), past disease resistance (Thornhill and Gangest ad, 2006), immune response (Rantala et al., 2012), physical strength (Windhager et al., 2011), social rank (Geniole et al., 2015), and mating success (Hill et al., 2013).

Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - April 18, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Barnaby J.W. Dixson, Khandis R. Blake, Thomas F. Denson, Amany Gooda-Vossos, Siobhan M. O ’Dean, Danielle Sulikowski, Markus J. Rantala, Robert C. Brooks Source Type: research