Hide that smile, boys, to be sexually attractive to girls

William Atkins
Tuesday, 24 May 2011 22:25

Science - Biology

A Canadian study found that a happy male is less sexually attractive to females than moody or powerful looking males.

 

Dr. Jessica L. Tracy, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), led the study, which was published in the journal Emotion.

It is titled 'Nice guys finish last: The impact of emotion expressions on sexual attraction.'

The researchers looked at 1,000 adults in which sexual attractiveness was studied. Women were shown hundreds of photographs of men. And, men were shown 100s of images of women.

The men and women in the photos had one of the following facial emotions: happiness (big smiles), proud, confident, powerful (uplifting heads and raised chests), or ashamed or shame (downward heads and lowered chests).

Dr. Tracy stated, "While showing a happy face is considered essential to friendly social interactions, including those involving sexual attraction - few studies have actually examined whether a smile is, in fact, attractive.'

And, she added, 'This study finds that men and women respond very differently to displays of emotion, including smiles." [EurekAlert: 'Happy guys finish last, says new study on sexual attractiveness']

The study showed that women were the least sexually attracted to men who were smiling, instead preferring those who looked proud or powerful.

They even preferred men who looked ashamed over those who had  big smiles on their faces.

Page two concludes with the emotions that men preferred in women.