Psychology News
A team of researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam explored how women, when faced with uncertainty, are attracted to men with tougher facial features. The study is published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.
The Study
The researchers surveyed data from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The participants were instructed to think and write about a situation in which they felt either uncertain or certain about a romantic date.
They were then presented with images of potential dates with either “tender” or “tough” facial attractiveness in a dating app setting. They rated this attractiveness.
The Findings
The results revealed that romantic uncertainty influences partner preferences. In situations of unpredictable love, women tend to fall for men’s facial masculinity and prefer men with tougher facial features as potential partners.
The authors concluded: “We hypothesize that under uncertainty people have an increased desire for gender-stereotypical partner types (caring vs. strong), due to which they are more attracted to particular facial features from which these stereotypical characteristics are inferred.”
To Know More You May Refer To
van Horen, F., & Millet, K. (2022). Unpredictable love? How uncertainty influences partner preferences. European Journal of Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2854
