Men with beards found to be more appealing for long-term relationships

A certain facial feature can make men appear to be more suitable long-term partners to women, finds a new study by an international team of researchers.

According to the paper, "...beards are judged as more attractive than clean-shaven faces for long-term relationships."

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The researchers hypothesize that the facial hair "may signal men's age and masculine social dominance."

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As such, it could indicate "formidability among males and the potential to provide direct benefits, such as enhanced fertility and survival, to females."

For the experiment, 8,520 women were asked to rate a variety of images of male faces for physical attractiveness through the perspective of a "short-term liaison or a long-term relationship."

As a news release about the research states, "Stubble was judged as most attractive overall and received higher ratings for short-term relationships than full beards, which were more attractive for long-term relationships. Extremely masculine and extremely feminine-looking males were least attractive, irrespective of relationship context."