Men with large eyes and elongated facial features are perceived as more promiscuous. It also happens with women with thin faces and small eyes (although with an important caveat that we will now reveal). This is the main conclusion of a study carried out by Australian researchers who asked heterosexual men and women about their levels of ‘ socio-sexuality ‘, that is, the willingness or degree of openness that people have when participating in sexual activities outside from a committed relationship, also known as casual sex.
Some research has suggested that due to the coronavirus pandemic, women have become much less open to such relationships, while men have remained virtually unchanged. Experts wondered if men and women could tell by looking someone in the face whether they are more or less open to casual sex. Intrigued by the idea, they set up and conducted a volunteer study to find out.
For this, they had the participation of just over 100 Caucasian people, all with an average age of 20 years, who were photographed and who completed the Socioexual Orientation Inventory-Revised (SOI-R) -a questionnaire that measures openness to casual and uncommitted sex. The photographs were shown to the participants of the opposite sex so that they could judge, solely by their appearance, whether they were interested in socio-sexuality.
The results
Men who were open to casual sex generally had longer faces, higher foreheads, longer noses and larger eyes , the team found. Additionally, women accurately identified these male facial features as indicators of men’s interest in casual sex.
“This is a really valuable skill, as it would allow women to make subconscious decisions about which men would be right for them, based on the goals of their relationship,” the authors explain.
The men were not so accurate for these interpretations. They mistakenly perceived smaller, graceful female faces with smaller eyes and smaller lips as an indicator of women’s openness to casual sex. But it was not so.
In summary, the study results suggest that women are good at correctly identifying the physical characteristics of men that indicate interest in a one-night stand, but not the other way around.
“When we look for a new partner, we may be looking for different things ,” said Ian Stephen, a co-author of the study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior . “Sometimes we may be looking to form a lasting relationship, but other times we may just be looking for an affair. We decided to see if people’s intentions could be revealed by their faces.”
Why are women better than men at recognizing this attitude?
The researchers tried to answer this question with the help of artificial intelligence, designing an algorithm that would make these kinds of judgments. The result? The AI could make accurate predictions about men’s relationship intentions from their faces, but not from women.
“We think this points to a role for testosterone,” says Joseph Antar, a co-author of the work. As testosterone plays a less relevant role in female development, it would explain why men, and neither are AI, are good at recognizing the socio-sexuality of female faces.
Referencia: Joseph C. Antar et al, Facial shape provides a valid cue to sociosexuality in men but not women, Evolution and Human Behavior (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.02.001
