Despite the fact that “bad guys” tend to be the ones who seem to provoke the most sighs, a recent study carried out by the department of psychology at Senshu University (Japan), the University of Oslo (Norway) and the University of Chieti (Italy), has concluded that men with smiling faces are more suitable for a long-term relationship than those with a more serious demeanor .
To arrive at this deduction, the researchers started by conjecturing how women perceived men according to the type of relationship they were seeking. Thus, 218 university students from Japan, Norway and Italy were recruited to evaluate the attractiveness of a series of male faces divided into two categories: neutral or smiling expression. The young women then had to decide with which of the faces they would be willing to commit to a long-term relationship with the possibility of ending up in marriage and which simply for a temporary relationship or casual dating. The results of the evaluation showed that smiling men were seen as the “best future husbands”, that is, the best choice for a stable relationship .
In the second part of the study, the experts had the participation of 71 university students who had to classify the same smiling or neutral faces to find out which qualities they considered most appropriate according to the type of relationship: short or long term. Participants rated men with smiling faces as less masculine and less mature but much more trustworthy compared to faces with neutral expression.
“ These results are in agreement with the idea that social and cooperative characteristics would be fundamentally important for long-term couples , but not much for short-term relationships because cooperation is necessary for parenting. in the first case, but not in the second ”, according to the authors.
The study, which has been published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology , thus concludes that if a man wants to be lucky in love, he must first of all have his best smile.
