Bite-Size Science #
July 27th, 2008 | In Worth Reading
Kevin Lewis offers five interesting tidbits from academic studies I’d not heard of. This one was most interesting to this chronically-unshaven male:
In line with previous research, perceptions of masculinity, dominance, aggression, maturity, and age all increased in proportion to facial hair. However, attractiveness was highest for light-stubble faces and lowest for clean-shaven and fully bearded faces. The authors note that this result could be due to contemporary fashion, the particular age preferences of the (university) women in the study, or stubble signaling a happy middle ground of masculinity.