What do men first notice in women, and vice-versa?
Women’s Health magazine decided to find out and surveyed 6,000 Men’s Health Twitter followers. Perhaps surprisingly, the result was the face. Of the men surveyed, 38% said it was the first thing they noticed.
Somewhat more predictably, following close behind another 34% said bottom was the first thing that caught their attention. Only 18% admitted it was the chest, and 10% said legs.
A similar survey of women found that they’re not too dissimilar to our male counterparts.
When asked about men on beaches, women confessed that the first thing we check out is his abs, followed by his face, then arms. Somewhat suspiciously, they didn’t admit to checking out his package.
It differs slightly when it comes to a man on the street. Firstly they’re interested in eyes, then smile, followed by height, and then hands.
When it comes to personality, women all basically seek the same thing in a partner.
A study conducted by Evolutionary Psychology has found that attractiveness is not the primary desire. Instead, it’s how altruistic a mate is. Attractiveness plays a part of course, with partners of equal attractiveness and kindness being the most popular.
In the study, women were presented with images of men acting in bravery or kindness including things like saving drowning child or buying a homeless person a sandwich.
The study states:
“Altruism plays a role in mate choice, particularly in women’s preferences and in long-term (LT) relationships. The current study analysed how these preferences interacted with another important mate choice variable, physical attractiveness.
Here, female participants were presented with photographs of men of varying levels of physical attractiveness, alongside descriptions of them behaving either altruistically or not in different scenarios. The results showed women preferred altruistic men, particularly in LT relationships and that this interacted with physical attractiveness such that being both attractive and altruistic made a man more desirable than just the sum of the two desirable parts”.
Looks like nice guys don’t finish last after all.
