Picky people. There's nothing more picky than men and women deciding on a potential romantic match. We curate our dating profiles as though we were meticulous scientists. We take it pretty seriously. But as it turns out, it's all much easier than we might've thought.
Studying men and women. To get to the bottom of what men and women find most attractive (so as to maybe make Tinder that much easier to navigate through), a new study has done the job for all of us. Jessica Tracy led a study on attractiveness among males and females, according to Spring.org, and the results she turned out are easy enough to understand.
The difference between men and women. When women are sought out in a romantic way, men prefer a very particular look. The same applies to men seeking out women. It has nothing to do with personalities, and it doesn't even have to do with their physical looks. It's even simpler than that — though very different between the two sexes.
The men and women gather. In order to cull results for the study, over a thousand men and women were brought on board. In order for the researchers to reach their conclusions, they asked all participants to rate attractiveness.
Serious men. When women come across a picture of a man on whatever dating site she's affiliated with, she doesn't want to see his pearly whites. In fact, she doesn't want to see him smiling at all. According to the study, women want their men brooding.
Happy women. For women, it's the polar opposite. When men are seeking out women's profiles, they prefer pictures that show them smiling. The happier, the better, it seems.
Different kinds of attractions. Men and women see in the opposite sexes different forms of attractiveness. In a way, they're after very specific visual goals. They're like attraction triggers.
Narrowing it down. In order to narrow down the results, participants in the study were asked to rate various men and women based on different forms of emotions they displayed. Ironically, though men found smiling to be the most appealing in women, it was the least appealing in men.
Moody men. According to the results, women don't need their men happy. They prefer men who seem a bit more emotionally dark — even shameful. They always considered men who seemed powerful to fit in that same category.
Proud women. Strangely, it turns out that men aren't really into women who seem assertive or powerful. The least attractive quality that men saw in women was confidence — which actually says a lot about the male population...
Gender norms. What the study does point out is that traditional gender norms do exist. Men and women do have predisposed ideas of the opposite sex, and they're mostly based on physical appearances taken at first glance.
At first glance. This study isn't trying to say that women only like strong and powerful men and men only like happy, simple women. The study is only meant to determine reactions based on first impressions. It was gut reactions.
Femininity and happiness. The co-author in the study, Alec Beall, said that happiness is predominantly a feminine attribute. This study isn't, however, trying to say that men should be jerks and women should be simple. It has nothing to do with their actual personality.
Passing judgment. It all comes down to the old saying that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. If you do, you're only playing into more stereotypes. So the next time you find yourself swiping left on woman after woman or guy after guy, maybe give their profile a brief look first.
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