Why Women Don’t Want Macho Men

By: Molly Graydon, Caitlin Higgins & Bill

Neidinger

Why Women Don’t Want Macho Men

Article written by Jena Pincott

More Feminine Looking Men?

New research suggests women from countries with healthier populations prefer more feminine-looking men

Nearly 4,800 women participated in an experiment at faceresearch.org

Young women

Early to mid-twenties

All ethnicities identified as white

Country of origin particularly important part

Experiment

The women clicked through a listing of psycology experiments including “face preferences” and “attractiveness at different ages”

After those selections were made, they were told they would be presented with pairs of men’s faces

Would select the face they considered more attractive

Faces looked very alike but had suble differences

Example from the experimentPicture on the left is more masculine than the picture on the right which is more feminine.

Results

After looking at the data which included:

women’s facial preferences

country of origin

their country’s national health index

Researchers could conclude:

could predict how masculine a women likes men based on her nation’s statistics for mortality rates, life expectancy, and impact of disease

Country ResultsCountries with poor health as a particular threat:

Women leaned toward “manlier” men

Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Argentina

Countries with good health:

Leaned more toward feminine men

Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Romania, Greece, and New Zealand

Lowest masculinity preferences: Belgium

United States and Masculinity Choices

5th out of 30 countries in study in preferring more masculine men

Home of James Dean and Clint Eastwood (?)

Health care rating:

20th out of 30

one of least healthy countries in the experiment

Why?

How is it possible to link a woman’s masculinity preferences to health of her country?

Begins with theory of sexual selection

Women are the choosier sex because they take more risk and burden of reproduction and child rearing

In best interest to choose high quality male

Good health

Health and Masculinity

Testosterone is the link:

Immunosuppressive: must be healthy and in good condition to withstand its effect on a man’s development

Also linked to traits related to strength

Is Being a “Macho Man” Worth It?

Women tend to think of high-testosterone types as uncooperative, unsympathetic, philandering, aggressive and disinterested in parenting

The men who were rated as the most masculine generally had higher testosterone levels

43% more likely to get divorced than men with normal levels

31% more likely to leave home because of marital problems

38% more likely to cheat on their wives

13% more likely to admit that they hit or hurled things at them.

How Much Does Masculinity Matter?

Apparently not so much:

If you’re living in a country with good health care and low levels of disease

Generally speaking, the experiment showed that a nation's health index explained more of the variation in women's masculinity preferences than did many culture-specific female norms identified in previous studies.

Women’s equality

Crime rates

Control of resources

Is Modern Masculinity Being Devalued?

Possibly... but:

Given American women's apparently strong masculinity preferences, the answer is no

Some signals may suggest change is just over the horizon:

Promise of improved health care

Women’s financial freedom

Being secure socially