The key secret of male attractiveness to women revealed

Scientists discovered: for women, safety is more important than beauty when choosing a partner

Evolutionary psychology has long studied how people choose partners. Masculine features of a male face - wide jaw, pronounced brow ridges, more angular proportions - are usually associated with high testosterone levels, good health, and "quality" genes. However, these same traits can signal dominance and a tendency towards aggression, which turns partner selection into a compromise between potential benefits and safety.

An international team of scientists led by Huilin Zhu from Southwest University and Yue Wu from Shaanxi Normal University conducted a study, the results of which were published in the prestigious journal Personality and Individual Differences. The researchers decided to investigate how women balance between contradictory signals when choosing a partner, suggesting that risk avoidance plays a primary role.

More than 480 women participated in the large-scale study. Scientists conducted four experiments using both artificially modified and real photographs of men. Participants had to choose the more attractive face from a pair, evaluate images according to various parameters, and consider them in the context of short-term and long-term relationships.

The results of the study were strikingly consistent. If a male face was perceived as aggressive, women consistently preferred its more feminized version, even if the original face was considered attractive. With a low level of perceived aggression, masculinity, on the contrary, increased attractiveness, especially if the face was initially rated as beautiful. This tendency was particularly pronounced when choosing a partner for long-term relationships.

The authors of the study called the discovered mechanism a "risk priority strategy": the female brain first assesses possible threats, and only in their absence begins to consider factors such as masculinity and physical attractiveness. This strategy fully corresponds to evolutionary theories, according to which physical safety historically played a crucial role for women due to the high biological costs of bearing offspring and caring for children.