Microbes and masculinity: Does exposure to pathogenic cues alter women's preferences for male facial masculinity and beardedness?

ABSTRACT: Women's preferences for men's androgen dependent secondary sexual traits are proposed to be phenotypically plastic in response to exposure to pathogens and pathogen disgust. While previous studies report that masculinity in facial shape is more attractive to women who have recently been exposed to pathogenic cues and who are high in self-reported pathogen disgust, facial hair may reduce male attractiveness under conditions of high pathogens as beards are a possible breeding ground for disease carrying ectoparasites. In the present study, we test whether women's preferences for beardedness and facial masculinity vary due to exposure to different pathogenic cues. Participants (N = 688, mean age + 1SD = 31.94 years, SD = 6.69, range = 18-67) rated the attractiveness of facial composite stimul

SUBMITTER: McIntosh TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5464545 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature