Women attracted to men who like children: study

LONDON (Reuters) – Women can pick up cues about how men
feel about children from their faces and use the subtle signs
to rate them as potential partners, scientists said on
Wednesday.

The team of researchers from the United States showed that
an affinity for children and male hormone levels play a role in
determining how attractive men are to women.

“Our data suggest that men’s interest in children predicts
their long-term mate attractiveness even after we account for
how physically attractive the women rated the men,” said James
Roney of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In the study of nearly 70 men and women, an interest in
children was linked to long-term partnership potential while
women were attracted to men with higher testosterone levels as
short-term romantic mates.

“The study provides the first direct evidence that women’s
attractiveness judgments specifically track both men’s affinity
for children and men’s hormone concentrations,” said Dario
Maestripieri of the University of Chicago, and a co-author of
the study.

The scientists tested the testosterone levels of 39 male
undergraduate students from saliva samples. They also
determined their affinity for children by asking them to choose
between photos of an adult or a baby and to rate their
interest.

The researchers photographed the men and showed the photos
to 29 female students who were asked to rate the men on whether
they thought they liked children, their masculinity, physical
attractiveness and potential as short and long-term partners.

The findings, published online by the journal Proceedings
of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, showed the women
were able to choose the men who had expressed an interest in
children during the photo test. They also described men who had
high testosterone levels as being masculine.