Men Change Their Definition of Attractiveness if Under Stress

It's an accurately established fact that men tend to prefer women that are similar to them. While this may be the norm in general, researchers have now discovered that, when placed under stress, males would rather select mates that are dissimilar to them, contrary to their own rules. The investigation that led to these conclusion was conducted in Germany, on 50 male students, all of which were White and freshly-shaved. They were placed in either comfortable or distressing situations, and then researchers looked at how they reacted upon seeing pictures of women without clothes, posing in explicit positions.

The trick was that some of the faces of the women in the pictures had been modified beforehand, to either resemble or be different from the participant that saw them. None of the subjects was aware of the manipulation. Some of the students were placed in comfortable settings, with their hands in warm water, at about room temperature. Others had to put their hand in very cold water, which distressed them. This was quantified by measuring the level of the stress hormone cortisol, which was found to be very elevated in the second group.

The scientists additionally confirmed that men in the second group were under tension by measuring their heart rate and blood pressure. Those in the first group showed no signs of unrest. When looking at the images, men who had their hands in warm water selected, as expected, the women who most resembled them as the best-looking ones. The situation was completely reversed in the case of men who were under stress. They showed a clear tendency to select possible mates that did not look like them at all. Researchers say that this is very interesting, as regularly both genders prefer mates that look similar to them because they find these faces more trustworthy.

The idea that stress may affect mating preferences was first proposed and demonstrated in flies and mice, and now researchers finally managed to prove that the theory holds true for humans as well. “Chronic stress is an important issue in today's society. In future studies, I would like to investigate the effects of chronic stress on our mating preferences and to do this in men and women,” says University of Saarland psychobiologist and study researcher Johanna Lass-Hennemann. A full review of the findings has been published in the March 10 online issue of the respected scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, LiveScience reports.