14 DAY TRIAL // It's easy for a couch potato to think that what really matters are the mind and soul. But no matter what they say, the awful truth is women are really crazy for muscles. A new UCLA research reinforces the idea that muscular men are much likelier to have short-term affairs and many more sex partners.
"If you're trying to figure out why men - especially young men - spend so much time at the gym, here's your answer. The stereotype is that men work out to compete with each other, but our research suggests that pumping iron is a way for men to enhance their attractiveness to women," said lead author David Frederick, UCLA doctoral candidate in psychology.
D. Frederick and co-author Martie Haselton, a UCLA associate professor of communication studies and psychology, have made a series of investigations connecting men's muscularity and their sexual success. The four-year project also assessed for the first time women's opinions on muscularity in choosing short- and long-term partners. "A lot of mate-selection research focuses on what men find attractive. This shows women are putting a premium on attractiveness. Women care about muscularity when they choose sex partners," said Haselton.
The team photographed 99 male undergraduates, who were rated by a panel of independent judges on a nine-point scale, "1" being much less muscular than average and "9" meaning much more muscular than average. The undergraduate subjects were questioned about their sexual histories. Muscled men were found more than twice as likely to have had over three sex partners in their lives compared with their skinnier counterparts.
In another approach, the team asked 120 undergraduate males to rate their own muscularity level while questioned at the same time about their sexual histories. Those perceiving themselves as muscular not only had more sexual partners than their slimmer peers, but they were twice more likely to experience brief flings or one-night stand affairs. Muscular men had an average of four partners, compared with 1.5 in the case of below-average muscled individuals.
In another approach, the team questioned 60 undergraduate males about how many affairs they had with women already involved in a relationship. In this case, too, more muscles meant a double probability to have been through such experiences.
"Everybody knows that testosterone is a hormone that promotes strength in men, but less well-known is the fact that the hormone is also associated with poorer immune system functioning. Secondary sexual characteristics are thought to have evolved as indicators of mate quality because they demonstrate an ability to flourish in the face of what's really a drag on the system. Males in good enough shape to withstand the deleterious effects of immunosuppression have to be especially fit and are therefore more likely to transmit fitness to their offspring than less well-endowed males." said Frederick.
"Evolutionary scientists have long maintained that exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics - such as large muscles in men - are cues to genes that increase the viability of offspring or their reproductive success. In an age when medical advancements play such a large role in the survival and health of children and so many people use contraceptives, it's not clear whether these genes continue to offer reproductive benefits. But women today are still attracted to muscular men, just as their ancestors would have been, because that's how we've evolved," said Haselton.
The research also revealed that women are indeed attracted by muscular men. 141 undergraduate women were presented with six standardized silhouettes of men varying from brawny to slender and "toned" guys; those under "brawny" were rated as the most sexually attractive type, while the most muscular ones were seen as the less interested in getting involved in serious relationships, besides being more volatile and domineering.
"Moderate muscularity demonstrates that men are in good condition, but they're not so overloaded with testosterone that they are volatile, aggressive and dominant. Just based on their experiences, women seem to be able to weigh good and bad male traits." said Frederick.
In another test made on 82 college coeds, the researchers found that most women admitted that their short-term partners were more muscled than their long-term partners. Their long term less-muscular partners were described as more trustworthy and romantic than their one-night stand hunks. "This suggests that the sweet-guy approach works better for less muscular men. The muscular men don't need to put in this kind of effort, especially for a short-term relationship." said Frederick.