No one will be surprised by the idea that strong men are more attractive, it is clear that women prefer a strong man with Muscles, according to study author Aaron Lukaszewski, an evolutionary psychologist at University Fullerton, California, USA, He adds, explaining that the results were decisive in that women prefer men who are more powerful, as there was no statistically significant preference for weaker men.
It seems clear; Women prefer a man with prominent muscles and find him more attractive, and accordingly everyone will ask about the reason why scientists study such a topic, and the answer will be that they want to know how these preferences evolved or the reason for their existence, according to «Holly Dunsworth» anthropologist From the University of Rhode Island that was not involved in the research.
The authors created a database that included images of a group of male undergraduates selected from the University of California, Santa Barbara, so that the images included the upper body of these males without a shirt or a sleeveless shirt with an obfuscated face and head.
The researchers tested the strength of each man in the images by Weight lifting devices, grip strength, and other measurement mechanisms, then asked a group of people from Oklahoma State Universities in the United States and Griffiths in Australia to evaluate the male strength in the images on a scale of 1-to-7. The researchers found that the expectations of those evaluating were significantly close to a person's actual strength, and it was clear that they had a linear relationship between a person's strength and his attractiveness.
The study has described the strong body as a sign, as it appears that one of our ancestors understood the idea that the body with muscles suggests that the individual has better health and a stronger immune system, as he devotes calories to building muscle and is not exhausted by fighting germs.
“Power is an indication of an individual’s ability to provide material and social benefits,” Lukaszewski says. And this interpretation also means that a strong man has value as a protector for women and children, And as an ally for other men.
Some evolutionary psychologists suggest an ideal peak for a man’s strength, then the muscular guy will not looks attractive, but this trend does not appear in the study, and Lukaszewski says that this concept is based on psychological assessments of cartoon drawings of men with muscles, and despite Although the database in the study includes such models, none of them were evaluated in an undesirable rate.
Dunsworth explained that despite the direct methods of study, the evolutionary explanations proposed by the study authors did not find convincing, and said: "They did not link any of these women 's reactions with any kind of ancient deep-rooted evolutionary traits." Dunsworth also indicated that the results It may not be universal, as the ages in this study include the age group of undergraduates only.
As another criticism, " It's my opinion that the authors are too quick to ascribe a causal role to evolution" said sociologist Lisa Wade of Occidental College in Los Angeles. and she explained that these types of research always fall into the same methodological problems, and also added that the dominant culture in every society and not evolutionary history is the one that bears the strongest influence about what we find physically desirable and that It varies from time to time according to the circumstances of each society. It is important to note that the authors of the study demonstrated their knowledge that physical attraction is only one part of a set of signs that we use when assessing partners, and at the present time, Lukaszewski and his team plan to test the physical attributes of gravity globally in a study that includes dozens of different cultures and regions of the world.