Dating in the digital age isn't always easy.
And it turns out that not all the advice we've gotten over the years has been correct.
Here are the traits you think men find attractive but they actually don't!
The diet industry is worth $66.3 billion, according to Time, and a lot of folks are
willing to spend whatever it takes to slim down.
So all men must want their ladies to be as skinny as possible, right?
Well, as it turns out, that's not really the case, according to a theory by a professor
at the University of Texas that The Independent reported on in 1994.
The study, which examined how male and female bodies store fat, found that there's one thing
that's the most reliable indicator of what men find attractive: a waist-to-hip ratio
of between .67 and .8.
The professor and her colleagues noted in a 2010 article for Evolution and Human Behavior
that body mass index, or BMI, wasn't a big influence for men regarding female attractiveness.
So no matter what your BMI is, whether it's low or high, if you have that magical, low
waist-to-hip ratio, men are more likely to find you smoking hot.
When it comes to picking a stable partner, men want someone they can count on all the
time, right?
Someone who follows all of the rules and never gets into risky situations.
Well, not quite, according to science!
In a 2014 study in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, scientists analyzed how
men and women perceive a variety of risk-taking behaviors, such as handling fire, interacting
with dangerous animals, and skateboarding.
And what they found was that men are attracted to people who participated in what are called
hunter-gatherer risks, risks similar to those our ancestors would have faced.
So you can keep that bungee jumping trip in New Zealand on your bucket list!
While you might think that all men love a husky, sexy voice, science came to a different
conclusion.
In fact, men prefer women with higher-pitched voices, according to a 2013 study by University
College London.
If you’re curious to know what a high-pitched voice sounds like, actress Lake Bell gave
a hilarious example on an episode of Conan, calling it the,
"Sexy baby vocal virus."
Okay, maybe not quite like that.
But men do prefer breathy voices that are high in pitch and have a wide formant dispersion,
which they associate with a smaller body size.
Interestingly enough, the researchers also saw parallels between this study's results
and results from other studies about animals.
This allowed them to conclude that men are attracted to higher-pitch voices as they signal
submissiveness and low potential for confrontation.
We're not so different from our furry friends after all, then!
If you're going to be in a relationship that's happy and healthy, you need to be able to
laugh with your significant other.
While women desire a mate who can crack them up, science tells us that men aren't looking
for the same thing.
According to a study in Evolution and Human Behavior, men aren't so attracted to women
who make them laugh, they're attracted to women who find them funny and laugh at their
jokes.
So while he wants you to share in his sense of humor, he wants to be the comedian in the
relationship.
If you were to gauge the ideal bust size based on the availability of bras out there, you'd
likely assume that the bigger, the better.
From padded bras to push-up bras, there's no shortage of garments designed to both perk
up and push out your bust line.
Couple that with the rising popularity of breast augmentation surgeries, and it seems
like a no-brainer: Men must find large breasts the most attractive.
Surprisingly, science has demonstrated that this isn't the case.
In spite of the stereotype, men are more attracted to women with medium-sized breasts that aren’t
too big and not too small.
Aging isn't easy.
And despite our best efforts, it's inevitable that gray hairs appear, as do lines in our
faces, even if we have an arsenal of anti-aging skin creams.
Surely once the crow's feet set in dating will be impossible, right?
Wrong!
Believe it or not, having a perfect, unlined, youthful-looking face isn't always what men
find the most attractive.
In fact, according to a study in The Royal Society, some men prefer women with a more
mature appearance when it comes to selecting a long-term partner.
The reason?
Men who are born to women over 30 tend to find older ladies more attractive than younger
ladies.
The exact reason isn't fully known, but it's likely that the bonding experience they had
with their mothers is responsible for it.
There's nothing quite like a girls' night out with friends, when you can relax, unwind,
and watch whatever corny movie you want and not be judged for it.
But if you're out a lot with the ladies in your life, won't that be kind of a turn-off
to the dudes around you?
Maybe not, as there's good evidence that having a squad can surprisingly make you more attractive
to men.
According to a study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, men have a tendency
to find a group of women more attractive than any of its individual members.
That means if you spend time with your besties on the reg, you will appear more attractive
to others than you might if you were just going it alone.
All the more reason to maintain your squad goals, even when the demands of life make
it tougher to go out very often.
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