Men overestimate women’s preference for masculinity

We are constantly bombarded with the message that certain body types are particularly sexually desirable. Previous research, however, has consistently found that we're not really that good at knowing what physical features are actually appealing to our preferred gender. Straight women, for example, tend to overestimate how much men desire thinness, whereas straight men exaggerate how muscular women want them to be.

In PLOS One, David I. Perrett and colleagues at the University of St. Andrews take a look at how this dynamic plays out for facial features. When asking straight men and women to digitally create a face that they thought the opposite gender would prefer, the team found that both men and women overestimate how much potential partners prefer exaggerated femininity or masculinity — misjudgements that may contribute to body dissatisfaction.

Before recruiting participants, the researchers created a set of "base" 3D images of male and female faces — composites of multiple faces. They then altered these faces, making them look more or less stereotypically masculine or feminine. Participants could adjust the faces using a slider, shifting features between these extremes in 10% increments.

The participants (144 White, straight men and women aged between 18 and 27) were then asked to adjust a face's masculinity or femininity in response to three different prompts: firstly, to create a face that resembled themselves; secondly, to create their own 'ideal' face; and finally, to create a face they believed the opposite sex would find attractive for both short- and long-term relationships. The slider's starting position was randomised each time.

On average, women adjusted male faces to be 32.7% more masculine than the least masculine version available — suggesting just a moderate preference for masculinity. In contrast, men predicted that women would prefer male faces to be 76.5% more masculine, greatly overestimating women's actual preference.

When it came to female faces, high femininity was generally preferred across the board. However, men chose slightly less feminine faces (124.8% more feminine than the least feminine face) than what women expected them to prefer (172% more feminine).

These figures varied when participants were asked to create faces of those they felt would be most attractive for short- and long-term relationships. Men assumed that women would prefer male faces to be 90% more masculine for short-term relationships, compared to 62.4% more masculine for long-term ones. In reality, though, women's preferences remained relatively stable regardless of relationship type.

The results also revealed a gap between how participants saw themselves and their 'ideal' face. Both men and women saw their own faces as less masculine or feminine than they wanted to be, respectively — and the stronger this misperception, the more dissatisfied they felt about their appearance. Women who thought men preferred highly feminine faces were more dissatisfied with their own femininity, and men who thought women wanted hyper-masculine features were less happy with their own masculinity.

Given the narrow demographic of the study, however, it's not possible to say whether these results would vary in non-White, non-American, LGBT+, and other populations.

This all suggests that misjudging what others find attractive doesn't just skew our view of potential partners, but also distorts our own self-image. Just as concerns about muscularity, body type, or weight can lead to insecurity and unhappiness, so too can worries about the masculinity or femininity of our facial features.

Though the study doesn't explore the potential implications of such unhappiness, we do know from other research that the consequences can be serious. Men, for example, can use anabolic steroids to develop muscles, while women are more susceptible to developing eating disorders. This could be a useful focus for future research, as well as forming the basis to develop strategies to address gender-specific problems of self-image.

Read the paper in full:
Perrett, D. I., Holzleitner, I. J., & Lei, X. (2024). Misperception of the facial appearance that the opposite-sex desires. PLOS ONE, 19(11), e0310835. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0310835

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