What rocks women? Evolution suggests tall guys with hot cars

dr no movie poster

If asked for examples of male sex symbols based on Hollywood films over the last quarter century, who comes to mind first? Automatically, you might say all the actors who’ve played James Bond, and, going back further in time, we might add names like Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck and of course Cary Grant. In other words, tall, fit-looking, clean-shaven men.

In our culture, the idea that women find such men attractive seems intuitive, but, biologically, is there any truth to it? In other words, as with men being hardwired to be attracted women’s curves, does science suggest that certain dimensions, ratios, body types, or other parameters might act to draw women to potential male mates?

007: The man with the golden ratio

In terms of dimensions, at least one seems to play a major role: height. According to science, women tend to prefer tall men. Heights of the Hollywood actors mentioned above range from 6’0″ to 6′ 3″, although certainly there are many exceptions. Tom Cruise, for example, stands only 5’7″, yet most would agree that he too is considered a sex symbol. That could be because other factors come into play. Pitch and tone of the voice seem to make a difference, as does facial hair, along with the type of car that the man drives.

These factors may not seem to be related at first, but they all send women a message regarding a male’s level of dominance. In our modern age, dominance might not sound like a desirable characteristic for a woman to seek in her mate. In prehistoric times, however, the more dominant male was the more successful hunter who could bring you and your children food, and he was physically stronger than most other males, and therefore could keep you safe. In the Stone Age, that might have meant a big, hairy brute with a heavy club. But today, the archetype has evolved to mean a tall guy, with a deep, confident voice, and a little facial stubble. That means someone like James Bond, but without a clean shave.

Looking for that tall guy

In our culture, it’s considered almost a truism that women usually seek men who are taller than themselves. But height preference in women has also been the subject of the same type of scientific studies that have examined men’s preference for female curvature. Thus, tall stature was highlighted in a popular article last summer examining the science of male attractiveness. While It may be tempting to think that women simply want to be close to the same height as their mates when wearing high heeled shoes, evolutionary psychology (the specific scientific specialty that examines these phenomena) says that it’s something much deeper and unconscious. Additionally, the tall stature preference carries across cultures and geographic regions, reaching societies in which high-heels are not really part of a woman’s attire.

A recent article in Psychology Today magazine sums up the various scientific studies suggesting that preference for tall males is hardwired into the female brain, rather than being a cultural phenomenon. As with the studies on female curvature, the studies on male stature involve volunteers responding to surveys with statistical analysis of the answers to large numbers of questions. The same article also notes that tall stature also correlates with successful bids to become leaders, especially in modern elections. But the author also points out that the evolutionary study results are all correlational, opening the possibility that the preference for tall men actually may not be hardwired:

“We simply don’t have the experimental cause-and-effect data to back up the idea that social attitudes and not the caveman explanation are behind any particular set of mating advantages being conferred to taller men.”

While this critique may be out of sync with the direction of evolutionary psychology, there is at least some support for the possibility that cultural factors may underlie, or at least influence, the attraction that women feel for tall men. A recent study comparing European (Polish) women with counterparts among the Datoga people from Tanzania suggests that the preference for taller men actually is not universal. That’s only one study and there aren’t many more with similar results, but it does suggest that maybe the case is not yet closed when it comes to the evolution of male attractiveness, at least in the case of stature.

The golden ratio

In part I, we discussed the golden ratio, which applies to body measurements, but also numerous measurements making a face attractive. For the face, this carries over to men as well; those men with the golden ratio are seen as more attractive by women and men alike. But there also is a ratio of body dimensions akin to the female waist-to-hip ratio. In men, it’s the waist-to-shoulder ratio (WSR). A 2011 Swiss study found that men with wider shoulders and narrower waists tend to have had more sexual partners and started having sex and an earlier age compared with men with a higher WSR. So while for women it’s the curves, for men it’s more of a triangular shape that attracts.

Deep voice

In a British study published in 2013 in the online science journal PLOS ONE, researchers from University College London presented evidence showing that women–at least British women–prefer a deep voice in a man, which also seems to have something to do with evolution, as it implies a larger body. According to the researchers:

What makes the voice attractive are mostly properties that enhance the characteristics already in the averaged voice of the sex: high pitch, dispersed formants and breathiness in female voice, and low pitch and long vocal tract in the male voice. These findings may therefore explain why averaged voices are more attractive than certain individual voices..for any individual to stand a better-than-average chance, it would be desirable to exaggerate the characteristics that further enhance attractiveness. And the enhancement, based on the present findings, seems to be based on the principle of body size projection in the case of voice.

Interestingly, the study also found that high pitched voices make women more attractive to men. As for the breathy tone mentioned by the researches, which adds to attractiveness, the researchers suggests that for both genders, “breathiness” in speech helps to enhance the qualities of the voice. Why? For one thing, a breathy quality makes a voice stand out compared with the voices of other individuals who may be competing for the same potential mates. Also, according to the researchers, some breathiness in the voice may send a message that the man is not overly aggressive. The same phenomenon works with female voices, except that men prefer the female voice that is slightly breathy, but higher pitched. This idea is backed up by an additional study also published by PLUS ONE in the same year, which suggests breathiness in men with a deep voice sends a message that the man is not too aggressive, despite being large and strong. This, in turn, implies that he’ll be gentle to the woman but able to protect her.

If all of this is true, however, what about the singing effect? Being a good male singer is known to attract women. Sure, there are studies to back this up too, for instance showing a correlation between having a good singing voice and the number of sexual partners. We can call it the rock star effect. But many rock star male vocalists are tenors. Baritones, but especially base voices are more rare if we think of the stereotype rock singer with trail of groupies. Does this conflict with the deep voice hypothesis? It turns out that there’s not conflict. What singing does, including being able to reach the highest notes, is to draw attention to multiple aspects of the man’s voice, at the same time also drawing attention to the man as a whole. If that’s true, we might expand on the singing effect and consider people who have a very distinct, unusual, and recognizable accent and manner of speaking. Do this and it’s hard not to recall the voice of Cary Grant.

Facial hair

The trend in science suggests that the clean-shaven image boasted by many of Hollywood’s male sex symbols might be out of sink with how women’s physical desires have evolved. Studies similar to those carried out for male stature and female curvature have elucidated a female preference for male facial hair–but not too much of it. A study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, was summed up this way by the Australian researchers who carried it out:

“Our findings confirm that beardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring.”

By “intermediate level of beardedness”, the researchers explained that they meant “heavy stubble” on the face, as opposed to light stubble, which women volunteers actually found less attractive. At the same time, however, a full beard was associated with a perception by women that the man would be a good provider for the family.

Car type

Fancy cars, or sports cars, come into play, because in our culture they’re associated with a perception of dominance. The main concept here is that cars are associated with social status, which in evolutionary history has been connected with a man’s ability to provide food and other resources for a woman and also to keep life interesting. Unlike body measurements, symbols of a woman’s social status don’t appear to influence men. That is according to a 2010 study published in the British Journal of Psychology. But using a rating scale of 1-10, the same study found that cars reflecting different levels of status (luxury/sports car vs. ordinary car) did influence women’s perceptions of how attractive men are. So, while Tom Cruise may be clean-shaven with slightly lower than average stature, the fast cars–and by the way fast planes–associated with his characters, could help to offset the height and beard issue.

Moreover, on the height issue, the main criticism of the evolutionary findings is that correlations do not always imply that one factor caused the other. Unlike the way things probably were in the Stone Age, the mate selection process in our culture usually drags out over a long time, and other factors come into play that can overshadow one’s initial impulse. But as for first impressions, considering the height factor, voice issues, and of course the fancy cars, James Bond actually does seem as if he would score high an an attraction test given to females.

David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician and science writer. Follow @CosmicEvolution to read what he is saying on Twitter.

 

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