Women care about muscularity when choosing a sexual partner, so says a UCLA study detailed in Salon that found that women are more likely to turn to musclemen for trysts and average Joes for long term relationships or matrimony.
Researchers said women view muscle bound men as dominant and unpredictable, less muscle men as trust worthy and dependable. In the study, which will be published next month in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, USA Today reports that 61 percent of women said their short term relationships were with more muscular men.
On the one hand, muscles make men more sexy to women, on the other hand, it makes women more suspicious about their romantic intentions, says David Frederick, the study’s author. And there is some biological basis behind it. The article in Salon says that evolutionary scientists have long maintained that secondary sexual characteristics, such as large muscles in men, are cues to genes that increase the viability of offspring or their reproductive success.
I don’t really get it. Musclemen have never done it for me and I certainly don’t want little musclemen running around. I’ll take a trustworthy and dependable Average Joe any day and the one I have in my life is anything but average.
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Michele Capots has been writing for various newspapers and magazines for the last 10 years. Her favorite color is purple. Currently she works in public relations for Livingston Communications.