Women Lie About How They Choose A Partner According To A Study

Is a man’s personality truly more important than his looks?

How much do looks matter?

The fact that men pay enormous attention to the appearance of women is well known. You only have to look at the number of followers and likes of pretty women on Instagram and it becomes clear that the appearance of women counts in the dating game. In fact, it matters a lot.

Again and again, you hear women say “personality is more important than looks”.

Is that true? Do men truly place so much more value on the appearance of a potential partner than women?

A study reveals the answer.

The Study

Do women truly behave the way they say they do when it comes to choosing a partner?

A study conducted by Madeleine Fugere of Eastern Connecticut State University shows interesting results on the importance of a man’s appearance when looking for a partner.

In the study, young women (ages 15 to 29) were asked to select potential dates from a series of images of men who were also described in terms of character traits. The mothers of the young women (ages 37 to 61) were asked to select a potential boyfriend for their daughter from the same pictures of men with the named characteristics.

It became obvious that women do not choose partners according to the criteria they say.

Both daughters and their parents report valuing characteristics other than physical attractiveness most strongly (e.g., ambition/industriousness, friendliness/kindness).

But the reality looked different:

Women and their mothers were strongly influenced by the physical attractiveness of the target men and preferred the attractive and moderately attractive targets.

Men with the most desirable personality profiles were rated more favorably than their counterparts only when they were at least moderately attractive.

Unattractive men were never rated as more desirable partners for daughters, even when they possessed the most desirable trait profiles.

Minimum Level Of Physical Attractive

Even the best character traits could not increase the chances of a date with an unattractive appearance.

You could say that there is a certain benchmark a man has to meet for a woman to even consider character traits.

A minimum level of physical attractiveness that is needed to have a chance with women.

The Halo Effect

Maybe it’s a little unfair to say that women are lying when they say that they find their personality most important and then choose their dates mainly by looks.

The reason for this could be the halo effect.

The effect says that our overall impression of a person depends on a few particularly striking features (the appearance) and that we tend to transfer our perception and evaluation of these features to other, unknown characteristics, such as character traits.

Therefore, if you look good, good character traits are often attributed to you.

You could argue that women simply misjudge the importance of a man’s character traits, as livescience.com wrote:

However, the new findings, combined with previous research in which women have reported that personality is more important to them, suggest that women tend to underestimate the true importance they place on a man’s physical attractiveness, Fugère said.

Play The Cards You Have Been Dealt

It’s safe to say that looks do matter.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the best genes. Not everyone can look like Brad Pitt.

But even with average genes, you should definitely be able to exceed the aforementioned benchmark of appearance, if you are:

• in a good shape.
• well -groomed.
• well-dressed.

Thanks for reading!

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