Women find a man with a beard to be more attractive. Skeptical? Just read the Twitter reactions to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new facial hair.
To be fair, though, Canada's leader gets pretty much the same response when clean-shaven.
A study published recently in the journal Royal Society Open Source found men with masculine faces or with a beard were deemed more attractive by women. Men with both were rated most attractive of all. This result applied regardless of whether women were looking for long-term or short-term relationships.
Before you chuck that razor, men, consider the kind of woman you want to attract. That's because the study also found that women who are squeamish about bugs, lice and parasites were more likely to find a man with a beard unattractive.
"This is likely to be the case for the majority of our evolutionary past," said Anthony Lee, of the University of Stirling, a co-author of the study. "In modern times, with increased grooming and overall better hygiene, this link between hairiness and carrying ectoparasites may no longer exist, but the evolved tendency may still persist."
For their study, researchers from the University of Queensland and the University of Stirling asked 919 predominantly heterosexual women to rate three male faces for both potential short- and long-term relationships.
The women viewed each face with and without a beard, and instructed to rate them on one of five levels of masculinity. In addition to beards, other facial features were altered, including the jawline and brows.
The women also completed a set of questionnaires that measured their attitudes toward parasites that live on the body. The higher a woman's revulsion to parasites, the lower her attraction to men with beards.
The researchers admit the study has limitations: All the male faces were of northern European ethnicity, and most of the women were white Americans.
The researchers did not say if the women knew about a study published last year showing a man's beard carries more germs than does a dog's fur.
