Culture

One Night Stand, or Long Haul? It's all in your Face.

by ScienceDave | April 9, 2008 at 08:38 am

958 views | 12 Recommendations | 6 comments

I, and many of my friends, always thought we could tell what was what (or at least, so I'm told).

A group of 700 heterosexual participants in Durham, England were shown images of the opposite sex, and asked how they perceived the individual in the image - sexually. The two images, composites of over 60 university students, were grouped into either "short sexual relationship" or "long term relationship" based on a previous, detailed questionnaire. The results:

Men prefer women who they perceive are interested in short-term sexual relationships
Women are interested in the very opposite: women were more interested in long term relationship"

But...

Women open to short-term sexual relationships were perceived as more attractive by men

Lead author Dr Lynda Boothroyd from Durham University’s Psychology Department said: “Our results suggest that although some people can judge the sexual strategy of others simply from looking at their face, people are not always sure about their judgements possibly because the cues are very subtle. Yet preferences for different types of face were actually quite strong.

“This shows that these initial impressions may be part of how we assess potential mates – or potential rivals – when we first meet them. These will then give way over time to more in depth knowledge of that person, as you get to know them better, and may change with age”.

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PEP

at 09:03 on April 9th, 2008

This is fun (and inadertently funny). And I quote: "Men prefer women who they perceive are interested in short-term sexual relationships." I, and most of my friends, could have told them that by the time we were 16 at least! ;}

I wish their report had more details on how/why a person's face is quickly evaluated as more open to casual short-term sex. The report they produced didn't make it clear if there was actual contact (hence body language) or just photos, and if all the photos are real or composites. They show 2 photos, one is marked as composite and as more likely to be interested in short-term sex, but don't explain what's in that face that leads to that deduction.

Thanks for a fun read!

ScienceDave

at 09:09 on April 9th, 2008

Ok, I downloaded the manuscript and had a brief read. Each participant was shown two images - each a composite of 60+ students that had been previously questioned about their sexual preference (i.e. short term, long term, etc.).

But you're right - it would be interested to know why they obtained these results (they were sketchy on this, saying, "researchers can not determine precisely why without further investigation"

PEP

at 09:25 on April 9th, 2008

Interesting! If they're only using composite photos, then does that affect validity? Would you or I react differently to an actual photo?

Plus, of course, photos aren't as "real" as in person.

heh heh...if they can't determine why without further research..then they need more money! ;}

Let's get a grant and we'll do a study with actual people and photos.

Jordan Yerman

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at 09:58 on April 9th, 2008

I agree that the composite photos could skew the results: composites are not the same as a whole image, which has a uniform expression or tone. Also, yeah, the "why" is the real point of curiosity for me.

Rob Peters

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at 14:07 on April 9th, 2008

Great article, thanks Dave. I think the last paragraph captures an important point:

“This shows that these initial impressions may be part of how we assess potential mates – or potential rivals – when we first meet them. These will then give way over time to more in depth knowledge of that person, as you get to know them better, and may change with age”.

First impressions quickly become irrelevant when you get to know someone, thankfully. Otherwise we'd all be in terrible relationships.