Apparently, being really, really ridiculously good-looking is not the most important thing as far as the ladies are concerned.
According to Evolutionary Psychology, it’s altruism not looking attractive that most impresses the ladies, so start thinking of other people ahead of yourself and you could meet with much reward.
Altruism, defined as the “unselfish regard for, or devotion to the welfare of others”, was found in the study to have a sizeable role in mate choice, particularly in women’s preferences and in long-term relationships.
Female participants in the study were presented with photographs of men of varying levels of physical attractiveness, alongside descriptions of them behaving either altruistically or not in different scenarios.
Just how altruistic the men were in these photographs we’re not entirely sure; for all we know they could have ranged from helping an old lady across the road to saving a child from a burning building with explosions going off in the background.
In any case, the results showed that women preferred altruistic men, particularly in long-term relationships and that “being both attractive and altruistic made a man more desirable than just the sum of the two desirable parts”. Right.
Interestingly, being altruistic made low attractive men more desirable, but only for long-term relationships and men who were “just altruistic” (and not necessarily attractive) were rated more desirable than those who were “just attractive” (and not necessarily altruistic).
There’s hope for all us all fellas. Who said that nice guys finish last?
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