Happy Guys Finish Last, Says New Study on Sexual Attractiveness

Women are more attracted to swaggering brooding men, than happy smiling guys. Happy guys finish last; this is according a to new study at the University of British Columbia.

The study set out to explore the first impressions of sexual attraction; the gut “carnal” reaction. More than a 1000 adult participants of both genders were asked to rate the sexual attractiveness of images of those of the opposite sex, which showed them engaged in the universal displays of happiness: broad smiles, pride (raised heads, puffed-up chests) and shame (lowered heads, averted eyes).

“While showing a happy face is considered essential to friendly social interactions, including those involving sexual attraction – few studies have actually examined whether a smile is, in fact, attractive,” says Prof. Jessica Tracy of UBC’s Dept. of Psychology. “This study finds that men and women respond very differently to displays of emotion, including smiles.”

As it turned out women preferred those who looked proud, powerful or moody and ashamed over smiling, happy men. On the other hand, men were sexually attracted to women who looked happy, more so than women who looked proud and confident.

Keep in mind this is just first impressions, initial sexual attraction. It’s not necessarily about choosing a lifetime partner.

“It is important to remember that this study explored first-impressions of sexual attraction to images of the opposite sex,” says Alec Beall, a UBC psychology graduate student and study co-author. “We were not asking participants if they thought these targets would make a good boyfriend or wife – we wanted their gut reactions on carnal, sexual attraction.” He says previous studies have found positive emotional traits and a nice personality to be highly desirable in a relationship partners.

The general findings: “Overall, the researchers found that men ranked women more attractive than women ranked men.”

So women keep smiling and happy smiling men, you might want to tone it down to a nonchalant proud swagger- chest up!