Reproductive strategies may predict women's preferences for male facial masculinity

Abstract

According to life history theory, individuals face a fundamental trade-off between mating and parenting effort in terms of reproductive strategies. Partner selection is instrumental for the implementation of reproductive strategies. Male masculine facial features serve as honest cues of good mate quality while feminine facial features serve as cues of good investment in offspring. To further investigate the influence of reproductive strategies on women's preference for male facial masculinity, we recruited 223 women to select the most attractive face out of two sexually dimorphic male faces and applied age at menarche, sexual debut, and mating and parenting effort as indicators of reproductive and mating strategies on the Internet. The results showed that early age at menarche and mating effort were significantly positively associated with women's preference for masculine faces. However, there were no associations between age at sexual debut, or parenting effort and women's preference for male masculine faces. These findings might indicate that reproductive and mating strategies are reliable indicators of women's preference for masculine male faces.