Bejleren kan ane den udkårnes seksuelle stemning blot ved dennes ansigtsudtryk. Det tyder ny forskning på.

Måske mindre overraskende fandt samme undersøgelse at unge mænd og unge kvinder leder efter præcist det modsatte, når de søger en partner. Det står der faktisk:

The Durham University-led study of 700 heterosexual participants also found that young men and women look for complete opposites when it comes to relationships with the other sex.

Det kræver vist en uddybning:

Men generally prefer women who they perceive are open to short-term sexual relationships whilst women are usually interested in men who appear to have potential to be long-term relationship material.

Nå, tilbage til ansigterne og signalfortolkningen.

The experiments found that the men and women taking part could generally judge from photographs who would be more interested in a short-term sexual relationship. In the first study sample of 153 participants, 72 per cent of people correctly identified the attitudes from photographs more than half of the time.

Man skal nok ikke vide sig alt for sikker.

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.

Fik du den. Hvis ikke så bliver det lige skåret ud i pap for mændene her:

Professor David Perrett from the University of St Andrews cautioned: “While faces do hold cues to sexual attitudes, men should not presume any kind of relationship is wanted from appearance alone since women’s choice is what matters. Indeed most women found promiscuous-looking guys unattractive for both short and long-term relationships”.

Why the dating game is taken at face value - Suitors can tell a young person's attitude to sexual relationships by the look on their face, according to new research which gives deeper insight into mate attractiveness. [Eureka Alert]