Women can’t stand sickliness in long- term partner

Washington: Women looking for a long- term partner find sickliness incredibly offputting, a study has found. When it comes to the traits they find attractive, being tough in the face of illness is more important than a handsome face or even a good physique. Researchers from the University of Hawaii asked 86 women to rate men based on photographs and descriptions, including their attitude towards poor health. They saw one man photographed who “candidly admits that he catches almost every cold” and another who only admits to the “sniffles” or feeling a “bit off”. Another man stayed in bed all day with headaches, while a second ignored them. The results, published in the Journal of Evolutionary Medicine, show women looking for a longterm relationship chose a man who ignored illness, even if they had a worse face or body. The authors, led by Professor Susan Brown, from the University of Hawaii, wrote: “Participants preferred stoic men who worked even though they were experiencing health problems as longterm mates, disregarding the male's facial symmetry and physique.” The study suggests women prefer less wimpy men because of our hunter- gatherer human past. Then men were needed to help with childcare and hunt for food, instead of placing “an additional burden on their mates through malingering” . To test women's view of illness, researchers used the minor ailments of colds and flu, headaches and symptoms caused by volcanic air pollution in Hawaii. They showed them a slideshow of men at random, who also varied in facial appearance, body size and clothing. Pairs of men had competing views of illness, with one description stating: “He admits that he often wakes up with headaches.”