Scientists prove that women really do prefer muscular men

OLD rules still apply in the mating game - fit men with strong, lean bodies will always win out over those who are wimpy and weak, a study has found.

Just as is the case with most other mammals, the female of the human species is most attracted to the muscular male.

Scientists showed a group of 160 women photographs of shirtless men and asked to give them an attractiveness rating.

Estimated physical strength was far and away the biggest factor determining how attractive a man was seen to be.

On its own, this accounted for more than 70% of men’s bodily attractiveness. The figure increased to 80% when tallness and leanness were also factored in.

Not one of the women showed a “statistically significant preference for weaker men”, said the Australian researchers.

Ancient influences involving the survival benefits of being with a healthy man who can hunt and fight are likely to account for the findings, they believe.

The team, led by Dr Aaron Sell, from Griffith University in Queensland, wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: “The results show that most male bodily attractiveness stems from cues of formidability and physical strength, and that strength increases attractiveness in a linear fashion.

“This effect of height and weight on attractiveness may be due to mate choice mechanisms responding to cues of health, or to the benefits that height and lean bodies have in protracted aggression and hunting.”