Revealed: Why men are wowed by bushy eyebrows
IT’S a finding likely to raise plenty of eyebrows. Scientists say that women with thicker brows, such as model Cara Delevingne and actress Audrey Hepburn, are more attractive to men – especially those seeking a long-term partner.
The surprising result emerged from a study into how facial features are ranked for attractiveness.
Researchers at Oakland University in Michigan asked almost 1,000 men and women to rate a series of images, and the study’s senior author, Dr Lisa Welling, said: ‘Thicker eyebrows were preferred in female faces. It was an unexpected finding as previous research showed that thicker eyebrows are seen as more masculine and dominant.
‘It could be that relatively thicker eyebrows signal other qualities, such as a tendency towards more grooming.
‘It is also possible that this preference reflects current fashion trends. Whatever the associated trait, it seems to be particularly desirable in a long-term mating context, such as marriage.’
The emergence of Ms Delevingne as a top model in 2012 has been widely credited with sparking a return to the fashion for fuller eyebrows last seen in the 1980s.
Dr Justin Mogilski, co-author of the study published in the Frontiers In Psychology journal, said: ‘We expected that thicker eyebrows would be more attractive in a short-term relationship because dense hair indicates higher levels of circulating testosterone, which is associated with a more unrestricted socio-sexuality [a willingness to engage in sexual activity outside of a committed relationship].
‘We expect that what’s going on is that eyebrows indicate a more complex array of partner qualities than just a person’s sexual behaviour. Our data suggests that people are drawing more information from a person’s eyebrows than previously documented.’
One previous study claimed that plucked eyebrows signify a narcissistic personality but another linked thicker brows to being self-centred.