Why men are more likely to be dazzled by beauty

MEN are more blinded by beauty than women, a study has confirmed.

Scientists conducted research to see if both sexes judged people to be more trustworthy based on whether they had attractive facial features.

Experts presented 47 heterosexual men and 46 heterosexual women with portraits of people of the opposite sex, asking if they would trust them with their money.

They were asked to consider the risk that the person in the picture might choose to keep the money instead of giving it back.

The images showed a range of faces for both sexes, from physically attractive to threatening-looking and a mixture of the two. Both sexes trusted their money to good-looking people more often than they did to those with hostile faces.

But women trusted attractive-threatening-looking men significantly less than men trusted attractive-threatening-looking women.

Dr Johanna Brustkern said: “This suggests that a woman’s very attractive face can compensate for her threatening appearance, at least in the eyes of heterosexual men. Women, on the

‘The findings suggest that men and women prioritise attractiveness and threat differently’

other hand, are less likely to be blinded by an attractive man.”

The scientists say that “findings suggest that men and women prioritise attractiveness and threat differentially, with women paying relatively more attention to threat cues inversely signalling parental investment than to attractiveness cues signalling reproductive fitness.” The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.