A man's likelihood to cheat on his partner may be determined based on how masculine his face shape appears to be, a new study says.
Researchers in Australia have discovered a potential connection between men's face shapes and their chances of being unfaithful to their life partners.
Men who have more masculine facial features are often considered to be more promiscuous compared to others. These individuals are also more likely to be involved in "poaching" the partners of other men.
However, the study did not find any similar correlation between women and their face shapes.
Face Shape Of Cheating Men
Dr. Yong Zhi Foo, a researcher from the University of Western Australia, joined his colleagues in investigating the association between people's face shapes and their tendency to cheat on their partners.
For experiment, the team asked more than 700 heterosexual white men and women to judge the facial features of other people. The respondents were shown images of individuals who had also participated in earlier study.
Of this number, 472 women and 293 men examined photographs of women, while 452 women and 299 men examined pictures of men. They rated the images based on a scale of one to 10, depending on how likely they thought the subjects were to cheat on their partners
The people on the images had already been surveyed about the extent of cheating they have done, and whether they had ever poached or taken another person's partner while doing so.
Their facial features were judged according to how masculine the men and how feminine the women looked. They were also rated based on how attractive and untrustworthy their faces appeared.
Photographs of men who self-reported of cheating or poaching had higher unfaithfulness scores from both male and female respondents.
This suggests that perceived unfaithfulness may offer clues to the likelihood of some men to cheat, according to the researchers.
Meanwhile, the team did not find any such effect involving the photographs of women.
Foo and his colleagues examined the facial features of men who were believed to be unfaithful by the respondents. They found that the perception may have something to do with how masculine the individuals' faces looked like.
Cases of self-reported unfaithfulness may also be linked facial masculinity, though the physical trait did not necessarily predict such an outcome in men.
Despite these results, the researchers clarified that there are other factors that could help determine whether a person is unfaithful or not.
They said the actual unfaithfulness of subjects varied in the photographs that were shown to the respondents. The average perceived unfaithfulness accounted for 4 to 8 percent of the variation that they observed in the results.
No Link Between Women's Facial Features And Unfaithfulness
Foo and his team were surprised to find that respondents only saw unfaithfulness and poaching of partners in the faces of men.
Several factors may have dictated this result such as a lower likelihood of women to cheat on their partners compared to men. This may also be influenced by women's wearing of cosmetics, which could hide potential links between their facial features and their behavior.
The researchers believe more studies should be done to explore this association even further, including one with a larger number of photographed subjects.
The findings of the University of Western Australia study are featured in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
