Men feel other men look better with a beard, but women prefer men sporting nothing more than heavy stubble, according to Australian researchers.
Researchers from The University of New South Wales, Australia, quantified men and women's judgments of attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities for photographs of men who were clean-shaven, lightly or heavily stubbled and fully bearded.
They also tested the effect of the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptive use on women's ratings.
The results, reported in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, showed that women judged faces with heavy stubble as most attractive and heavy beards, light stubble and clean-shaven faces as similarly less attractive.
In contrast, men rated full beards and heavy stubble as most attractive, followed closely by clean-shaven and light stubble as least attractive.
Men and women rated full beards highest for parenting ability and healthiness. Masculinity ratings increased linearly as facial hair increased, and this effect was more pronounced in women in the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, although attractiveness ratings did not differ according to fertility.
The findings confirm that beardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring, the researchers concluded.
男人们觉得留胡子都会显得更帅气，然而澳大利亚的研究人员指出，女人其实更喜欢留着浓密短胡茬的男人。
来自澳大利亚新南威尔士大学的研究人员给出几种男人的照片：胡子刮得很干净的、留着淡淡胡茬的、留着浓密胡茬的和满脸大胡子的，让男人和女人从吸引力、健康水平、男子气概和育儿能力几个方面给照片中的男人作出评价，并对此进行量化研究。
他们还测试了月经周期和避孕药的使用对女性评分的影响。
这一发表在《进化与人类行为》期刊上的研究结果显示，女人认为脸上留着浓密胡茬的男人最有魅力，大胡子、淡淡胡茬和脸刮得很干净的男人都没那么有吸引力。
相比之下，男人认为大胡子和浓密胡茬最有魅力，其次是刮得很干净的脸，淡淡胡茬最缺少魅力。
男人和女人都认为大胡子男人的育儿能力和健康水平是最高的。男人脸上毛发越多，对其男子气概的评价也随之直线上升。处于排卵期的女性受这一影响最为显著，不过她们对男人魅力的评价并没有因为自己处于排卵期而有所变化。
研究人员得出结论说，这些研究结果证实，胡子多少会影响人们对男性的社会属性和性特征的判断，研究也指出，胡子不多不少是最有魅力的，而大胡子男人被认为是更好的父亲，有能力保护小孩，会为小孩投入更多。