Face or Body: What Men Are Really Interested In When Looking For A Long-Term Relationship

The dating game is full of twists and turns.  Men and women are rarely transparent about their intentions in the realm of casual sex.  While some find it unbearable to hook up and subsequently move on, others need to satisfy this impulse on a routine basis.  But that’s not just personal preference — it’s evolution.  Men and women have evolved to feel attraction based on reproductive possibilities.  And while it’s been a long while since humans had sex just for the end of producing offspring, the adaptive blueprint hasn’t worn off.  Scientific studies reveal that both men and women’s tastes change depending on the length of the relationship they’re looking for.  Here’s what you should know about sexual preferences and what they mean for a relationship.

How do your tastes change based on the relationship you want? Share your stories below!

What a man wants. Men looking for a short-term relationship are more interested in viewing a woman’s body, rather than her face, according to a study. On the other hand, men who want to settle down for the long-term focus more on a woman’s face. The reason behind it all? Evolution.

Show me the body. The researchers showed participants a concealed picture of someone they described as either a long-term or short-term partner. The participants could then choose to reveal either the face or the body. In the case of the short-term partner, 51 percent of male participants chose to see the body. But only 25 percent chose to see a potential long-term partner’s body.

Look me in the eyes. The female body and face give men different messages. Facial features signify youth and health, which are factors that determine long-term reproductive health. Is her skin smooth or wrinkled? A 16 year-old girl’s skin would reflect reproductive immaturity, while a 24 year-old would have peak fertility written all over it.

Let’s get close. The study found that men look for more than just reproductive health in a long-term partner. They also want a level of emotional intimacy with their partner. When a woman undergoes puberty, she starts to produce more estrogen. Men can detect this in women’s physical traits like larger eyes: signs of honesty and intimacy.

Body language. While a woman’s face carries the promise of long-term childbearing, her body signifies fertility at any given moment. A shapely female body lets a man know that she’s fertile, which is what men look for in a short-term relationship. A woman’s waist-to-hip ratio lets a man know if she can get pregnant, or if she’s already pregnant.

Monogamy confuses things. Because single-partner mating is a relatively new human practice, the face-body bias can seem particularly primal. But that’s because it is. Long ago, if a man was going to impregnate a woman, he wasn’t concerned with their long-term relationship. Nowadays, knocking someone up without commitment is a taboo.

Men are more aggressive around hot bodies. Women are at their most fertile in the five days leading up to ovulation. During this time, men can sense that the woman’s eggs are mature, and start to behave differently as a result. Many women report that men are more attentive and jealous during their ovulation. Men see other men as a threat during this time, so that they can protect their partner’s potential offspring.

Men aren’t the only ones who want a short fling. While women are able to have sex whenever they want, their motivations change around the time of ovulation. Outside of their ovulation cycle, women are more likely to have sex as a form of intimacy. But in the five days before ovulation, they will seek sex out of lust and pure desire.

Men don’t realize their own selectiveness. When a guy goes out with the intention of scoring casual sex, he’s not consciously aiming for bodies over faces, but he’ll probably notice that’s where his attention goes. Men are interested in a woman’s body even if they don’t want to get a girl pregnant.

Females like faces. Women were more interested in men’s face for both short- and long-term relationships. This has to do with male fertility not declining as quickly as female fertility. While many women are also attracted to muscular bodies, they prioritize the face if they’re going to enter into a relationship, no matter for how long.

Changing tastes. Women are more attracted to strong-jawed, muscular men during the most fertile part of their cycle. A strong chin and eyebrow are rated as highly masculine traits. This is because more masculine men would produce better, stronger offspring in an evolutionary sense. Outside of their ovulation period, however, women are more drawn to feminine men.

Fertile and loving it. There are many ways that men can sense fertility. Studies found that men will rate women’s scent as more attractive during her fertility. One study found that exotic dancers pulled in more tips when performing at their most fertile. Women are more likely to dress and act flirtatiously during this time.

Eyes up here. Women’s faces and voices change across their fertility cycle. A study found that changes in blood flow could alter the way a woman’s face looks during fertility. Most scientists believe that such changes are byproducts of fertility and not advertisers. Ironically, a woman’s face could tell just as much about her fertility as her body, but we all know what he’s looking at.

Cheater, cheater. Raised estrogen levels also make women more likely to cheat on their partners. Especially if they are in a relationship with a more feminine-looking man, their urge to stray will spike during ovulation. But their unfaithful tendencies will fall with the end of their cycle. Just be sure to brace yourself for that monthly wandering interest.

What about smarts? Studies show mixed results about the importance of intelligence in both short- and long-term relationships. They conclude that smart are relatively important for both men and women. So if neither your face nor your body are up to standard, then you might still have something going for you.