Microbes and masculinity: Does exposure to pathogenic cues alter women’s preferences for male facial masculinity and beardedness?

Abstract

Women’s preferences for men’s androgen dependent secondary sexual traits are proposed to be phenotypically plastic in response to exposure to pathogens and pathogen disgust. While previous studies report that masculinity in facial shape is more attractive to women who have recently been exposed to pathogenic cues and who are high in self-reported pathogen disgust, facial hair may reduce male attractiveness under conditions of high pathogens as beards are a possible breeding ground for disease carrying ectoparasites. In the present study, we test whether women’s preferences for beardedness and facial masculinity vary due to exposure to different pathogenic cues. Participants (N = 688, mean age + 1SD = 31.94 years, SD = 6.69, range = 18–67) rated the attractiveness of facial composite stimuli of men when they were clean-shaven or fully bearded. These stimuli were also manipulated in order to vary sexual dimorphism by ±50%. Ratings were conducted before and after exposure to one of four experimental treatments in which participants were primed to either high pathogens (e.g. infected cuts), ectoparasites (e.g. body lice), a mixture of pathogens and ectoparasites, or a control condition (e.g. innocuous liquids). Participants then completed the three-domain disgust scale measuring attitudes to moral, sexual and pathogen disgust. We predicted that women would prefer facial masculinity following exposure to pathogenic cues, but would show reduced preferences for facial hair following exposure to ectoparasites. Women preferred full beards over clean-shaven faces and masculinised over feminised faces. However, none of the experimental treatments influenced the direction of preferences for facial masculinity or beardedness. We also found no association between women’s self-reported pathogen disgust and their preferences for facial masculinity. However, there was a weak positive association between moral disgust scores and preferences for facial masculinity, which might reflect conservatism and preferences for gender typicality in faces. Women’s preferences for beards were positively associated with their pathogen disgust, which runs contrary to our predictions and may reflect preferences for high quality individuals who can withstand any costs of beardedness, although further replications are necessary before firm conclusions can be made. We conclude that there is little support for pathogenic exposure being a mechanism that underpins women’s directional preferences for masculine traits.

A multivariate analysis of women's mating strategies and sexual selection on men's facial morphology

“…With regards individual differences in women's attractiveness judgements of male facial hair, the ectoparasite avoidance hypothesis posits that reduced hirsutism evolved, in part, via mate choice as body hair may harbour disease-carrying ectoparasites. [86]. Hypothesis 4 tested whether women's preferences for beardedness were negatively associated with their disgust ratings of ectoparasites [86].…”

“…[86]. Hypothesis 4 tested whether women's preferences for beardedness were negatively associated with their disgust ratings of ectoparasites [86]. Alternatively, the parasite-stress handicap hypotheses suggest that sexually selected traits are costly to maintain and only higher-quality males may be able to withstand their detrimental effects on health [75].…”

“…Alternatively, the parasite-stress handicap hypotheses suggest that sexually selected traits are costly to maintain and only higher-quality males may be able to withstand their detrimental effects on health [75]. Hypothesis 5 tested whether women reporting higher pathogen disgust stated higher preferences for facial hair than women reporting lower pathogen disgust [86]. In contrast to women's preferences for facial masculinity, women report stronger preferences for facial hair than clean-shaveness when judging long-term than short-term relationships and parenting skills [25, 26,39,49].…”

“…However, neither viewing photographic stimuli depicting diseases, illness and pathogens or responses to questionnaires measuring women's sensitivity to pathogens were linked to variation in women's attractiveness judgments of hair on the upper chest and abdomen in men [103,104]. Similarly, the attractiveness of facial hair was unchanged because of seeing images of pathogens or ectoparasites, although a positive relationship between disgust for pathogens and attractiveness ratings of beards was reported [86]. Whether or not this association between pathogen disgust and women's preferences for men's beardedness replicates remains to be determined.…”

Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses Regarding Individual Differences in Human Mating Strategies

“…J. W. Dixson, Sulikowski, Gouda-Vossos, Rantala, & Brooks, 2016;Valentova, Varella, Bártová, Štěrbová, & Dixson, 2017). Moreover, my colleagues and I recently failed to replicate any effect of pathogen priming on facial masculinity and facial hair preferences (McIntosh et al, 2017). As explored above, section 3 also failed to find consistent effects of testosteronedependent traits on female orgasm, though these traits were not measured directly.…”