Posts

Earning potential

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Size matters. Well, as far as it relates to a man's nest egg. Before you get to thinking that that's some sort of lewd euphemism, we'll explain. When polled by Men's Health, one in five women cited a man's career successes as one of the top practical skills a partner could possess. There's no doubt about it: a man's earning potential is something many women find attractive.  Weighing a man's ability to be a good provider so heavily may seem a bit stereotypical and even archaic, but in most households in the United States, men are still the higher-earners and, whether it's cause or effect, Americans — both men and women — continue to place a higher value on a man's earning potential. A survey by Pew Research Center found nearly seven in 10 adults claim "it is very important for a man to be able to support a family financially to be a good husband or partner."

Humor still reigns supreme

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Finding a partner who can make you laugh is undoubtedly significant to many. But, with all of the other traits women are looking for in a potential partner, does humor get crowded out or thought of a less important? Nope, it's still very much an attractive quality.  One study (via Psychology Today) found that women were three times more likely to hand off their phone numbers to a man who told jokes compared to a man who didn't. The funnyman was also thought to not only be more attractive, but also more sociable, smarter, and, of course, funnier.  Another study of 200 female and 200 male university students further found that humor is often viewed as an indicator of intelligence and creativity. As with many of the traits women find attractive, the reason for finding humor desirable in a member of the opposite sex involves more than just needing a good laugh.

The art of storytelling

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We all know someone who just drones on and on while telling a story and never quite gets to the point. Now imagine, if you will, being in a committed relationship and living with that person? Yikes. You've probably never thought of the art of storytelling as an attractive quality, but you've definitely noticed how unpleasant bad storytelling can be. A three-part study conducted in 2016 examined how a person's storytelling ability influences attractiveness. The participants in the first study were told about their potential partner's storytelling ability while the participants in the second study read either a poorly- or well-told story under the guise that it was written by their potential partner. As a result, "women's attractiveness assessments of men as a long-term date increased for good storytellers."  The reason for these results might be found in the third study. That one highlighted that the art of storytelling seems to reflect a higher social stat...

Fatherliness steals hearts

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If married or otherwise attached men are more attractive to women because they seem like they'd make better fathers, it makes sense that'd we'd also be into the trait of fatherliness. According to the polls conducted by Men's Health, this quality was actually ranked as the fifth most desired character trait. In facts and figures, this means that 51 percent of the women surveyed found the ability to be a good dad attractive.  This trait doesn't mean a man has to have kids currently, just that he has the potential to be a good dad. Of course, already having kids wouldn't exactly be a turn-off for many women. New York Post reported that one of the latest trends in romance novels is none other than single fathers. Lilia Kanna, head of international and series publishing at Harlequin Australia, explained that "single dads have a nurturing and caring element that is very appealing." A study by Zoosk (via New York Post), echoed this sentiment with stats. Citi...

The "wedding ring effect"

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We, as women, may have a soft spot for kind men, but that doesn't mean every trait we find attractive is as admirable. The Department of Psychology at Oklahoma State University published some interesting findings after performing a study about "mate poaching." According to Independent, a whopping 90 percent of single women who participated in the study displayed interest in a man when they were under the impression that he was in a relationship. Contrast that to the mere 59 percent of single women who found the same man attractive when informed he was single and, wow, that's a big deal. This phenomenon is often called the "wedding ring effect." Another study has contested these findings, but a report published in 2018 showed that women do indeed appear to copy other women's preferences for male attractiveness. Why? Science doesn't seem to have the answer to that nailed down just yet, but Independent reported that it could be because a married man is ...

Move over bad boys, kindness is where it's at

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We're not here to say bad boys are unattractive. Their appeal can certainly not be contested. But, is the Rebel Without a Cause persona really what women want? As it turns out, no. Men's Health used two surveys to collect data from over 1,000 American women aged 21 to 54 — all in an effort to figure out just what it is we as women are attracted to. While the first two traits women found attractive — faithfulness and dependability — are not very shocking, the third most-selected trait is, perhaps, a different story. Kindness is a turn-on according to 67 percent of the women who participated in the surveys. Why? "Because kindness inspires confidence," Men's Health explained. It may have been cute to tease us in middle school and feign toughness in high school, but it seems that gets old pretty fast. So fellas, if you're reading this, just be kind.

Having a girl squad

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If you're interested in someone, you undoubtedly want him and your friends to get along. Surprisingly, your friends may have been what endeared your man to you in the first place. It sounds odd, but this phenomenon is called "the cheerleader effect." And if that sounds like it's something Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother would say, it's because he has. Nevertheless, this theory is rooted in truth. Science has proven that "a group's physical attractiveness is greater than the average attractiveness of its members." It's strange, but this may be because of how our brains decipher visual input. George Alvarez, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, explained that we as humans can only process a "handful of objects at once." Our brains make do with this limitation by paying attention to the "most relevant incoming information" and grouping details. Yes, even cheerleaders it would seem.