What is the most attractive trait in a man?

According to a recent study, women find the most attractive trait in a man to be his strength. The stronger your upper body appears (chest, biceps, necks, shoulders) the more attractive woman will find you.  When women were asked to judge photos of men, “strength” was rated the most attractive trait over height and leanness.

If you’re overweight don’t sweat it. Appearing strong can help mask being chubby. I covered how you can appear stronger in your photos using a sneaky trick in a previous blog post, How To Be More Physically Attractive To Women With One Photo.

Why Women Prefer Stronger Men

Blame evolution and women’s ancestors. Women would choose their “mates” based on the man’s ability to “provide” and “protect” her and her children.

A muscular body signals strength and a healthy immune system. Strength also represents one’s ability to fight, hunt and protect and secure resources for survival.

A man’s physical strength is a clue to women about his genetic quality and has a direct impact on a woman’s decision to choose him as a mate.

Study Analyzed What Trait Women Find Most Attractive In Men

Two studies were conducted where women rated the physical attractiveness of men in photos.  The men in the photos were young college students whose faces were hidden.  Two sets of photos where used where one set included both front and side views and the other set had only front views (see below).

The women who rated the photos were student volunteers from Griffith University in Australia and Oklahoma State University.  The women were instructed to rate either “physical attractiveness” or “physical strength” of the men.

The men were rated on a scale of “1 to 7”.  For “physical strength” the men in the photos were rated on a scale from “1= very weak” to “7 = very strong”.  For attractiveness, women rated men from “1 = very unattractive” to “7 = very attractive”.

What The Study Found

The study discovered women were good at guessing men’s strength.  The women’s perceptions of the strength of the men in the photos were very close with the men’s actual strength.

When comparing strength, tallness, and being lean, strength was found to be the most attractive trait in a man.  Being tall gave men a small boost of a few percentage points while being overweight resulted in negative points.

Other findings of the study:

• • Ratings of strength are a robust and much larger predictor of attractiveness than either height or weight.
  • Height is attractive even independent of making a man look strong.
  • Weight is unattractive after controlling for how strong a man looks.
  • Height, weight, and ratings of strength collectively account for approximately 80% of the variance in male bodily attractiveness.

In a nutshell, women put a high value on a man’s strength and were good at selecting the men who were actually the strongest in the photos.

Final Thoughts

You can make yourself more attractive to women by simply getting into shape. Women find muscle mass an attractive quality in men. That should motivate you to get to the gym and start lifting weights, right?

However, if you’re average or overweight it’s OK. You don’t have to be ripped and muscular to pull women in. You can make yourself appear stronger in your photos by simply doing this; when you take photos stand tall and squeeze your butt. Your chest will stand out and you’ll appear more in shape.

Whatever you do, don’t sit down. It will expose your belly more.  The right type of clothing can also mask an average body.

In the end, you want to make yourself as appealing as you can with women so appearing stronger in your photos may just give you an edge on dating sites.