Study: Women more attracted to strong men with broad shoulders

Women are more attracted to strong looking men with broad shoulders and big muscles, researchers have said.

According to the study, men’s upper body strength accounts for 70 percent of attractiveness to women.

Despite women’s preference for stronger looking bodies, they did not always prefer stronger looking faces, the study said.

Published by Griffith University in Australia, the study surveyed 150 women and asked them to rate men’s attractiveness based on a series of photographs.

The researchers found that it was possible to accurately predict how attractive a man’s body would appear to women from three main features-physical strength, height and how lean the subject was.

They noted that out of the three categories, physical strength was by far the most important, with all 150 women in the study unattracted to photographs of weak looking men.

“Among our ancestors, one variable that predicted both a man’s genetic quality and his ability to invest resources in the woman and her offspring, was the man’s formidability,” said Aaron Sell, study author.

“Therefore, modern women should still have mate choice mechanisms that respond to cues of a man’s fighting ability.

“One crucial component of a man’s ability to fight was his upper body strength.

“The rated strength of a male body accounts for a full 70 percent of the variance in attractiveness.

“The effect of height and weight on attractiveness may indicate that women are responding to cues of health or to the benefits that height and lean bodies have in protracted aggression, hunting and other aspects of fighting ability.”