Jüngere Frauen finden Männer mit Bart weniger attraktiv als ältere Frauen. Die Forschung zeigt, dass Frauen nach der Menopause bestimmte männliche Merkmale wie Körperform und Gesichtszüge anders wahrnehmen als Frauen, die sich noch im gebärfähigen Alter befinden.
Younger women find men with beards less attractive than older women do
23 Kommentare
>A new study published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology [suggests](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-025-00272-7) that a woman’s age and reproductive status may influence her preferences for male physical traits. The research indicates that postmenopausal women perceive certain masculine characteristics, such as body shape and facial features, differently than women who are still in their reproductive years. These findings offer evidence that biological shifts associated with menopause might alter the criteria women use to evaluate potential partners.
>Scientists have recognized that physical features act as powerful biological signals in human communication. Secondary sexual characteristics are traits that appear during puberty and visually distinguish men from women. These include features such as broad shoulders, facial hair, jawline definition, and muscle mass.
>Evolutionary psychology suggests that these traits serve as indicators of health and genetic quality. For instance, a muscular physique or a strong jawline often signals high testosterone levels and physical strength. Women of reproductive age typically prioritize these markers because they imply that a potential partner possesses “good genes” that could be passed to offspring.
>However, researchers have historically focused most of their attention on the preferences of young women. Less is known about how these preferences might change as women age and lose their reproductive capability. The biological transition of menopause involves significant hormonal changes, including a decrease in estrogen levels.
>This hormonal shift may correspond to a change in mating strategies. The “Grandmother Hypothesis” proposes that older women shift their focus from reproduction to investing in their existing family line. Consequently, they may no longer prioritize high-testosterone traits, which can be associated with aggression or short-term mating.
how much of this is just older people liking different things? like facial hair trends up and down in 30 year cycles.
Loved men with beards before _and_ after perimenopause.
Did they address generational cultural preferences? This conclusion only works if they follow it through several generations. Like maybe the older generation *always* preferred facial hair.
Younger women seem to love my beard and my mom/aunt kept telling me it was ugly and I should remove it.
I strongly suspect this study was written by my aunt.
Absolutely wild that men with full moustaches were considered the most attractive by young and older women.
I figured they would be the least attractive.
Im pretty old and I hate beards. Io don’t get it at all.
Older women have learned that a decent length beard is called a Taint Tickler 9000! Exfoliate the thighs, sop up the gravy, and tickle away!
Beards are usually just hiding a fatty triple chin or some weird ass jawline/negative chin. Every dude I know that flaunts their „alpha man“ beard is just hiding something underneath it. Buddy of mine hides his horrendous teeth behind a thick beard and mustache. Nothing wrong with that, hey if you can grow an impressive beard to hide an undesirable facial feature, more power to ya.
So younger people like younger people and older people like older people. Got it.
As a 41 year old woman, I can’t bring myself to date a man with a beard. It’s a complete turnoff for me.
I wonder how much this has to do with women preferring the opposite of what they grew up with?
My 50F wife really likes it when I shave.
A sample size of 122 women, all Polish in an online survey. Doesn’t seem to be very robust.
Women just HATE that guy with the beard. He’s such a jerk. And why is talking to those girls over there? Are they laughing? What a cad! Boo! Hiss! How dare he give them the best sex of their lives!
A pox upon him!
Oh crap he’s coming this way. Is my hair ok? Hiiiii.
funny…i found that after menopause i could not give less fucks about any men at all.
That’s because post menopausal women stop taking birth control and birth control has been shown to cause women to favor more feminine characteristics in men (hairless, softer features etc).
This changes too quickly to be reliably consistent. Rewind back 13 years ago and beards were preferred.
Beard can sort of function as a type of „make-up“ for men. Large beards help hide middle aged men’s dad bod features like fatter necks, wrinkles, and probably help de-emphasize various other weight related visuals like pot bellies. And older women are going to generally be mixing with older men, so the bearded ones are going to seem more attractive than the middle aged men with cleanly shaved, highly visible double chins, huge guts, etc.
Most hated study ever, according to these comments
My wife is forever young then because she has always hated any facial hair
Okay being an older woman dating men my age.. yeah the beard can look a lot better. Older men start to lose their strong jawline when they age.. the beard gives the impression they still have it!
I don’t know a woman of any age who doesn’t appreciate the V. I might be projecting, though.
I dunno man this study seems pretty garbage TBH.
„The women assessed warp-modified photographs of a man in which the prominence of his secondary sexual characteristics was altered in three areas of evaluation: physical attractiveness, degree of aggression and social dominance. The material consisted of 122 Polish women, aged 19–70 years (mean age: 45.6 y., SD = 15.1 y.),“
So they showed 122 women (thats a small sample) 1 man who was 22 years old…..