Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Women looking for a long-term relationship like men who like children - and they can tell which guys might be interested in becoming fathers just by looking at their faces.
Those are among the findings of a study of college students to be published today in a British scientific journal.
"This study suggests that women are picking up on facial cues that are perhaps related to paternal qualities," said James Roney, a psychologist and lead author of the study.
Experts said evolution has apparently programmed women to recognize men interested in propagating the species.
The study wasn't all bad news for men not interested in settling down. It found that women can look at men's faces and figure out which of them have the highest testosterone levels.
In the study, researchers examined at a group of 39 men. Each man was shown 10 pairs of pictures, one of an adult and the other of an infant, and asked to rate their preferences. Meanwhile, they were tested to determine testosterone levels.
Photographs of the men's faces were then shown to 29 women.
The study found women did well at rating men on their interest in babies.
Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
