The Weird Thing Women Actually Notice First About A Guy's Face, According To Research

What is it that catches a woman's eye?

Last updated on Jul 13, 2023

Man covering his face Yulia Cherry/ Shutterstock
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As we've mentioned before, men are pretty simple beings when it comes to sizing up who they are attracted to. Some people even narrow a sexual decision happening in as little as ten seconds — a simple once over, yay/nay, and then off to a fantasy football draft.

Us ladies? Blame it on feminine intuition or inherent pickiness, but a study proves that women are multi-layered when deciding aesthetic attractiveness. It is a two-step process, which makes us a bit more complex, and we also know how to keep it in our pants and not go drooling after the first pretty thing that we see.

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The weird thing women actually notice first about a guy's face, according to research

RELATED: 8 Things Women Only Do With Men They Love, According To Psychology

In a 2009 study in an issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, a group of researchers sought to analyze what exactly goes on in our pretty little heads when deciding whom we're most attracted to and why.

The researchers rounded up 50 heterosexual women and showed them pictures of both men and women. Each woman had to rate on a scale from 1 to 7 as to whether they saw each man as a future date or each man or woman as a future lab partner.

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Lab partner? Well, we guess that's a scientist's version of "just a friend." 

RELATED: 7 Signs You Have Ridiculously Good Chemistry With A Guy, According To Psychology

Anyway, the article says "date" and lab partner" were meant to weed out attraction from aesthetic appeal. They theorized women would be more likely to want to splice embryos with someone they find good-looking but not necessarily hot or alluring.

woman noticing guys face iona didishvili / Shutterstock

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After the results were tallied, the scientists then took the same headshots and split the faces horizontally, shifting both parts away from each other so that the feature was no longer aligned. The scientists then asked the same question — date or lab partner? — to a new group to see if the halved faces had any effect. Would women be less likely to be attracted to split faces?

On the contrary. Instead, they found the dateable pile (i.e. attractive for whatever reason — square jaw, rugged stubble, etc.) was pretty stable. As were any results with the female pictures.

RELATED: 5 Little Things Women Notice About Men Right Away

However, there were some discrepancies with the ladies when deciding who they wanted to see in a lab coat. The split images really affected who they trusted with their beakers.

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The scientists concluded that women are drawn to attractive faces regardless of whether the disjoined square jaw or sweltering eyes are in the wrong place. Yet women need the entire face before truly trusting

Or as they say, women use and can separate "two ways of assessing facial appeal." Complex creatures, we are indeed.

RELATED: 16 Things Women Want And Look For In A Man

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Melissa Noble is a love & relationships writer and editor from New York. Her work has been featured across the web, as well as New York Magazine and OK! Magazine.

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