‘Men have genetic preference for pretty women’

Their survival instinct means they need to find out whether the man is committed,has a good personality and is a good provider,the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.

For their study,the researchers,led by Prof Mark van Vugt and Johanna van Hooff of the University of Amsterdam,and Helen Crawford of University of Kent,examined the human bias towards looks by conducting a series of tests on 40 people.

The subjects,20 women and 20 men,were hooked up to a machine which recorded brain activity and were then given a task to perform. While they’re doing the task they were shown a series of photographs of faces of the opposite sex,ranging from attractive to ugly.

Men were easily distracted when they saw a pretty face but women stuck to task,the study revealed.

Prof van Vugt,said that when men saw a face they were attracted to they made a snap judgment. “Men definitely have the most wandering eye but it is because they have evolved to pay attention to cues of fertility and one of those cues is facial beauty — it’s not that men are shallow.

“But we found they do make snap judgments about women much earlier than was previously thought. Of course men find a pretty face attractive but they make that decision on whether a woman would be a good mating partner in milliseconds.”

He added that the findings showed that men’s desire for beautiful women was part of evolution. “This is something very ancient and a way of helping men find the best mate to produce children,” he said.

He said women’s brain activity was not affected when they were shown pictures of men while doing a task. “Women are not distracted by attractive male faces as women need more proof of whether a man is a good mate. They make decision much later than men.”

The findings are to be published in the upcoming eiditon of the ‘Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience’ journal.