HoldsUp

Chris Williamson · 2026-08-06 · Chris Williamson (host), Macken Murphy, Steve Stewart-Williams, Rob Henderson

The New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

54 research-tied claims examined: 2 contradicted 2 overstated 5 context 26 supported 19 unverified

26

Supported by research

0:00:15Chris Williamson (host)supportedlow

A study at Northumbria University using motion capture on 30 male dancers converted into computer avatars found that women judged dancers as most attractive when they moved their head, neck, and torso the most while showing creative variation in movements and rhythm.

"According to a study by Northumbria University, the dancers women found most attractive were ones who moved their head, neck, and torso the most while also mixing up their moves creatively and showing more variation in rhythm. To test this, researchers used motion capture technology on 30 male dancers, turned their movements into computer avatars." (said at 0:00:15)

A 2011 study conducted by researchers at Northumbria University used 3D motion-capture technology to record 19 men dancing to a basic rhythm, mapped their movements onto featureless computer avatars, and had 39 women rate their dance quality. Biomechanical analysis revealed that the amplitude and variability of movements in the neck and trunk (torso), along with speed of movement of the right knee, were the key predictors of perceived dance quality. A subsequent 2013 study from the same laboratory tested 30 male dancers to examine cues of physical strength.

  • supports: Male dance moves that catch a woman's eye. (Biology letters 2011) · cited 79x in the literature
    "Nineteen males were recorded using the 'Vicon' motion-capture system while dancing to a basic rhythm; controlled stimuli in the form of avatars were then created in the form of 15 s video clips, and rated by 39 females for dance quality... Linear regression subsequently revealed that three movement measures were key predictors of dance quality; these were variability and amplitude of movements of the neck and trunk, and speed of movements of the right knee." (abstract, results, passage verified)
    pubmedfull study (doi)
0:18:15Rob Hendersonsupportedmoderate

Survey data shows that roughly 18% to 20% of men report having three or more sexual partners within the past year, a figure that has remained relatively unchanged since the year 2000.

"So when you look at the data, it looks like something like about maybe 18 to 20% of men report having three or more sexual partners within the past year. And that really hasn't changed since about the year of 2000, which is as far back as I could find data on this." (said at 0:18:15)

Nationally representative survey data from the US General Social Survey (GSS) examining sexual behavior between 2000 and 2018 among adults aged 18 to 44 years evaluated the annual number of sexual partners (categorized as 0, 1, 2, or ≥3 partners). While the proportion of sexually inactive young men increased significantly over this period (coinciding with drops in men reporting 1 partner), the proportion of men reporting 3 or more sexual partners in the past year remained relatively stable across the survey waves at roughly 15% to 20%.

0:18:33Rob Hendersonsupportedmoderate

In survey data on sexual behavior, the most common reported number of sexual partners in the past 12 months is one, followed by zero.

"The most common response to the question of how many partners have you had in the past 12 months is one followed by zero." (said at 0:18:33)

Nationally representative survey data on sexual behavior, such as the General Social Survey (GSS) in the United States, consistently demonstrate that the modal response to the number of sexual partners in the past 12 months is one, followed by zero. For example, analysis of GSS data from 2000 to 2018 shows that the vast majority of adults report exactly one sexual partner in the past year (e.g., over 70% among adults aged 25–34), with the second most prevalent category being zero partners (ranging from ~7% to ~31% depending on age group and time period), while reporting two or more partners is much less common.

0:32:00Macken Murphysupportedmoderate

For couples trying to conceive, cumulative fertility is approximately 85% after one year and rises into the 90s after two years.

"it's like 85% fertility for a couple for one year, then it jumps up to in the 90s after two years." (said at 0:32:00)

Published epidemiological and clinical data consistently demonstrate that among couples having regular intercourse and attempting to conceive, cumulative pregnancy rates reach approximately 80% to 85% (and up to ~90% with timed intercourse) after 12 months (one year). Of those who do not conceive in the first year, approximately half conceive in the second year, raising the cumulative pregnancy rate above 90% after two years.

0:35:53Macken Murphysupportedmoderate

Across seven major cross-cultural studies, five found an association between gender inequality and mate preferences for resources, all found age gap preferences decrease with lower gender inequality, and beauty preferences showed no change.

"There's been seven really, really big ones, and those have generally found that, I mean, in five out of the seven have found something there with regards to mate preferences for resources and gender inequality. All of the ones that checked age found that when gender inequality is lower, age mate preferences and age gaps get smaller. And then the beauty basically doesn't move." (said at 0:35:53)

Cross-cultural research on mate preferences across nations with varying levels of gender equality aligns with the speaker's summary. Major large-scale cross-cultural studies (e.g., reanalyses of Buss 1989 by Eagly & Wood 1999, Zentner & Mitura 2012, and replication efforts such as Walter et al. 2020 across 45 countries) have consistently found that as national gender equality increases, preferred age differences between partners shrink. In contrast, sex differences in preferences for physical attractiveness/beauty remain relatively stable and do not consistently attenuate with increasing gender equality, while findings regarding preferences for financial resources/earning capacity show mixed or moderate reductions in sex differences across datasets.

0:42:29Chris Williamson (host)supportedmoderate

Approximately 95% of people do not consume sufficient dietary fiber.

"95% of people don't get enough fiber" (said at 0:42:29)

National dietary survey data from the United States show that less than 5% of the population meets the recommended daily adequate intake for dietary fiber, meaning that approximately 95% of individuals fail to consume sufficient amounts.

0:45:12Macken Murphysupportedmoderate

When men are primed with scarcity, such as acute hunger, poverty, or local famine, their preferences shift toward larger women.

"when men are primed with scarcity, such as when they're hungry or when they're acutely poor or whether when there's local famine, they shift to preferring larger women" (said at 0:45:12)

Experimental and cross-cultural studies support the claim. In laboratory experiments manipulating situational resource scarcity (e.g., operationalized via acute hunger or financial dissatisfaction), men who were hungry or primed with financial scarcity preferred female figures with higher body weight and rated heavier women as more attractive compared to satiated or financially secure men.

0:48:14Macken Murphysupportedhigh

Acute starvation causes women to become infertile.

"also we know that when women are acutely starving, they become infertile, right?" (said at 0:48:14)

Acute starvation or severe low energy availability suppresses the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis in women. In response to severe energy deficits or starvation, the body downregulates gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulsatility and luteinizing hormone secretion, leading to anovulation and functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (infertility) as a reversible energy-conserving adaptation.

0:49:40Macken Murphysupportedmoderate

Studies comparing men entering versus exiting a dining hall found that hungry men show a small shift toward preferring heavier women.

"Like I believe the dining hall study, for example, which has been replicated, it is pretty cool, where it's men going into a dining hall versus coming out... It was a small shift. Like it wasn't like they were preferring completely different-looking women." (said at 0:49:40)

Published experimental and field studies support the claim. Nelson and Morrison (2005) originally demonstrated that hungry men entering versus exiting a dining hall showed a preference for heavier romantic partners. Swami and Tovée (2006) successfully replicated these findings by testing male college students before and after entering a dining hall, demonstrating that hungry men rated heavier female body figures as significantly more attractive and shifted toward a preference for higher body weight compared to satiated men.

0:54:25Chris Williamson (host)supportedmoderate

Women's feet permanently or temporarily enlarge during pregnancy and childbirth.

"I didn't realize that women's feet grow like when they have kids like women's feet get bigger which is why there's a preference for smaller feet." (said at 0:54:25)

Prospective longitudinal studies demonstrate that pregnancy often causes structural changes in the feet, including arch flattening and measurable increases in foot length and width. These changes frequently persist postpartum, particularly after a woman's first pregnancy, due to increased body mass and joint laxity.

0:58:16Macken Murphysupportedlow

Higher-income women have stronger overall mate preferences across multiple traits, including physical attractiveness, compared to lower-income women.

"richer women have stronger mate preferences in general. Like in Koyama's research, in Lu's research, they want hotter guys, too." (said at 0:58:16)

Evolutionary psychology literature demonstrates that women with higher socioeconomic resources or who are experimentally primed to feel wealthier exhibit elevated mate preferences across multiple traits, including an increased preference for and approach tendency toward physically attractive partners. For example, experimental work by Lu and colleagues found that both men and women primed to feel financially abundant exhibited a greater behavioral approach tendency toward attractive members of the opposite sex. Furthermore, cross-sectional survey research shows that as female resource control increases, women place greater value on physical attractiveness relative to financial prospects, eliminating traditional sex differences in attractiveness valuation.

0:33:40Rob Hendersonsupportedhigh

Most adults report having had zero or one sexual partner in the past 12 months, with only a small minority reporting three or more partners.

"most people say in the past 12 months they've had sex with one person or zero people, and that a small number of people, I don't know what the number exactly was up there, three or more times. It was a small fragment of people who say that they've had sex, or rather well have sex, have had three or more sexual partners in the past year" (said at 0:33:40)

Nationally representative survey data from the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS) and related population surveys demonstrate that the vast majority of adults report having zero or one sexual partner in the past 12 months, with only a small minority reporting multiple (e.g., three or more) partners. For instance, analyses of the GSS show that across age groups, the majority of adults report either having 1 partner (e.g., 72.7%–79.6% of women aged 25–34) or being sexually inactive in the past year (ranging up to 30.9% among young men).

  • supports: Trends in Frequency of Sexual Activity and Number of Sexual Partners Among Adults Aged 18 … (JAMA Network Open 2020) · cited 189x in the literature
    "The increase in sexual inactivity coincided with decreases in the proportion reporting weekly or more sexual frequency (men aged 18-24 years: 51.8% vs. 37.4%; aOR for trend, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.79-0.99]; men aged 25-34 years: 65.3% vs 50.3%; aOR for trend, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.81-0.94]; women aged 25-34 years: 66.4% vs. 54.2%; aOR for trend, 0.90 [95% CI, 0.84-0.96]) or 1 sexual partner (men aged 18-24 years: 44.2% vs. 30.0%; aOR for trend, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.80-0.98]; women aged 25-34 years: 79.6% vs 72.7%; aOR for trend, 0.91 [95% CI, 0.84-0.99])" (abstract, results, passage verified)
    openalexfull study (doi)
0:51:10Macken Murphysupportedmoderate

In certain cultures, such as in Mauritania, women before marriage undergo intentional fattening practices by restricting movement and increasing caloric intake to enhance attractiveness.

"this is something that's seen in some cultures where women before marriage will restrict their movement and increase their caloric intake uh in order to... I think it was Mauritania but I'm not sure where it was them talking about how and I really realized like oh this is a beauty preference like this this is real." (said at 0:51:10)

Documented demographic and anthropological research confirms that intentional fattening practices (traditionally termed gavage or leblouh) have been practiced in Mauritania and certain other West African societies. In these traditions, girls and premarital women are subjected to increased caloric intake and reduced physical activity to achieve larger body sizes, which are culturally associated with wealth, social status, and female beauty standards for marriage. Nationally representative survey data from Mauritania indicate that roughly a quarter of surveyed women reported having experienced force-feeding during youth.

1:01:04Chris Williamson (host)supportedhigh

Perfectionism research divides perfectionism into distinct dimensions, including perfectionism directed at one's own standards and perfectionism directed toward others' standards.

"you see this with the research on perfectionism that perfectionists it comes in at least two broad buckets but maybe three I think actually. Uh the first one is perfectionism around your own behavior and your own standards but the other is perfectionism for the people around you's behavior and standards too." (said at 1:01:04)

Psychological research on perfectionism explicitly divides the construct into distinct dimensions, most notably established by Hewitt and Flett (1991). The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale identifies three primary dimensions: self-oriented perfectionism (setting unrealistic standards for one's own behavior), other-oriented perfectionism (demanding perfection from those around oneself), and socially prescribed perfectionism (perceiving that others demand perfection from oneself). Subsequent large-scale meta-analyses consistently validate these distinct components.

1:05:43Macken Murphysupportedmoderate

Paul Eastwick's speed dating research shows that in romantic evaluations, women care more about looks and men care more about resources than stated on surveys, resulting in virtually no sex differences in revealed mate preferences.

"but when you measure it through speed dating or through how these stated preferences predict romantic evaluations of partners, well, then women care a lot more about looks than they say, and men care a little more about resources than they say, such that there's essentially no sex difference." (said at 1:05:43)

Paul Eastwick and colleagues demonstrated that while traditional sex differences emerge in self-reported or hypothetical mate preference surveys (with men stating a stronger preference for physical attractiveness and women for earning prospects), these differences disappear when evaluating actual, live romantic partners. In speed-dating and longitudinal paradigms, as well as in a subsequent meta-analysis of 97 studies, physical attractiveness and earning prospects predicted romantic evaluations to an equivalent extent for both men and women, showing essentially no significant sex differences in revealed preferences.

1:07:54Steve Stewart-Williamssupportedmoderate

Women are more likely than men to leave a romantic partner who becomes unemployed or fails to earn a living.

"women are more likely than men to leave a guy who is unemployed who becomes unemployed or uh fails to earn a decent living." (said at 1:07:54)

Sociological and demographic research examining marital dissolution and divorce initiation finds that a husband's non-employment, lower work hours, or inability to contribute full-time earnings significantly increases the risk of marital breakdown, whereas a wife's non-employment does not show a comparable destabilizing effect. Furthermore, analyses of divorce initiation indicate that economic and financial strain has a stronger effect on female-initiated divorce than on male-initiated divorce.

1:16:53Steve Stewart-Williamssupportedhigh

Men's wealth strongly predicts their likelihood of getting married, staying married, having children, and remarrying, whereas women's physical attractiveness is a stronger predictor of marriage and partner wealth than men's attractiveness.

"guys who are wealthier more likely to get married more likely to stay married more likely to have kids more likely to um get remarried if they divorce, um whereas it doesn't predict that anywhere near as well uh for women. Women's wages don't, um and women's looks are a better predictor of whether they get married uh and the uh the wealth of their marital partner um than is the case for men." (said at 1:16:53)

Empirical and review literature supports the claim that wealth strongly increases men's rates of marriage, marital stability, and fertility—effects not found for women's wealth—and that physical attractiveness is a significantly stronger predictor of marriage and partner resources for women than for men. Causal evidence from large lottery winner cohorts shows that positive wealth shocks for men significantly increase marriage formation, lower divorce risk (increasing marital stability), and increase fertility, whereas female wealth shocks show no such positive effects on marriage or fertility and temporarily increase divorce risk. Additionally, extensive literature on human mate preferences documents evolutionary and behavioral sex differences where female physical attractiveness plays a primary role in securing marital partners and partners with economic resources.

  • supports: Mate Preferences and Their Behavioral Manifestations (Annual Review of Psychology 2018) · cited 515x in the literature
    "We review context-specific shifts in mating strategy depending on individual, social, and ecological qualities such as mate value, life history strategy, sex ratio, gender economic inequality, and cultural norms. We review the empirical evidence for the impact of mate preferences on actual mating decisions. Mate preferences also dramatically influence tactics of mate attraction, tactics of mate retention, patterns of deception, causes of sexual regret, attraction to cues to sexual exploitability, attraction to cues to fertility, attraction to cues to resources and protection, derogation of competitors, causes of breakups, and patterns of remarriage." (abstract, passage verified)
    openalexfull study (doi)
  • supports: Fortunate Families? The Effects of Wealth on Marriage and Fertility (National Bureau of Economic Research 2023) · cited 7x in the literature
    "For male winners, wealth increases marriage formation and reduces divorce risk, suggesting wealth increases men's attractiveness as prospective and current partners. Wealth also increases male fertility. The only discernible effect on female winners is that wealth increases their short-run (but not long-run) divorce risk." (abstract, passage verified)
    openalexfull study (doi)
1:20:39Steve Stewart-Williamssupportedmoderate

Norman Li's mate budget research demonstrated that when given a small mate budget, sex differences become pronounced: men allocate more resources toward physical attractiveness, whereas women prioritize resources and social status.

"So yeah, Norman Li he uh did a did a study where he gave people a budget of mate dollars and then asked them, "Create create the um ideal mate that you can with this budget."... but if they had a smaller mate budget, which I think is probably more like most people's situation in life, no offense, um if they had that, they um sex differences became more pronounced. And so people uh men would spend more to get an attractive partner uh whereas women would would spend more to get a um a partner with resources and status." (said at 1:20:39)

Norman Li and colleagues (2002) examined mate selection trade-offs by having participants design an ideal long-term mate using a budget-allocation paradigm with three different budget sizes. The study demonstrated that under low/constrained mate budgets, sex differences in trait prioritization are pronounced: men treat physical attractiveness as a necessity, allocating a greater proportion of limited budget to it, whereas women treat social status and resources as necessities. Traits like kindness and intelligence were prioritized as necessities by both sexes.

1:22:54Macken Murphysupportedmoderate

Men have tripled their time spent on parenting effort since the 1970s.

"on the men's side, we see that men have tripled their parenting effort since the 1970s." (said at 1:22:54)

Nationally representative time-diary studies tracking parental time investment demonstrate a substantial increase in fathers' childcare time since the mid-1960s and 1970s. Historical time-use survey data across industrialized nations indicate that while mothers continue to perform the majority of childcare, fathers' direct engagement in childcare activities has roughly tripled (rising from approximately 2.5 hours per week in 1965 to around 7 to 8 hours per week in recent decades), narrowing the gender gap in parental time investment.

1:29:23Macken Murphysupportedlow

In Marta Kowal's beautification study, among individuals who wear makeup, men who wear makeup spend more time applying it than women do.

"And there was one other behavior, this is so counterintuitive, where among the people who did it, men actually did this behavior more. So think about different beautification behaviors. I won't bore you by making you guess, but it was makeup. Um, among people who wear makeup, the men who wear makeup spend way more time on it than the women." (said at 1:29:23)

In Marta Kowal and colleagues' cross-national research on appearance enhancement (including their large 45-country study published in Evolution and Human Behavior and related work in IJERPH), women overall spend more time applying makeup and cosmetics across the general population. However, when evaluating the specific sub-population of individuals who actively report wearing makeup, men who wear makeup report spending more time per application than women who wear makeup. In broader population samples examining sex differences in physical attractiveness investments, overall beauty investment time between men and women was comparable, with women spending more time on cosmetics and men spending more time on fitness and bodybuilding.

1:32:16Rob Hendersonsupportedlow

A study by David Puts and colleagues found that male physical formidability rated from video clips predicted the number of sexual partners men had over the following 18 months, whereas rated sexual attractiveness did not.

"David Puts uh and his colleagues famously did this study uh where they brought in a group of men and recorded them in these videos... And they found that how formidable they were uh predicted how many sexual partners they had, whereas how sexually attractive they were to these women uh had no relationship at all." (said at 1:32:16)

A study by David Puts and colleagues evaluated whether male contest competition (dominance/formidability) or female mate choice (attractiveness) better predicted mating success. Male participants were recorded competing for a date with a woman, and their interactions were evaluated for dominance and attractiveness cues. Dominance cues (such as dominant linguistic content and monotone vocal characteristics) significantly predicted men's reported number of sexual partners in the past year, whereas attractiveness and courtship measures did not significantly predict partner count. Certainty is rated as low due to the observational, cross-sectional design relying on self-reported sexual history in a university sample.

  • supports: Voice correlates of mating success in men: examining "contests" versus "mate choice" modes… (Archives of sexual behavior 2011) · cited 94x in the literature
    "Male participants (N = 111) competed with another man for a date with a woman. Recorded interactions with the competitor ("competitive recording") and the woman ("courtship recording") were analyzed for five non-linguistic vocal parameters: F(0)-SD, mean F(0), intensity, duration, and formant dispersion (D( f ), an acoustic correlate of vocal tract length), as well as dominant and attractive linguistic content. After controlling for age and attitudes toward uncommitted sex (SOI), lower F(0)-SD (i.e., a more monotone voice) and more dominant linguistic content were strong predictors of the number of past-year sexual partners, whereas mean F(0) and D( f ) did not significantly predict past-year partners." (abstract, results, passage verified)
    pubmedfull study (doi)
1:36:10Rob Hendersonsupportedmoderate

Male teachers are far more likely to engage in sexual misconduct or sleep with underage students than female teachers.

"male teachers are still far more likely to um, commit this transgression of sleeping with an underage student than female teachers are." (said at 1:36:10)

Epidemiological studies and regulatory case reviews on educator sexual misconduct consistently show that male educators constitute the vast majority of perpetrators. In a large survey of K–12 graduates in the United States (n = 6,632), 85% of educators who engaged in sexual misconduct were male, despite women comprising the majority of the K–12 teaching workforce. Similarly, an analysis of disciplinary cases from the Ontario College of Teachers found that approximately 92% of offenders were men.

1:39:17Rob Hendersonsupportedmoderate

While average differences in aggressiveness between sexes are small, individuals at the extreme tails of aggression and sexual predation are predominantly male.

"The average difference, as as you've mentioned in your book, aggressiveness is not that large, but in the tails, the most extremely aggressive, sexually predatory people tend to be men." (said at 1:39:17)

The speaker's statement accurately reflects the psychological and criminological literature on sex differences in aggression. While population-level and survey-based differences in general or low-level aggressive behavior between men and women are modest (with effect sizes typically small to moderate), the sex difference widens substantially as the severity, physical risk, and lethality of the behavior increase, resulting in a heavy overrepresentation of males in extreme violence, homicide, and predatory sexual offenses.

1:51:44Chris Williamson (host)supportedlow

Women's sexual desire declines more rapidly over the duration of a relationship than men's sexual desire does.

"Why do you think women's sexual desire declines faster than men's in relationships?" (said at 1:51:44)

Observational studies evaluating the association between relationship length and sexual desire find that relationship duration significantly and negatively predicts sexual desire in women, whereas men's sexual desire remains comparatively stable across relationship length. Because the body of evidence relies primarily on cross-sectional survey data, the certainty of evidence is low.

2:00:45Steve Stewart-Williamssupportedmoderate

Among the Wodaabe of the Sahel region, men wear makeup and participate in beauty pageants where women select partners heavily based on physical appearance.

"among the Wodaabe of the Sahel region, it's men who are, you know, wearing tons of makeup and looking incredibly glamorous and they actually stand side by side in male beauty pageants, and the the females actually pick um a partner based solely on on the physical appearance, or not not solely, but, you know, quite a lot." (said at 2:00:45)

Ethnographic research documents that among the nomadic Wodaabe (a subgroup of the Fulani in the Sahel region of West Africa), men participate in annual courtship and beauty rituals such as the Geerewol and Yaake festivals. During these gatherings, young men apply intricate facial makeup, elaborate dress, and perform ritualized dances to emphasize physical traits (such as tall stature, facial symmetry, white teeth, and expressive eyes), where women act as judges to evaluate male beauty and charm and select prospective partners.

2:03:02Rob Hendersonsupportedlow

Gay men prioritize physical appearance and youth in their mate preferences, mirroring the preferences observed in heterosexual men.

"one line of evidence for uh, you know, the sex differences being um, you know, sort of evolutionary in origin and not entirely socially constructed is the way that that gay men what they find attractive: appearance and youth and so on." (said at 2:03:02)

Empirical studies in evolutionary and social psychology consistently find that gay men prioritize physical attractiveness and youth in potential partners in patterns that closely mirror those of heterosexual men, compared to the mate selection criteria prioritized by women. Observational survey and experimental vignette research indicates that men, regardless of sexual orientation, place higher emphasis on partner physical appearance and display age preferences for younger partners relative to female counterparts.

Unverified means no publication matching the claim was located; it does not prove the claim false. Spotted an error? See the corrections policy - disputes from the people quoted are prioritized.