Why beautiful women are attracted to ugly men - Study

According to the study, ugly to average-looking men become more attractive when women sense the man has an imaginative leaning and is of the creative bent.

Other times, however, unattractive women even worsen their mating chances if the man shows some creative brilliance.

“Creative women with less attractive faces seem to be perhaps penalised in some way,” said Christopher Watkins, a psychologist at Abertay University in Scotland, who carried out the research.

The study

Watkins got a group of volunteers to look at pictures of men and women, rating each solely on the basis of their physical appearance.

He then submitted the same pictures to another group of volunteers, this time revealing some details about that person in the picture’s creative capacities.

The results showed that men with less attractive faces appealed to the women when it was revealed how creative they are.

“Creative guys with less attractive faces were almost identical in attractiveness to really good-looking guys who were not as creative,” Watkins says.

Predictably, the most attractive men were those considered to be both physically attractive and creative.

Men prefer looks

To men, looks remain most important. One experiment revealed that a woman’s creativity did nothing to boost her attractiveness.

Women love creativity

Watkins says this is because of evolutionary biology – the hidden criteria that drive us to seek the best mate for ensuring healthy offspring and their survival.

“Women on average are a more selective sex when it comes to choosing romantic partners,” Watkins explains.

Imagination and inspiration may be “a proxy for intelligence”, he suggested.

“Creativity is thought to be a signal that an individual can invest time and effort into a particular task or can see things in novel ways that may be useful for survival.”

So next time you see an ugly guy with a hot lady, don’t judge the lady’s level attraction to the man by the depth of the man’s pocket but by the allure of his mind.