Concern About Contracting COVID-19 Predicts Men’s Preference for Female Facial Femininity, But Not Women’s Preference for Male Facial Masculinity

Objectives

Humans have evolved a behavioral system that responds to perceptual cues suggesting the existence of a pathogenic threat in other individuals and the environment. While previous investigations have reported that individuals’ sexual preferences are influenced by a pathogen threat, the empirical support for face preference is mixed (i.e., the association of pathogenic threat and individuals’ preferences for masculine and/or feminine faces is equivocal). The COVID-19 pandemic provides the opportunity to investigate the association of pathogenic threat and men’s and women’s preferences for sexual dimorphism of faces in the opposite sex in a real-world pathogenic situation.

Methods

Data were collected during COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) from men and women in the United States, and women in Iran, on preferences for masculinity in men’s faces using women participants, and femininity in women’s faces using men.

Results

Results showed that concern about an actual pathogenic threat (i.e., contracting COVID-19) predicts men’s preference for female facial femininity, but not women’s preference for male facial masculinity (for both U.S. and Iranian women).

Conclusion

By using an actual pathogenic threat, our results support previous findings that men’s preferences for female faces are shifted to less feminine faces under pathogenic threat. Moreover, our results provide support for the distinction between the behavioral immune system and pathogen disgust, at least for men’s preference for feminine female faces.