Men Increase Attention Towards ‘Unattractive Women’ Who Have High Level Income and Admired Jobs Australian Researchers Says

An online dating study has claimed men increase their attention slightly toward less attractive women who have a high-level income and a valued job. 

The recent Australian-based study published last month (July 15) assessed how people browse and determine profile-based information on online dating apps. 

The investigation used eye-tracking methods and self-report to record the way people prioritise profile facial attractiveness and text-based information represented by income and occupation. 

Participants consisted of 40 university students, aged between 18 to 27, who viewed opposite-sex profiles while their eye-movements were recorded using a remote eye-tracking camera. 

Findings also showed men self-reported a higher interest in women for a short-term relationship but women self-reported a higher interest in men for a long-term relationship.

Researchers also noted women evaluated men’s faces more when income and occupation were low, regardless of attractiveness.

In the report, researchers noted: “This study provides evidence that eye-tracking can detect differences in visual attention toward the profile-based mate quality cues of physical attractiveness and resource potential (as indicated by income and occupation). During early browsing of profiles, men and women have used novel patterns to prioritise different information presented.”

“Unexpectedly, however, unattractive women with high resources captured men’s attention, whereas women were found to deliberate differently on men’s faces depending on the level of resources. What men and women say they want in a mate is well established in the literature. This study is the first to narrow the research focus down to the first 10 s of profile browsing to assess what information is visually prioritised.”