6 scientific facts about the beard

In its history, the beard has repeatedly experienced persecution, and then a return of interest in it. And now, after decades of oblivion, the beard is back in fashion.

1. It is still unknown if women like beards.

Studies show that women are crazy about facial hair on men. Some authors even believe that a beard is a noticeable advantage of an applicant when applying for a job, which affects not only women, but also male personnel officers. Psychologists showed 228 HR managers photographs of 6 male faces, some of which were adorned with beards. As a result, they found that the beard is associated with physical attractiveness, bright personal qualities, competence and confidence.

However, other studies deny the attractiveness of a beard, proving that the sexiest man is clean-shaven. A kind of compromise between the two is the work of ethologists, in which the beard and its absence are associated with two different types of male attractiveness.

Abundant facial hair arouses in women a stronger interest in its owner, but at the same time is associated with aggression and the desire for dominance. The absence of a beard is recognized as a sign of social maturity, wisdom and willingness to care – a clean-shaven man is subconsciously perceived by a woman as a good husband and father.

2. Bearded men seem more mature and successful.

Bearded men appear angrier, more aggressive and have a higher social status, according to a 2012 study. Curiously, this study was cross-cultural: it involved women not only from European countries, but also from the Samoan archipelago.

The authors believe that the attractiveness as such does not increase the beard – on the contrary, people tend to trust men with facial hair much less often. Yes, and outsiders enter into a conflict with bearded people much more willingly – in the same situations, bearded people look more malicious than those who strive for the smoothness of the chin and cheeks. Note that for many peoples, the beard was indeed a status symbol: for example, the ancient Egyptians, who belonged to a privileged class, wove golden threads into their beards.

3. Bearded men are kinder to children.

Despite the seeming aggressiveness of bearded men, according to the aforementioned 2012 study, women consider them potentially more caring fathers than beardless ones. This is all the more surprising since the beard is associated with masculinity, and masculine men are usually considered the worst fathers, refusing to invest time, energy and material resources in their offspring, interested mainly in the sexual side of relationships with their mothers.

The researchers themselves, speaking about this interesting detail, however, suggested that perhaps this was a random error in their experiment: the fact is that they, quite spontaneously, chose photographs for the test in which bearded men smiled. It is this circumstance that could attract women – a bearded man, the authors say, seems as touching as a stern firefighter who took a kitten in his arms, or a professional wrestler writing poetry – a unique combination of brutality and tenderness.

4. Men’s beards have survived despite evolution.

If the fact that the beard is attractive to women is unprovable, the question arises: why did the stronger sex have preserved it for millions of years, while our species has lost most of the vegetation on the body? This question is all the more difficult because the beard has a significant drawback from the point of view of evolution: it is inconvenient in a fight – just like, for example, a lion’s mane. And in ancient times, in addition, it made men easy prey for parasitic insects. This means that men with lush facial hair should have died more often, depriving themselves of the opportunity to pass on their genes to their descendants.

However, sometimes scientists give some arguments in favor of the fact that a beard can increase the adaptability to the environment of its owner – for example, scientists at the University of South Queensland (Australia) suggested that the genes that “program” a lush beard could survive due to the fact that facial hair reduces the chance of developing skin cancer. The beard blocks up to 95 percent of the ultraviolet falling on the part of the face protected by it. Perhaps the fact that protecting the skin from ultraviolet radiation, the beard does not allow it to age also played a role. Men who grow their beard from time to time keep their skin healthier.

5. Perception of beards depends on their prevalence.

Perhaps a study published in 2014 will put an end to the debate about whether a beard is attractive or not. Its authors found that women’s perception of male beards is strictly dependent on how common they are in society. In the years when the fashion for a universal beard passes, men who have this decoration are perceived by women as unusually attractive.

On the contrary, in the era of the general boom, interest in bearded men noticeably decreases. It seems that the psychological mechanism underlying this change in the perception of the beard is associated with an evolutionary pattern that leads to an increase in the genetic diversity of the population. Women try to choose those who are not like others.

6. A beard saves lives. Or does it not save?

At the end of the article, let’s allow ourselves a little humor. In 2012, many of the world’s media published an explanation for the evolutionary justification of the beard, based on work allegedly carried out by Pentagon scientists. After choosing one hundred soldiers, half of whom were allowed to wear beards, the researchers began to study their future fate.

All soldiers took part in the battles in Afghanistan, but the history of the bearded and beardless was different – it turned out that in the first category there were neither killed nor wounded, while in the second there were both. This “research” could have turned the notion of the role of the beard, if, alas, it had not turned out to be an April Fool’s joke. A good example of how easy it is to falsify a serious scientific work – and at the same time arouse huge interest of journalists.