Does size matter after all?
As a man, if you have a large penis you might be judged as both more threatening and attractive, scientists have found.
This according to a recent study by the University of Western Australia, which has shown hundreds of men and women computer-generated images of naked men.
More than 600 men and 200 women were shown pictures in which the men had different penis size, in addition to height and body shape.
The pictures were then rated by the women on sexual attractiveness.
Men, on the other hand, assessed how threatening they would find them as physical opponents or sexual rivals.
If the penis was bigger, researchers found that participants scored figures more highly.
Dr Upama Aich, first author and UWA researcher, told BBC Science Focus that “the human penis, while it primarily functions for sperm transfer, serves two additional purposes: to attract mates and threaten rivals”.
“Crucially, we also found that the penis serves as a badge of status for men. Men perceive rivals with a larger penis as being more physically threatening and stronger sexual competitors”, she added.
On the other hand, more length on a guy’s penis doesn’t seem to matter much according to the women.
Men may overestimate the fact that a bigger penis size results in a woman’s choice of their sexual partner, according to the authors, who say that men often view others who are well-endowed as disproportionately alluring to the opposite sex.
However, there is one detail where the men and women may agree on.
According to the scientists, taller figures, with broader shoulders and slimmer hips, were viewed as the most attractive by women and most threatening by men, when it came to height and body shape.
However, there were subtle differences in opinions, depending on the participants themselves and their body shapes.
For example, height was seen as more important by taller men and women. On the other hand, the men who were younger felt more intimidated by a V-shaped torso than older men.
When it comes to penises, those of humans are unusually large, especially compared with other primates.
Male bonobos, for instance, and other primates, have penises that are comparatively smaller than those of humans, and scientists can’t say why for sure.
According to Aich, the study investigated dynamics in a heterosexual and cisgendered context because “it aimed to answer these evolutionary questions”.
“This also means our findings cannot be assumed to apply to other sexual orientations”, she added.
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