By Joan Magruder

Women are able to subconsciously pick up cues in men’s faces and use those cues to determine if they are attracted to the males for long-term or short-term relationships, according to a study conducted by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Chicago.

The study was published online last month by the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, the UK’s national academy of science.

Men whose faces reflected an interest in children were perceived by woman as candidates for long-term commitments, where men whose faces indicated high testosterone levels were determined to be short-term prospects for relationships, according to the study.

“Women are surprisingly accurate in being able to determine interest in children and testosterone levels,” said James Roney, UCSB assistant professor of psychology, who is the lead author of the paper. “Our data suggest that men’s interest in children predicts their long-term mate attractiveness, even after we account for how attractive the women rated the men.”

For the study, the researchers recruited male undergraduate students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Researchers took saliva samples to measure testosterone levels. To determine interest in children, researchers showed the men a pair of pictures, one each of an adult and a baby. They were then asked which picture they preferred. Around 88 percent of the men expressed a range of interest in the infants.

The researchers took pictures of each man, asking them to display a neutral expression, and the photos were shown to women. The women rated them according to whether they thought the men liked children, and appeared masculine, physically attractive, or kind.

The men chosen as being most child- friendly were also the same men who had expressed the most interest in children. The women determined from the photos which men had high testosterone levels because they perceived them as looking masculine.