If you listen to the media, it pays to be pretty. Over the years, we’ve learned attractive women find it easier to forge longer-lasting careers, are paid more, are happier than their plainer counterparts and tend to make better first impressions. But it doesn’t stop there, as a new study has revealed beautiful women tend to be ‘less stressed’ and, consequently, ‘more fertile’.
The study, which looked at 52 young Latvian women, found a correlation between facial attractiveness and the levels of the so-called ‘stress hormone’ cortisol, with the more-attractive women having less cortisol in their systems.
Although the presence of cortisol is crucial for a number of bodily processes, including the proper metabolism of glucose, regulation of blood pressure and immune response, higher and prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream have been shown to have negative effects.
During the study, researchers photographed a selection of participants, vaccinated them against hepatitis B and measured the number of antibodies produced – the women, who had an average age of 20, were rated in regards their level of attractiveness by 18 heterosexual males.
Expecting to see a higher immune response in more attractive women, the researchers were surprised to find this wasn’t the case. Rather, they identified a relationship between cortisol and attractiveness, with those with lower levels of cortisol in the blood tending to be more beautiful. The more stressed women, on the otherhand, were identified as plainer in their looks.
‘Interestingly, facial attractiveness correlated negatively with plasma cortisol level suggesting stress reduces attractiveness in women,’ says study author Dr Markus Rantala. ‘This supports previous findings from male faces, which show cortisol is inversely related to facial attractiveness.’
According to Dr Rantala, this has been interpreted as a mediator of condition dependent cues in the face (e.g. to health) or as a signal of the ability to cope with stressors. ‘Perhaps, then, low levels of cortisol also signal health in female faces. This would be consistent with many studies in humans that have found stress has strong negative effect on health, including immune function, heart disease and susceptibility to cancer, etc.’
‘An alternative explanation is facial attractiveness signals reproductive potential, which is mediated partly by stress hormones, because many studies have demonstrated stress disturbs fertility.’
Indeed, this new study goes some way to confirm suggestions men subconsciously assess a woman’s reproductive potential when they first regard their faces.
The study also found a relationship between attractive women and the amount of body fat they carry, with the more attractive women carrying just the right amount of fat – not too much and not too little. The study found having either too high or too low amounts of fat reduced allure, suggesting that being too slim can be as big a turn off as carrying to many pounds.
‘Our study suggests facial attractiveness in women does not indicate immune responsiveness against hepatitis B but is associated with two other aspects of long term health and fertility, circulating levels of the stress hormone cortisol and percentage body fat,’ Dr Rantala concluded.
If you need to lower your stress levels, try these tips from Australia’s Black Dog Institute.
1. Identify your stress situations and work out one or two ways to reduce the stress of each
2. Move on: don’t dwell on past mistakes
3. Set aside time each day for recreation and exercise
4. Think positively – you get what you expect, so smile whenever possible
5. Cut down on drinking, smoking, sedatives and stimulants – and yes that includes wine and coffee!
