此前已有研究表明，女性的面容可以反映她的年龄和健康状况，而年轻和健康与否可影响其潜在生殖能力。例如，长有很多皱纹可能意味着她几年后便不能再生孩子了。而另一方面，身体的种种特点可以显示出一个女人现在的生育能力如何。之前的研究显示，通过腰臀比例，人们可以看出一个女人是否怀孕，甚至可能判断出她是否正在排卵。
Confer and her colleagues asked 192 men and 183 women, all heterosexual and in college, to consider entering into either a short- or long-term heterosexual relationship. The students were given a masked picture of a potential date, with boxes covering both the head and clothed body. They could choose to remove either the box covering the head or the box covering the body, but not both.
康弗和同事要求大学里192名男生和183名女生（全部为异性恋）开始考虑进入一段短期或者长期的两性关系。同时学生们还拿到了潜在约会对象的照片，头和身体均被盒子遮住。受试者可以选择去掉头部的盒子，也可以选择去掉身体部位的盒子，只能择其一。
资料图：男人约会关注女人身材表明想一夜情
On the whole, 61 percent of men and 69 percent of women chose to see the individual's face. But among the men who were thinking short-term, the interest in viewing the woman's face decreased. Of the men considering short-term relationships, 52 percent chose to see the body.
总体来讲，61%的男生选择看对方的脸，这一比例在女生中为69%。但是那些想要短暂关系的男生对观看女性长相的兴趣就降低了。考虑短暂关系的男生中，52%的人选择看对方的身体。