Men feel other men look better with a beard, but women prefer men sporting nothing more than heavy stubble, according to Australian researchers.
Researchers from The University of New South Wales, Australia, quantified men and women's judgments of attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities for photographs of men who were clean-shaven, lightly or heavily stubbled and fully bearded.
They also tested the effect of the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptive use on women's ratings.
The results, reported in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, showed that women judged faces with heavy stubble as most attractive and heavy beards, light stubble and clean-shaven faces as similarly less attractive.
In contrast, men rated full beards and heavy stubble as most attractive, followed closely by clean-shaven and light stubble as least attractive.
Men and women rated full beards highest for parenting ability and healthiness. Masculinity ratings increased linearly as facial hair increased, and this effect was more pronounced in women in the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, although attractiveness ratings did not differ according to fertility.
The findings confirm that beardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring, the researchers concluded.