Image via flickr / absoluteSteven
In a study geared to determine whether females’ choice in partners drove the evolution of penis size, Brian Mautz, a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Ottawa, and his team of researchers have found that larger penises do indeed correlate with a greater level of attraction on the part of women.
The study suggests that for early humans, who did not wear clothing, the size of a flaccid penis, visible when choosing a mate, may have affected which males got to reproduce. To confirm this hypothesis, the team of researchers created a sample of computer generated images of naked men of varying heights, shoulder-to-waist ratios, and flaccid penis sizes. Other traits such as facial features and hair or skin colour were purposely not included in the samples to simplify the study.
The images were shown to a sample of 105 Australian women and the results showed that the women were more attracted to men with larger sized (flaccid) penises. However, the rate at which their attraction increased slowed after a peak size of approximately 3 inches. Interestingly enough however, it was male height and shoulder-to-waist ratio that played a larger role in attraction. Shorter men started out with a lower attractiveness rating overall, and were unable to recoup the difference no matter how well endowed they were. As for taller men, an increase in penis size produced a larger increase in attractiveness than the same increase in penis size produced in shorter men.
The study is one of many that have looked at what influenced the evolution of male penis size and shape, and the results do not conclusively determine whether it was female choice that drove this evolution, or whether something else, like the ability for larger penises to deposit sperm further into a woman’s reproductive tract, played a larger role.
[via National Georgraphic]
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Eva Voinigescu is an intern at Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter @EvaVoinigescu.
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