The beard gets the girl (particularly if scruffy guy looks like her). Odd.

(oh, and I mean that literally - facial hair. beard. whiskers).

Anyway - shocker: I spend pretty much all day on the webernets. Keeping up with celebrity crap, doing "fantasy shopping" by racking up $1200 in an Anthropologie online shopping basket that I'll never be able to actually purchase, planning vacations, cruising other blogs, watching back episodes of SVU or SNL or Big Love, taking Meyers-Briggs personality tests and discovering I rank differently every time I take them....whatever.

So inevitably I stumble upon silly studies from time to time, like the one that identified ideal female proportions (mine! mine! mine!) and others that speculated on cohabitation's effect on the success rate of a marriage (no discernible effect!) and some that look at important things like, um, womens' preference for facial hair on men with respect to long-term relationships.

The latest: we ladies love some stubble. Um, particularly if the man with the stubble looks similar to us. Or our fathers.

Yep. Found a separate study conducted by the University of St Andrews in Scotland that focused on a woman's tendency to be attracted to a man who looks similar to herself. Or shares facial characteristics with her father (if the father was present and the daughter had a positive relationship with him). Odd. BUT, it explains why Kanye is dating this woman. Seriously. At a glance it's not totally obvious, but if you look at facial proportions, its insane how much these two look alike. The distance between their eyes, the relative size of their chins compared to the rest of their face, the space between their nose and mouth, the ratio of their forehead to the rest of their face....it's crazy.

The way the Tamsin Saxton, a postdoctoral research fellow involved in the study puts it in an interview with the UK Telegraph,

"Previous research has often found that women can be attracted to masculine men, but also a bit suspicious of them. However, women tend to trust men more if they look like them. So perhaps the resemblance cancelled out the women’s suspicions. Or maybe the women felt they were better matched with men who looked like them, because if two people resemble each other, they might both be attracted to each other.” 

It's totally true. I see couples who look like they could be siblings all over the place. My working theory has always been that we're attracted to what's familiar - not necessarily in a narcissistic "I want to date ME" sort of way -- but that we find comfort and attractiveness in faces that feel familiar, similar to ourselves - non-threatening. Apparently that's close to true. And the reason has to do with the facial hair study, indirectly.

This is an analysis of the Stubble Study, also presented by The Telegraph:

Researchers found that women are more attracted to men with stubbly chins than those with clean-shaven faces or full beards. 

Women participating in the research rated men with stubble as tough, mature, aggressive, dominant and masculine - and as the best romantic partners, either for a fling or a long-term relationships. 

The findings of the experiment, carried out on British women aged 18 to 44, could explain the appeal of actors such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt who cultivate their unshaven look. 

The explanation for the preference is not clear, but experts in human evolution say that that facial hair may be a signal of aggression because it boosts the apparent size of the lower jaw, emphasising the teeth as weapons.

Psychologists at Northumbria University who carried out the new study believe that stubbly men may offer women the best worlds - not too strongly masculine, but mature and with the potential to grow a full beard.

The researchers carried out the study using computer technology to alter pictures of 15 men’s faces so that they displayed different degrees of hairiness. Five levels of facial hair were used - clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble, light beard and full beard. 

The pictures were shown to 76 women who were asked to rate them for masculinity, aggression, dominance, attractiveness, age, and social maturity. They were also asked how desirable each man would be as a short-term or long-term partner. Faces with full beards were judged to be the most masculine, aggressive and socially mature. They were also thought to look five years older. 

They were rated the least attractive and the worst choice for a short-term relationship. Men with light beards were considered the most dominant. Those with light stubble were rated the most attractive and as the ideal romantic partner for the short or long term. Clean-shaven men finished bottom for masculinity, dominance, aggression, and social maturity, and they were the least favoured choice as a long-term partner. They came second-to-last for attractiveness. 

Writing in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the researchers conclude: “Facial hair, or beardedness, is a powerful sociosexual signal, and an obvious biological marker of sexual maturity. 

"Facial hair may have been sexually selected by females on the basis of associated male success, despite its threatening appearance. Clean-shaven faces therefore may suggest appeasement, as well as being an obvious sign of sexual immaturity.

"Increasing levels of facial hair were associated with increased perceptions of aggression, in that bearded faces were perceived as being the most aggressive, whilst clean-shaven faces were rated as being the least aggressive. And as facial hair increased in a linear fashion, so did female ratings of masculinity and dominance. 

"In desirability for a short-term relationship, a female preference for male faces with stubble or light beard was found, with clean-shaven and fully bearded faces being the least preferred. This indicates that females are not selecting faces displaying relatively high or low masculinity, but are rather preferring males who are clearly mature - post-pubertal - but not too masculinised. The same pattern was found for preferences for a long-term relationship."

The researchers now want to extend their study internationally. Dr Nick Neave, who carried out the study with Kerry Shields, said: "There are large cultural differences in perceptions of facial hair, and we are hoping to expand on this research by conducting a large-scale study assessing female perceptions of male facial hair in different in as many countries as possible."

Maybe I'm just a sucker for any sort of pop-psychology study that purports to tell us why we like what we like, BUT, I have to agree on both counts. Check the Posh & Becks W cover at the top - I mean, sure, he's BARELY got the facial hair, but the two of them certainly look alike. And if you ask most ladies whether they prefer their Becks shaven or scruffy, most choose scruffy. Myself, eh, I find him too wimpy-pretty, even unshaven to weigh in on that front, but I get it - even wimpy-pretty girlie-men look better with a little scruff.

Let's make it personal and compare some pictures of my hot piece, Mr Wonderful, with myself and my dad. First things first - yep, Mr Wonderful has facial hair. A perfectly stubbly jaw and a more "precisely maintained" goatee-type thing around the chin. Blue eyes. Very little hair on top of the head. I'm a green-eyed kid, but the more I stared at pictures of us, the more I decided we fit the mold:

Our cheeks are very similar. The whole "distance between eyes, nose, mouth" situation is pretty similar. Our complexions are even quite similar. As much as I like to think that I'm above the fray and will fall for a man by the sheer force of his sexy, fact is: ehhhh, there must be part of me that finds him hot because there's a familiar element to his face. 

And, frankly, if I'm being honest, there are even some parallels to my dad. Dad is bearded, blue-eyed, short-cropped hair. Yikes. I fit the mold, I'm a predictable woman. I'd be in the majority with these silly studies. 

I hate to be predictable. Er, I mean, I'm just like Victoria Beckham and that makes my man just like...Kanye? Yeah. Pretty much.

 

And if you accuse me of using the studies as a weak excuse to post cute pictures of me and my hot piece: you're half right. We look good together (even if we look alike). And so do my mom and dad (above).

So there.