Bad news for skinny blokes! Women prefer muscly men when it comes to flings

It’s bad news for men who avoid going to the gym, but women especially prefer muscular men when it comes to short-term relationships.

However, being funny can help men find a long-term relationship, as women love a good sense of humor – as long as he or someone else is not the victim of the joke.

The researchers recruited 384 women and asked them to imagine a man approaching them at a bar.

This man had a muscular torso, or was less muscular, in a digitally altered image shown to each volunteer.

Women who were shown the more powerful man rated him as more attractive for a short-term relationship than those who were shown the weedier version.

Muscle was still favored when women rated a man’s attractiveness for a long-term relationship, but this was not as important, suggesting that women are a little less superficial when searching for a life partner.

The researchers also told half of the women that the men had told a friendly, inoffensive joke at the bar, while the other half were told that they were being funny more aggressively – as they were the target of the joke.

A friendly, funny man was rated higher than an aggressive, funny man for a long-term relationship, on average.

Women may be eager to muscle up for a short-term romantic encounter because of their cavernous brain, researchers say.

A strong man may produce children who are more likely to survive into adulthood, and who may be evolutionarily programmed to think.

Meanwhile, men who are funny, but not aggressive, may come off as gentle and kind, which are good qualities for a longer relationship.

Dr Mitch Brown, who led the study from the University of Arkansas, said: ‘Strong men are attractive because we want to find a partner with good genes, and women associate muscle with fitness and health.’

“However, in the long run, it is important to find a good person who will support his family.

“Nice guys who make friendly jokes can actually finish first when it comes to attracting a woman looking for a long-term relationship.”

The study, published in the Journal of Personal Relationships, found that women view powerful men as more extroverted and open to new experiences, but also more neurotic, which may be off-putting.

Men who were not aggressively funny were judged to be more agreeable and conscientious when women were asked about their personalities.

The study suggests that this may make them appear less likely to cheat in a long-term relationship, and more likely to want to take care of children.

The study asked women to rate men on how much they wanted a short- or long-term relationship, on a scale from one, which means highly undesirable, to nine, which means extremely desirable.

The average score for the muscular men, for a short-term relationship, was 4.22, compared to 3.78 for the less muscular man.

When considering a long-term relationship, women scored lower for the powerful man, with an average score of 3.62, and gave the less powerful man an average score of 2.87.

The man had the same face, with only the difference in the shape of the torso under the white jacket.

Women rated the man who made a nice joke as more desirable than the man who made an aggressive joke for a long-term relationship, but there was no significant difference in their ratings for a short-term relationship.

An aggressive sense of humor, where a man tries to score points at someone else’s expense, may prevent women from seeking a long-term partner, researchers say.

But in a short-term scenario, like a one-night stand or a few dates, this isn’t worth paying attention to.