Facial scars make men more attractive

London, November 18: People with scars on their face are generally impatient to have the scars treated as quickly as possible, and they choose different methods to get rid of scars. Now, a new British study has revealed some exciting findings for men having facial scars.

The novel study conducted by a research team from the universities of Liverpool and Stirling suggests that facial scars increase men's attractiveness to a woman.

In their study conduced on 220 persons of both genders, the British researchers have found that facial scars can help win a woman's heart.

During the study, participants were showed pictures of men with and without different scars, some of which had been manipulated to have different scars. The study women were asked to rate the photographs of male faces according to the level of attraction. Liewise, male participants were asked to assess the pictures of females with or without scars.

The women in the study rated the scarred faces as better looking. The study found that even though women find men with facial scars more attractive, scarring did not enhance women's ratings of men's attractiveness for long-term relationships.

Contrary to women’s ratings of male attractiveness, men's ratings were unaffected by scarring, meaning scars did not enhance women's attractiveness to men.

"This is the first study to demonstrate that under certain circumstances post-traumatic scarring may increase a person's perceived social worth," the study authors said.

"Our results suggest that under certain circumstances scars may advertise valued information about their bearers, and that the idea that scarring universally devalues social perceptions can no longer be assumed to be true."

Although, it is not yet clear why women favor scars, but the researchers say the reason could be that scars provide visible evidence to women that the man has a risk-taking personality, which might appeal to women for short term relationships. In addition, scars may also indirectly communicate information about the man’s good genesdefine or a strong immune systemdefine that also appeal to women for short-term relationships.

"Scars that indicate past illness like chickenpox, acne, or surgery scars, and which therefore suggest a weaker immune system, may be viewed more negatively than other types of scarring," says the report published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.