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Evolutionary Psychology
The Surprising Appeal of Men With Dad Bods
The non-physical traits attributed to those bodies are the key.
Updated March 27, 2024 Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Key points
- A Dating.com survey reported that almost 75 percent of singles prefer the Dad Bod.
- The traits attributed to men with dad bods are the key to the appeal.
- The Dad Bod received higher ratings on evolutionary fitness traits—affectionate, nurturant, friendly.
In the last few years, there has been a lot of mention of the Dad Bod being attractive. For example, a 2017 survey by Planet Fitness reported that:
- 78 percent of women feel men with dad bods are confident in their own skin
- Nearly half of women (47 percent) even believe dad bods are the new six-pack, and nearly three in five (58 percent) of mothers feel dad bods are the new six-pack
- 83 percent of mothers would be proud to have a husband with a dad bod.
Also, a Dating.com survey (2021) reported that almost 75 percent of singles like the Dad Bod—preferring a build that isn't very chiseled.
But, is the Dad Bod really physically attractive, or is it simply that men who possess a Dad Bod are assumed to have other characteristics that appeal to women interested in something other than short-term relationships?
That could very well be the case. Research shows that men who are very physically attractive have some characteristics that women find unappealing. For example, extremely attractive men are more likely to cheat (Hughes and Gallup, 2003; Foo and colleagues, 2019). Of course, attractive individuals get more offers to cheat (Schmitt and Buss 2001). But, this is also related to the amount of testosterone the man possesses since testosterone may drive the libido. Men with higer levels of testosterone tend to be more aggressive (Geniole and colleagues, 2020), and men with facial features indicative of high masculinity, which is a product of their testosterone levels, may be perceived as more likely to be an enemy than a friend (see Johnston, and colleagues, 2001).
Women might find a male they assume to have lower testosterone levels more appealing because he would be assumed to be less aggressive and have characteristics that would make them a better partner—and a better father. Indeed some research has found that women may prefer men with lower levels of testosterone as their long-term mate choices (Buss, 2006; Buss and Schmitt, 1993; Johnston, and colleagues, 2001). Is there any research addressing this concerning the Dad Bod?
Researchers have looked at perceptions of men with and without a Dad Bod. A study using male figures with waist-to-chest ratios ranging from .60 to .90—a WCR of .80 or a WCR of .90 would correspond to a Dad Bod (Wade and colleagues, 2019a, 2019b)—found that male figures with low WCRs received higher ratings for attractiveness while the figures with WCRs that correspond to a Dad Bod got lower attractiveness ratings, but received higher ratings on evolutionary fitness traits such as affectionate, nurturant, friendly, good parent potential, and older. Additionally, Sell and colleagues (2017), reported that a strong but not buff body is most appealing overall. That appeal may be because the traits attributed to the Dad-Bod body type relate to long-term mating success. The Dad-Bod body is not necessarily physically attractive. But it is appealing because it evolutionarily fits in other ways with women’s choices of partners for successful long-term mating.
Facebook image: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock
References
Buss, D. M. (2006). Strategies of human mating. Psihologijske Teme, 15(2), 239-260.
Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204–232.
Foo, Y. Z., Loncarevic, A., Simmons, L. W., Sutherland, C. A., & Rhodes, G. (2019). Sexual unfaithfulness can be judged with some accuracy from men's but not women's faces. Royal Society Open Science, 6(4), 181552.
Geniole, S. N., Bird, B. M., McVittie, J. S., Purcell, R. B., Archer, J., & Carré, J. M. (2020). Is testosterone linked to human aggression? A meta-analytic examination of the relationship between baseline, dynamic, and manipulated testosterone on human aggression. Hormones and Behavior, 123, 104644.
Hughes, S. M., & Gallup Jr, G. G. (2003). Sex differences in morphological predictors of sexual behavior: Shoulder to hip and waist to hip ratios. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(3), 173-178.
Johnston, V. S., Hagel, R., Franklin, M., Fink, B., & Grammer, K. (2001). Male facial attractiveness: Evidence for hormone-mediated adaptive design. Evolution and human behavior, 22(4), 251-267.
Sell, A., Lukazsweski, A. W., & Townsley, M. (2017). Cues of upper body strength account for most of the variance in men's bodily attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1869), 20171819.
Wade, T.J., Welling, L., Reeve, S., & Moran, J. (2019a). Women perceive men with lower Waist-to-Chest Ratios (WCRs) as more attractive, and more evolutionarily fit. Paper presented at the 31st Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference, Boston, MA, May 30th -June 1st.
Wade, T.J., Welling, L., Reeve, S., & Moran, J. (2019b). Attractive Dad Bod?: Women perceive men with lower Waist-to-Chest Ratios (WCRs) as more attractive, and more evolutionarily fit. Paper presented at the 13th Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society Conference, Boston, MA, June 2-4.
