Overview
- Researchers report that the attractiveness effect from female preference was estimated to be four to seven times stronger than the effect linked to male–male competition.
- Women on average rated larger penises as more sexually attractive, yet the benefit depended on overall height and body shape and leveled off beyond certain trait combinations.
- Male participants judged rivals with larger penises as more physically threatening and more sexually competitive, a pattern the authors suggest could deter fights with such rivals.
- The study generated 343 male silhouettes varying in height, body shape and penis length (about 5–13 cm), with roughly 600 men and 200 women each rating subsets of 56 images.
- Authors and commentators caution that results reflect perception rather than reproductive outcomes, the sample was limited to heterosexual raters, and men tend to overestimate how much these traits drive women's attraction.