January 10, 2012
A new study adds weight to the belief that men prefer the 'girl next door' to platinum blonde pin-ups - unless they're out on the town.
Research just released appears to disprove what women have long believed - that men prefer blondes. A study by the London’s University of Westminster and recently reported by the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology suggests that men view brunettes as being more attractive and intelligent than blondes. Unless, of course, we're out on the town.
Researchers sent a woman to three London nightclubs with her hair dyed either brunette, blond or red and observed the results. They then asked 130 men to rate pictures of her sporting all three looks. The result? She was chatted up most frequently when she had blond hair but rated higher for attractiveness and intelligence when she had the appearance of being brunette.
This appears to support the results of a survey conducted by dating network Badoo in 2011, which revealed that men prefer brunettes to blondes.
Badoo asked 2000 British blokes to state the physical features they find most attractive in the opposite sex.
Contradicting the old adage that gentlemen prefer blondes, almost a third of the men polled (33.1 percent) said they find women with brown hair most attractive. Blondes (29.5 percent) edged out women with black hair (28.6 percent) for second place while redheads were preferred by a meagre 8.8 percent of the men surveyed.
Women with blue eyes still rule the roost with a massive 40.2 percent of guys preferring blue eyes over brown (29.2 percent), hazel (13.1 percent) and green (17.5 percent).
The survey also uncovered another slightly surprising result: 38.8 percent of the respondents said their perfect woman would have a dress size of 12-14. Only 10 percent of the guys surveyed cited sizes 6-8 as their preference, suggesting that, while skinny models fill the majority of pages in magazines, the man in the street is actually more attracted to women of average build.
International preferences
Badoo also ran the study in France, Spain, Italy, US and Brazil with surprising results.
French men said they preferred their women skinny with all other nationalities saying they prefer average to curvy women. In all of the countries surveyed (apart from the UK), black was the most popular hair colour. The UK was also the only country that opted for blue eyes, with brown and green topping the table around the world.
Lloyd Price, from Badoo UK, said, "I was amazed that blond hair and size 8 did not top the list. Magazines are full of skinny blond models, so it is nice to see that in reality guys prefer the girl-next-door look."
Your say: We want to know what the great readers of RALPH, what hair colour do you prefer on a woman?
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