In recent years, among men there has been a steady tendency to grow a beard. It is hard to say what this mass-mode is connected with. On the one hand, this is the notorious “hipsterism” and the desire to look more courageous, and on the other hand, the opportunity to save on shaving products and not to spend precious minutes in the morning on this procedure.
And numerous publications in men's fashion magazines unanimously affirm that a beard makes a man more attractive in female eyes. However, reading such articles, I want to know what kind of women in question.
But besides this question, another one arises. How does a beard affect children and adolescents? Scientists give the answer to this question. A new study on how children react to men who have forgotten about razors has yielded very unexpected results.
Where and by whom was the study conducted?
The question of whether children like beards on the faces of their fathers, became interested in specialists from the University of Queensland in Australia. Scientific work was led by Nicole Nelson.
During the study, 470 children and adolescents were interviewed, and the results of this unusual work of scientists were published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
How did scientists work?
Of course, none of the 470 children who took part in the study was asked a direct question about whether they like the beard on the faces of their fathers or not. The children were offered an original questionnaire, illustrated with neutral photographs.
Questions were divided into the following topics:
- strength;
- masculinity;
- age;
- attractiveness;
- upbringing.
The questions themselves were formulated taking into account the age of the children. For kids, they sounded simple, for example, like this: “Who is more like a dad and who is more like a stranger’s uncle?” The wording for adolescents was more complicated.
What did the children say?
The results of the study cannot be interpreted in two ways, no matter how much the opponents of the daily shaving procedure would like.
All age groups of the respondents associated beards exclusively with the manifestation of strength. Neither small children, nor those who have already celebrated their thirteenth birthday, found bearded people attractive or trustworthy.
In other words, if a man prefers to wear a beard, then he is unlikely to have a close and trusting relationship with the child. However, the children will become afraid of him and obey implicitly, because in the beard they see a manifestation of strength and masculinity.
From this study, only one conclusion can be drawn: children "do not like" beards. Therefore, if a man wants the child not only to obey him, but also to love him, you need to shave.