Evolution’s Libido Loves Strong Men and Women

The Stronger You Are, the Higher Your Body Count

I hate it when cliches turn out to be true, but science says that if you want to get laid, get buff. In fact, further research indicates that both strong men and strong women are more likely to score than a humble noodle-armed nerd, geek, bookworm, or yoga-loving New Age Sensitive Guy or Gal.

When you think about it, it’s not surprising. Strength has traditionally been associated with good health, the ability to perform important tasks, the likelihood of fertility, and the promise of strong, healthy offspring. A new paper published in Biology Letters found that this trend has resulted in stronger men being perceived as “sexy and formidable.” Men are getting taller and heavier at twice the rate that women are. What this means in practical terms is that men and women continue to look increasingly different from one another. We can thank an ever-improving quality of life, better access to good nutrition, and fewer other environmental stressors for that.

Horny non-human animals have many ways to attract the sex that they most desire. In most animal species, the male puts on a show of some sort to woo his mate. Bright colors, sexy dance moves, long feathers, compelling vocal calls or songs, gifts, fetes of strength, success at competitions with rivals, or just being the biggest and baddest motherfucker around. Good, bad, or indifferent, what matters ultimately is not the performance but the audience. If the chicks dig it, it’s a successful strategy worth repeating. If it comes with the bonus of security and protection, even better.

According to the research team, “this is why men assess the formidability of potential opponents using physical cues such as upper body strength, and women find taller, muscular men with a relatively large overall body mass (but not obese) particularly attractive.”

That is not to say that there aren’t downsides to being taller and more muscular than your peers. It requires more calories and a history of good health and nutrition to thrive in adulthood. Only then can you project an image of being strong, virile, disease-free, and capable of producing and raising the next generation. It’s not just a “white thing,” either. Newsweek reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) has tracked the height, weight, and disease history of 135,000 people living in 62 countries.

Results were consistent across the board. As the researchers explained, “Our cross-national analyses suggest that as the social and ecological conditions of nations improve, including reductions in overall disease burden, people’s height and weight increase, but more than twice as much in men as in women, resulting in greater [sexual size dimorphism].”

An entirely different study, published in the scientific journal Evolution and Human Behavior, confirmed the cliché that men with greater upper body strength get more sex than men who are less strong. What surprised researchers was the fact that the same can be said for women. Part of the shock at this finding likely stems from the fact that women have rarely been included in studies of this sort. Suddenly, academics were faced with the startling proposition that strong women are hot.

"Previous theory and research, including research in primates and other animals, suggested that males often evolve physical strength to better compete with other males for mates,” evolutionary anthropologist, WSU professor, and co-author of the study, Edward Hagen, explained to Newsweek. “Female primates don't typically compete physically for mates, so males but not females evolved higher strength."

Because of this, the researchers were “surprised that stronger women also had more lifetime sexual partners than less strong men.”

Data from more than 4,000 U.S. adults were evaluated by the WSU anthropologists. The information originated from a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was conducted from 2013 to 2014 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To determine upper body strength and its relationship, if any, to the number of sexual partners, the researchers looked at both self-reported sexual behavior and how strong their grip was.

Results were evaluated and conclusions reached. Then, adjustments were made for variables including testosterone levels and overall health. Surprisingly, the results were essentially the same. Regardless of gender, those with greater upper-body strength had a definite advantage over those who were not as strong. Sadly, while both stronger men and stronger women manage to get laid more often than their more gracile peers, strong men were far more likely to be associated with long-term relationships.

“Men might have evolved higher upper body strength than women because it helped them obtain long-term partners. Perhaps because stronger men were better able to provide food and protection for their families,” Hagen proposed. He assured Newsweek that more research about strong women and their success at finding sex partners needs to be done. A baffled Hagen admitted that he could see “no clear explanation” for why strong women have more notches on their bedposts than their female contemporaries.

Hagen may consider it to be “a new finding” that so many men (and women) are happy to put out for strong women, but anyone who’s been paying attention has known for years. Decades. Centuries. Millennia. As they say, everything old is new again.