Unwanted manliness

Women see "masculine" men as unsuitable long-term partners, new research suggests.

Psychologists from Durham and St Andrews universities found that men with feminine facial features are seen as more committed and less likely to cheat on their partners. Their study is published in the current edition of Personality and Individual Differences.

Men with "masculine" faces, with features such as a square jaw, larger nose and smaller eyes, were classed as significantly more dominant, less faithful, worse parents and as having personalities that were less warm than their "feminine" counterparts, who had finer facial features with fuller lips, wide eyes and thinner, more curved eyebrows.

Lynda Boothroyd, a lecturer with Durham University's department of psychology, said: "This research shows a high amount of agreement between women about what they see, personality-wise, when asked to 'judge a book by its cover'."