Stronger men are perceived to be more conservative, a new study shows.
Men with greater upper body strength were seen as more right-wing, which experts link to their heightened competitiveness, according to research published in Personality and Individual Differences.
“There is a consistent perception of physically strong men (i.e., men with considerable upper body strength identified visually) as espousing more conservative viewpoints relative to physically weak men,” study author Mitch Brown, an instructor of psychological science at the University of Arkansas. told PsyPost.
Researchers recruited hundreds of students to take part in four experiments to investigate the link between political orientation and chiseled physiques.
The recruited participants were asked to guess the political opinions of eight men and rank their assumed strengths, income and morality.
The students were also asked to identify the men who they believed were more likely to oppose liberal goals such as higher taxes, abortion and immigration.
The results of the survey revealed that stronger men were usually assumed to be more conservative.
Stronger “men are motivated to pursue strategies to acquire resources and status through direct competition and the promotion of hierarchical social organization,” the study explained.
Therefore “these men support social policies favoring the use of aggressive bargaining and hierarchy-maintenance strategies” similar to conservative approaches.
Brown explained to the Daily Mail that, “strong men have considerable bargaining power that would have historically led to win contests for resources more easily.”
“When they gained access to resources, they would have ascended hierarchies and thus codified social norms of competition in which they had a competitive edge.”
Meanwhile, “physically weaker people did not have that power and would conversely favor group norms that are less competition-focused.”
This study builds on previous research that found that men’s physical strength correlates with their political attitudes.
Although conservative men are assumed to be physically fit, their looks may not necessarily snag them more dates.
More than half of millennial and Gen Z women find it a relationship red flag if a partner listens to “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast and refuses to see the “Barbie” movie, according to the results of a wide-ranging new poll that revealed that young women are overall more liberal than men.
The research revealed that 55% of women found it a turnoff for a partner to listen to “The Joe Rogan Experience” while 53% said it was off-putting for a love interest to refuse to see Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster.
The biggest red flag for young women, however, was for a potential partner to identify as a MAGA Republican, with more than three-quarters (76%) of those polled admitting this would make them want to run for the hills.