%0 Journal Article
%T Facial Attractiveness as a Function of Athletic Prowess
%A Frank Belschak
%A Marloes van Poele
%A Richard P. Bagozzi
%A Willem J. M. I. Verbeke
%J Evolutionary Psychology
%@ 1474-7049
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1474704918801369
%X We investigate the relationship between facial attractiveness and athletic prowess. We study the connection between subjective facial attractiveness (measured on a 5-point scale of judged facial attractiveness) and athletes by gender and age of respondents. Five age classes were investigated in Studies 1¨C5: preadolescents (average age: 8.85 years: n = 92), adolescents (average age: 15.8 years; n = 82), young adults (average age: 21.6 years; n = 181), middle-aged adults (average age: 47.5 years; n = 189), and older adults (65 years old; n = 183). The findings show that world-class athletes are perceived as more facially attractive than amateur athletes, with women athletes perceived as more facially attractive than men, and these findings generally occur to a greater extent for female than male respondents. These findings hold for preadolescents, adolescents, young adults, and older adults. However, results were mixed for middle-aged adults where generally amateur athletes were evaluated more attractive than world-class and men athletes more attractive than women
%K facial attractiveness
%K athletic prowess
%K age and gender differences
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474704918801369