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Link to original content: http://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38886250/
Motivations to Enhance One's Facial Hair: Affiliation, Rivalry, and Stress - PubMed Skip to main page content
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. 2024 Aug;53(8):3229-3237.
doi: 10.1007/s10508-024-02919-0. Epub 2024 Jun 17.

Motivations to Enhance One's Facial Hair: Affiliation, Rivalry, and Stress

Marcin Moroń  1 , Łukasz Jach  2 , Peter K Jonason  3   4
Affiliations

Motivations to Enhance One's Facial Hair: Affiliation, Rivalry, and Stress

Marcin Moroń et al. Arch Sex Behav. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Facial hair is a sexually dimorphic trait with potential evolutionary and sociocultural functions. Bearded men are perceived as dominant, aggressive, and masculine, but also as having better parenting skills. Men may intentionally manage the amount and shape of their facial hair as a part of their self-promotion strategy; however, facial hair management entails costs in terms of time, effort, and money. We explored psychological factors associated with facial hair enhancement motivation among men. A total of 414 men (aged 18-40 years) reported the current amount of their facial hair along with their facial hair enhancement motivations, gender role stress, intrasexual competitiveness, and fundamental social motives. Willingness to care for facial hair was associated with the amount of facial hair men claimed to have and correlated with the fundamental social motives of affiliation and social status, intrasexual competition, and gender role stress. Therefore, facial hair enhancement may be regarded as a self-presentation strategy aimed at acquiring a beneficial position in social networks.

Keywords: Facial hair; Fundamental social motives; Gender role stress; Intrasexual competition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Morphed faces showing different types of facial hair. Note: 1 = “Clean-shaven”, 2 = “Light stubble”, 3 = “Heavy stubble”, 4 = “Full beard”
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Interaction of mate-seeking motivation and amount of facial hair predicting facial hair enhancement motivation. Note. ns = Non-significant. Simple slopes analysis showed that mate-seeking motive was associated with greater motivation to enhance one’s facial hair among clean-shaven men compared to men who report other amounts of facial hair. * p < .01
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