Bald Kings of the Cave
- By Susan Whitford
- Published 14th April, 2008
- Hair News
- Unrated
Susan Whitford
Susan Whitford has twelve years experience as a health and beauty journalist in the United Kingdom. Susan has worked as a staff writer and features editor on a number of consumer magazines.
New research suggests that baldness may have an evolutionary function linked to enhanced social status.
A study carried out by researchers Muscarella and Cunningham, published in The Journal of Ethology and Sociobiology, is helping to advance the theory that men begin to lose their hair to connote an enhanced age and social standing.
Younger males are associated with aggression and risk-taking behaviours, which are not viable attributes for a female searching for a mate. Older males, however, have a natural decline in such behaviour, and an increase in caring and nurturing behaviours. This gives them enhanced standing in the community, as they become less of a physical threat.
This type of man is a far better investment for a female searching for a mate who will stick around and see their offspring raised safely to adulthood.
Muscarella and Cunningham’s study gave women 14 different adjectives to rate 14 different men with various follicle arrangements. The study found that women typically rated men with a full head of hair as being younger, more aggressive and less socially mature. Bald men were seen as older and associated with more social maturity.
So baldness could be nature's way of telling women that men are ready to settle down!
A study carried out by researchers Muscarella and Cunningham, published in The Journal of Ethology and Sociobiology, is helping to advance the theory that men begin to lose their hair to connote an enhanced age and social standing.
Younger males are associated with aggression and risk-taking behaviours, which are not viable attributes for a female searching for a mate. Older males, however, have a natural decline in such behaviour, and an increase in caring and nurturing behaviours. This gives them enhanced standing in the community, as they become less of a physical threat.
This type of man is a far better investment for a female searching for a mate who will stick around and see their offspring raised safely to adulthood.
Muscarella and Cunningham’s study gave women 14 different adjectives to rate 14 different men with various follicle arrangements. The study found that women typically rated men with a full head of hair as being younger, more aggressive and less socially mature. Bald men were seen as older and associated with more social maturity.
So baldness could be nature's way of telling women that men are ready to settle down!