From Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights to Pride and Prejudice’s Mr Darcy, the appeal of the bad boy has been documented for a long time.
Nearly always dark and brooding, this man has women swooning over him, despite not necessarily showing the most gentlemanly of behaviour.
Colin Firth as Mr Darcy (giphy.com)
Now researchers have pinned down why exactly it is women are attracted to these men – and it’s apparently all to do with our primitive desires.
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Apparently, what these men have in common are facial features that indicate three dark personality traits (or Dark Triad traits as the scientists call them) – Machiavellianism, narcissm and psychopathy.
James Norton in War and Peace (BBC)
Doesn’t sound the appealing, does it?
But researchers say it’s not the danger women are after – it’s because these males appear mentally strong, confident and physically attractive, all leading to healthier children.
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University of Liverpool researchers found that women who wanted children showed a clear preference for these dark facial features when shown a selection of computer-simulated men’s faces.
Aidan Turner in Poldark (BBC)
They also discovered that those who were strongly attracted to narcissistic men were likely to have more children than average.
Speaking of their results, researchers said: ‘These findings suggest that in modern society, women's preference for some of the Dark Triad traits in men may be related to their reproductive success.’
(Main image: Rex)
