If a man has more ‘masculine’ facial features he may be more likely to cheat on his partner, according to a new study.

Researchers found that men with features like a strong jaw and thinner lips were more likely to stray from their partners, and even steal them from other men.

In the study, 299 men and 452 women were asked to look at photos of men and rate on a scale of one to 10 of how likely they might be to cheat.

The men photographed were also asked to rate their own ‘poaching’ behaviors — how much they stole other people’s partners.




In the results, the ratings from the men and women matched up with what the men in the photographs said about themselves.

So the men with the ‘masculine’ features admitted that they were more likely to cheat, and people who saw photos of them also thought that they would be more inclined to be unfaithful.

‘Therefore, perceived unfaithfulness may indeed contain some kernel of trust in male faces,’ said the researchers.

‘The small effects, however, also indicate that we should not rely on our first impressions to make diagnostic judgments of unfaithfulness in everyday situations.’

So, despite the findings, it would be unwise to judge a book by its jawline – but there is some truth in the way we make judgements of trustworthiness from the faces of others.

But this theory only seems to work when it comes to male characteristics.

When the same test was done on women’s faces, neither their “poaching” or cheating rating could be determined by looking at their faces.

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