Do men prefer blondes or brunettes?
What would I know about it? I'm not a man. I'm a professor of clinical psychology and the author of Malignant Self-Love: Narcissism Revisited, the first book ever on narcissistic abuse.
Am I having a blonde moment? Am I for real? Do men prefer blondes or brunettes if I run out of subjects?
You won't believe. You just won't believe. The number, the quantity of studies on this very topic. I had to wade through a tsunami, an ocean, a mountain range of studies. It seems that scholars are as attracted to blondes as some men are, present companyexcluded.
Okay Shoshanim, I know you've been wondering about this question for your entire life.
And here I am to untangle the conundrum, to restore enlightenment and to give you the correct answer.
And the lowdown is this.
Men prefer blondes for one night stands, for casual sex, and men prefer brunettes as lifelong partners to build a life with.
Pieces of blondes, not end.
Luckily I'm not blonde. More like grey, if you don't mind.
Okay, blondes are stereotypically perceived as ditsy, histrionic, unfaithful, high maintenance, empty airheads, you know, stupid, blonde jokes, the dumb blonde. These are stereotypes, of course. There are no studies that correlate low IQ with hair color of any kind.
So this is total nonsense.
So why this stereotype? What's going on? Why do gentlemen prefer blondes?
Ask Marilyn Monroe first of all.
What do studies show, controlled studies in environments which are spontaneous and natural, for example, bars, hotel lobbies, and so on so forth, these studies demonstrated pretty conclusively that men do approach blonde women more than women with any other hair color.
This is a fact.
And this especially pertains, especially applies, to men under the age of 30. Men under the age of 30 are blonde-oriented.
Blondes also feature prominently in all types of magazines, not only in adult magazines, but generally in magazines. They are likely to be 40% more represented in magazine pictures or photos than, for example, dark-haired women.
Like redheads, blondes are rare. They're scarce, statistically speaking. There are fewer blondes than women with dark hair or even brunettes.
And another thing about blondes.
We know that scarcity or rarity has a value of its own. When something is rare and scarce, the value of that thing is high.
When too much money is printed, the value of the money goes down. That's called inflation.
There's no inflation with blondes. They're very rare. Very few of them are printed every year.
So that's one thing that attracts men. Rarity. It's like a collectible. It's as if the blonde woman is a collectible of some kind, or a status symbol.
Blondes are also considered to be less threatening. Men perceive blondes to be less threatening because they stereotypically believe that blondes are more stupid, more easily manipulable, more open to suggestion.
Blonds are perceived as easy, promiscuous, and that is intimately linked to the stereotype of the blonde because if you're stupid it's you're gullible and if you're gullible it's easy to manipulate you and if it's easy to manipulate you I may end up in bed with you and this is the perception of blondes as promiscuous has to do with their inability to resist suggestion and manipulation.
We know from multiple studies, some of them summarized in the book A Billion Wicked Thoughts and many other scholarly studies, we know that availability is the number one aphrodisiac.
Yeah, you heard me correctly. Not your looks, definitely not your intelligence, that's off-putting. Not your wealth, not your nothing. Nothing matters. Men react mostly. Number one, two and three priorities is the woman available.
If a woman makes herself available, she is very likely to be picked up by a man.
Availability is the number one glue that attracts men to women. And blondes are perceived as easy, loose, immediately available. You don't need to invest too much work because they are promiscuous. They're stupid. they're gullible, you can manipulate them, etc.
And this increases the self-confidence of men around blondes.
There is a direct correlation between the level of self-esteem and the regulation of self-confidence in men when they are around blondes. They are much, much less self-confident around brunettes and especially around dark-haired women.
And so there's an increase in self-confidence.
Blondes are also perceived as needy, dependent, clinging, helpless.
So this triggers the protective instinct in the male. It enhances male self-confidence and dominance. And it reduces inhibitions.
Because if there is a lower risk of rejection, men become highly self-confident, highly assertive, highly dominant in your face kind of.
And so it's a virtuous or a vicious loop, depending how you look at it.
On the one hand, the blonde is perceived as available because of everything I've mentioned.
This enhances the male self-confidence. Male self-confidence in itself is a major point of attraction for females.
And so everything fits in.
The blonde is a perfect stereotype of a woman. A little stupid, a lot needy, gullible, available. That's the male dream, the male fantasy of a perfect woman.
On the other hand, this induces in males, in men, induces in them stereotypical masculine behaviors, including the ostentatious display and exhibition and assertion of self-confidence and dominance, which in itself truly attracts women.
By the way, the number one thing that attracts women is a sense of humor. Just for your information. That's why I'm irresistible, okay?
Blondes are also perceived as younger and healthier in various studies. People, men misjudged the ages of blondes. They judged them to be a lot younger and a lot healthier.
And the reason is very simple. Hair darkens with age. Female hair darkens with age. So until it becomes gray. So first becomes darker, then it becomes gray. That's a biological fact.
So, blonde hair, for example, becomes flaxen, starts as flaxen, but then becomes dark towards the end of life. So, blonde is perceived as young. Blonde is perceived as healthy because hair darkens with age.
Additionally, blonde scalps, blonde heads have the highest density of hair. In a typical square inch of the scalp, blondes have 140,000 follicles compared to about 100,000 in other colors.
So blonde hair indicates vitality, fecundity, fertility, health, because there's a lot more blonde hair than any other type of hair on an average head. And this is a major signal of attraction.
If you are capable of maintaining such an enormous density of follicles on your head, it means that you are healthy, hale, fertile, capable of reproduction, and unlikely to become a burden when you get sick.
Estrogen and testosterone are lower in blonde females, but not in blonde males, by the way. In blonde males, estrogen and testosterone are normal. In blonde females, they are less than normal.
And this renders blonde women more childlike, both physically and behaviorally. And of course, it triggers the protective male response. This is a child.
Males prefer childlike women, waifs. They prefer little tete women, for a childlike, especially for casual sex, for short-term mate selection, sexual selection favors childlike women.
They don't have to be petite, actually. That was my addition.
Studies show that women with childlike facial features and women who behave as children do, childish, they attract males much more than women who are strong, assertive, intelligent and their faces are angular, not childlike.
Sexual selection is at play.
The fact is that blonde genes are recessive. They're not dominant. Both parents have to be blonde for the child to beBoth parents have to be blonde for the child to be blonde.
But this is very interesting because it means that paternity is more certain with blondes than with any other hair color.
So this ascertains paternity in some cases.
Consequently, blue-eyed and blonde men are more attracted to blue-eyed and blonde women. That's a fact established in studies.
And the reason is that they can be sure of the paternity of the resulting child. At least the unconscious evolutionary reason given.
Fewer men are born blonde than women. So among the blonde population the majority are women and the minority are men. Blonde men therefore have no dating advantage.
While blonde women have a dating advantage, at least for casual short-term sex, blonde men don't.
So this proves that it has a lot to do with stereotypes, cultural influences on short-term mate selection.
I remind you, for long-term coupling, for the creation of a dyad, for procreation, for long-term partnership and companionship, men overwhelmingly avoid blondes and prefer brunettes.
Dark hair women are in second place, redheads are in third place, blondes are at the very bottom, because they're perceived to be promiscuous and unfaithful and needy and untrustworthy and too childish and so.
But for casual sex, a one night stand or something, group sex or whatever, blondes are ideal.
And if you don't believe anything I've just said, which I can't blame you for, there's a literature section in the description. Delve deep into the blonde is my advice.