Research out of Nipissing University was recently garnering headlines online and around the world.

The study, led by associate professor of psychology Dr Steven Arnocky, suggests that Facial Width-to-Height Ratio (FWHR) can be used to predict a measure of sexuality in both sexes.

Findings suggest men and women with square and wide faces reported a greater sex drive than others.

It also found that men with a larger FWHR not only have a higher sex drive than others, but also are more easy-going when it comes to casual sex and would consider being unfaithful to their partners.

Facial Width-to-Height Ratio Predicts Sex Drive, Sociosexuality, and Intended Infidelity is published in Springer’s journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.

In the paper, Dr. Arnocky and his colleagues report two separate studies conducted among students from two Canadian cities.

In the first, 145 undergraduates who were in romantic relationships at the time completed questionnaires about their interpersonal behavior and sex drive.

Researchers also used photographs of the participants to determine their facial width-to-height ratio.

The second study involved 314 students and was an extended version of the first study, which included questions about participants’ sexual orientation, the chances of them considering infidelity, and their sociosexual orientation.

The latter is a measure of how comfortable participants are with the concept of casual sex that does not include love or commitment.

“Together, these findings suggest that facial characteristics might convey important information about human sexual motivations”, says Arnocky. “However, there are certainly cultural and social factors that come into play as well. We can’t simply look at someone with a short, wide face and know with any degree of certainty that they have a high sex drive.”

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