Men's Eyes Reveal Their Intentions

By Margarita Nahapetyan

Ladies are constantly trying to figure out whether men are looking for a long-term relationship or just a brief fling and now the scientists have the answer to this dilemma. It was just revealed that the secret to reading what a man wants is simply down to his eyes.

The experts say that if a man maintains eye contact for longer period of time, he is thinking of his date as a potential long-term partner. However, if he has unstoppable desire to stray regularly from the face to the body, he is thinking of other - more short-term - things.

The conclusions were drawn from a study which was carried out by Dr. Tom Currie of Tokyo University, where ten male and female models were asked to pose in their underwear. Tests were then carried out on the internet with 260 volunteers (127 male and 133 female), each looking at photographic images of models from the opposite sex. All the participants were asked to rate each model's attractiveness both for a long-term relationship, such as marriage, and also for a short-term fling. First, they were shown separate images of the models' bodies and faces, and asked to rate them individually, and only after that the volunteers were rating the complete photographs.

A short-term relationship was defined as a one-time date, an affair within a long-term relationship, or the possibility of a single-night stand. A partner for a long-term relationship was defined as someone you may want to move in with, someone you may consider leaving a current partner to be with, and someone you may, at some point, wish to marry, or enter into a relationship similar to marriage.

Scoring was on a scale of one to seven, with seven the highest. The experts found that when looking for a long-term relationship, just 20 per cent of male volunteers gave higher scores to pictures of women's bodies than they did to pictures of faces. However, when asked to rate images for a short-term affair, 40 per cent ranked the photographs of their bodies higher when compared to those of their faces. When asked to assess the men based on the expectation of a long- or short-term relationship, there was no difference in the women's choices, the scientists found.

Dr Anthony Little, a psychologist at Stirling University, said in an interview that if individuals are looking for long-term relationships, they are looking for a friendly, humorous, co-operative pleasant partner - information that everyone can get from faces. However, when it comes to men and short-term relationships, they are not so bothered about whether someone has a nice-looking face, the body becomes a bit more important. Their attention is being shift.