Penis Size Does Matter, Says Research
Christopher Philip
A team of researchers lead by Brian Mautz, a postdoctoral researchers in evolution and sexual selection at the Univeristy of Ottawa, Canada has found evidence that a man’s penis coupled with his physical body shape and height interact to form male attractiveness.
Their primary argument relies on the fact that in many other animals, male genitalia are often under postcopulatory sexual selection, that is, the penis’s shape and size functions directly on the effort of increasing fertilization success. If you wish to be truly fascinated research insect penises to see the effects of postcopulatory effects on penis morphology (their shape)! However, since the human penis is much more conspicuous to potential mates, there is the possibility that it also may have be under a precopulatory selective pressure. That is, women may choose men with certain penis characteristics before copulating with them and thus apply selective pressure on the penises evolution.
In their paper, published in the Journal PNAS, it was postulated that since the male penis is non-retractable it would have been an obvious signal to females. Of course, the argument relies on the fact that in our evolutionary past, clothing was more optional than it is today. The penis, being on full display, would permit females to easily inspect the appendage for preferences and thus exert some control over it’s overall size and shape.
The Experiment
To test female preference, the researchers created life-size, computer-generated male figures. The figures were animated in 4 seconds videos to rotate 30 degrees to each size permitting the subjects a full view. The figures were modified for body shape including shoulder-to-hip ratio, height and penis size (flaccid). The researchers note that height and shape have been previously documented to influence physical attractiveness so they were more or less focused on penis length. By modifying for height, shape and penis size they produced 343 male figures.
The images where then shown to 105 heterosexual women. Each woman saw a total of 53 images and offered her rating on the sexual attractiveness of the male figures. The subjects did not receive any mention or instruction about rating male penis size as the researchers did not wish to draw special attention to the characteristic.
The Results
The results of the study showed that as penis size increased, so did sexual attractiveness but eventually reached an upper limit. Penis size had a stronger effect on taller men than on shorter men. Male body shape also played into attractiveness accounting for nearly 80% of the choices women made. Thus, the more masculine the body – those with a greater shoulder-to-hip-ratio, tended to score better.
Most interestingly is that height and penis size both showed about equally in terms of sexual attractiveness. Height accounted for 6.1% of judgments and penis size 5.1%. Putting it all together, women look to body proportion first, a man’s shape, then she looks at his height which is closely followed by his penis size.
The results also showed that women tended to gaze slightly longer at the larger men, but most assessments were made in about 3 seconds.
Discussing The Findings
That the results did not find an ideal penis size as “the most attractive penis size appears to fall outside the range used in our study,” say the researchers. While they did find that larger penises were more attractive than smaller ones, and that preference seems to level off near the top end, it never reached an upper limit.
This is interesting because their sample of male figures accounted for about 95% of the male population in terms of height, shape and penis size. That implies that women prefer men who have penises larger than that which is possessed by 95% of the male population!
Study Conclusions
The results “directly contradict claims that penis size is unimportant to most females,” say the researchers. They continue, “Some studies indicate that preference for a larger penis might arise because penis size is associated with higher rates of vaginal orgasm. In turn, vaginal orgasms are associated with higher levels of associated sexual satisfaction.”
“Our results show that female mate choice could have played a role in the evolution of the relatively large human male penis,” the authors wrote.
Over email I asked Mautza if penis size was increasing more or less indefinitely similar to the process of runaway sexual selection like the tail of a peacock. He replied by saying that “that is not what we were saying at all. We only indicate that we did not detect a peak given the range of our figures. We can’t say whether or not this is runaway selection. A lack of a peak doesn’t indicate there is no peak at all.”
In order to determine the actual preferred male penis, the researchers would have to run the study out to new lengths – so to speak.
The Take-Away Message
Thankfully however, body shape played the most important role in male attractiveness, something that is much easier to modify than the other factors.
That women prefer the V-shaped body with broader shoulders has been previously shown, and it holds true in this case. While penis size and height both played a role in attractiveness, they only accounted for 10% of the total score. The rest is due directly to overall shape and proportions of the rest of the body.
Resources
Mautza, Brian S.; Bob B. M. Wong; Richard A. Peters and Michael D. Jennions. Penis Size Interacts With Body Shape And Height To Influence Male Attractiveness. PNAS, 2019; 110 (17): 6925-6930.