Past research suggests that male femininity and homosexuality are still perceived to be connected. We suspect old cultural norms may be playing a role in the responses. So the fact that women in our study found the photo of the man alone more masculine and more dateable supports the idea that women are likely to look first for clues related to masculinity when determining dateability. Prior research suggests that women often seek masculine men – both in terms of physical appearance and behaviors. This last point may explain our findings.
![types of gay men animals types of gay men animals](https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_1280,f_auto,q_auto,fl_lossy/fc/1683308-poster-1920-gay-stereotypes.jpg)
Importantly, they saw these men as less masculine, too. They also thought the men holding cats were less extroverted and more neurotic, agreeable and open. This result surprised us, since previous studies had shown that women found men with pets to have higher potential as partners. Most of the women found the men holding cats to be less dateable. Shelly Volsche and Lori Kagan, Author provided One of the photographs used in the study. We also asked the women if they defined themselves as a “cat person,” “dog person,” “neither” or “both.” Each participant only rated one man, with and without a cat.Įach time the participants saw a photo, we asked them to rate the man pictured on several personality attributes, including his masculinity, femininity and dateability. To avoid biasing the women’s responses, we randomly presented which photo they saw first. In the survey, we presented them with photos of one of two young white men in their early 20s either posing alone or with a cat. In our study, we recruited 1,388 heterosexual American women from 18 to 24 years old to take a short anonymous online survey.
![types of gay men animals types of gay men animals](https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-021-87338-0/MediaObjects/41598_2021_87338_Fig1_HTML.png)
![types of gay men animals types of gay men animals](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/cms/asset/3dc6e7c9-b2b4-4a23-805e-b1bfa535dcae/rstb20150118f02.jpg)
While they favor men with dogs, the results showed that they also give men with cats an edge over non-pet owners.īecause of this, we reasoned that men pictured with cats would probably be viewed as more attractive and desirable than men who didn’t pose with any animals. Prior studies suggested that women do judge a potential male partner based on whether he has pets.