Study: Men Agree Who's Hot, Who's Not

Megan Fox, Bar Refaeli and Adriana Lima were voted in the Top 10 of Maxim's 2009 Hot 100 list , and many guys would probably agree that's where they belong.

According to a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, men agree that thin and seductive women are the most attractive. But women's definition of what makes a man attractive is less well-defined.

"Men agree a lot more about who they find attractive and unattractive than women agree about who they find attractive and unattractive," study researcher Dustin Wood, assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, told LiveScience.com .

Participants comprised of heterosexual men and women and homosexual men and women looked at nearly 100 photographs of both men and women. Before showing the participants the photos, the researchers ranked the photos on different degrees of attractiveness, for instance, how seductive, curvaceous (women), muscular (men) and classy they are.

Men have traditionally said they want a woman who is intelligent and well-educated . But the study proved that men based their attraction on physical appearance, namely how thin and seductive they are. They also rated more confident women as more attractive.

Women showed more variation. Most said they find thin, muscular men the most attractive, but while one photo would be rated attractive by one woman, another woman would rate it as not attractive.

Enter the homosexual men. Even when the homosexual men looked at the photos of the men, they were able to come to a consensus about who was hot compared to the straight women who looked at the same photos. The homosexual men also showed more consensus when looking at photos of the women compared to the lesbians.

Researchers say this might explain why the competition for good-looking women is so fierce in the real world. For women it's not as hard to find a mate since they have different ideas of what's attractive. But for men, the researchers said they would likely have to invest more time and energy in attracting and guarding their mates from other potential suitors.

Readers expressed a variety of opinions that challenged the study's findings. Ronald Lohse wrote on the Daily Mail , "I think that the thin is beautiful (for women) is much more of an idea pushed onto today by clothes designers than by men themselves. Go back to the days of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield, thin wasn't always considered hot. I personally prefer women with curves!!" Added John, "Thin!!! What a load of rubbish."

Others thought there are some logical explanations to why men have a consensus and why women don't. Northern_Nonsense on LiveScience.com wrote , "There has to be some kind of link between gender and programmability. The masculine brain (I don't have one, but I deal with them all the time) seems to want lines to follow: rules, military service, conformity in general. It's no wonder there is a uniform ideal for mates as well." Zhenya on LiveScience added , "It's a known fact that women tend to place guy's personality above physical looks... I believe this is what caused such inconsistency among women participants. And since guys place looks above all else, results were more consistent."

Rkaralius simply remarked, "LOL! No wonder it's so hard for guys to figure out what women want."