Women find men with smouldering eyes 'shifty'

Men who gaze at women open-eyed are thought to be more sincere and better partners. PHOTO: AFP

LONDON: The smouldering, half-closed “bedroom eyes” may have promoted George Clooney and Antonio Banderas’ movie careers, but if you try it, you would appear sleazy and shifty-eyed to women.

Men who gaze at women open-eyed are thought to be more sincere and better partners. Larger eyes make men look more naive and vulnerable, say researchers.

Narrowing the eyes in a bid to look alluring only makes males seem untrustworthy and up for a fling, the researchers discovered, the journal livescience reports.

A team from the University of Michigan, US, used identical photos of white men in their early 20s with their eyes half-open and fully open and showed them to two groups of test subjects totalling 400 men and women, according to the Daily Mail.

Daniel Kruger, a psychology professor at Michigan University, who led the study, said that the sexual maturity bedroom eyes suggest ‘can come back to bite you’ later on.

“A lot is conveyed in a glance. You don’t gain so much of an advantage by doing this expression unless you’re already engaged with someone who is interested in you, or who you have a chance with, so don’t overuse it,” added Kruger.

Female participants were asked to rate each of the men on how attractive they were for a long-term relationship, a short-term relationship and a fling.

They were also asked which of the two men they’d prefer to father their baby, and if they’d trust him going with her sister on a long journey. Men were asked whether they’d like to go into business with each man and if they’d be fine leaving them with their sister on a long journey.

The results showed that among women, the open-eyed man was seen as far more desirable with 71 percent saying they’d rather marry him. The majority also said they would rather have a relationship with him too.

Among men, the findings showed they were less likely to want the bedroom-eyed man as a neighbour or as somebody to work with.

Both sexes thought that men with a wider gaze would be more trustworthy to send with a sister on a trip. They also thought that the man with the wider gaze was more likely to be in a relationship for the long term.