Beauty May Determine Athletic Performance

Beauty can determine athletic performance, a new study suggests.

Practice and talent aren't the only things athletes need to succeed. New research reveals that good looks can also predict athletic performance.

New research reveals that faces of cyclists that performed better during the Tour de France were deemed more attractive, suggesting that facial attractiveness can predict men's endurance performance.

Previous studies reveal that many female species show clear preferences for certain characteristics that predict a male's ability to be a good father to her offspring or whether he will provide them with good genes. Evolutionary biologist Erik Postma of University of Zurich said the latest findings suggest that humans also show these preferences.

The study revealed that the faces of cyclists that performed better during the Tour de France were judged more attractive, showing that humans can evaluate men's endurance performance by looking at his face.

Postma explains that this may be because endurance performance determines hunting success and feeding a family.

"That's why endurance performance was a key evolutionary factor," Postma explained.

Because physically fit partners were better providers, Postma and his team hypothesized that facial attractiveness is one physical characteristic that evolved to signal endurance performance.

To determine the validity of their hypothesis, researchers decided to study competitors in the 2012 Tour de France.

"The Tour de France is the ultimate test when it comes to endurance performance," explained Postma. While all competitors are fit, there are still significant differences in their performance.

Researchers had more than 800 men and women rate portraits of 80 of the riders in terms of facial attractiveness, without knowing how fast they really were. After comparing performance of cyclists to their facial attractiveness, researcher found that athletes rated as more attractive were faster during the race.

"Attractive riders are, therefore, faster," Postma concluded.

Furthermore, the link between attractiveness and physical performance was most pronounced in women who were not using hormonal contraceptive methods. Researchers explained that women who weren't using birth control pills were rated the faces of men who performed well in the race to be particularly attractive.

"These results are in line with other studies showing that hormones play an important role when assessing potential sexual partners," added Erik Postma.

The findings are published in the journal Biology Letters.