LATEST NEWS

18 April 2014
Beards are sexier when they're uncommon
Our newest paper in Biology Letters has received a lot of media attention lately! The research by former honours student Zinnia Janif, Rob Brooks and myself showed that the more beards there are, the less attractive they become thanks to an evolutionary phenomenon known as negative frequency-dependance. Negative frequency dependence simply means that rare traits enjoy an advantage.

Janif, Z.J., Brooks, R.C., & Dixson, B.J. Negative frequency-dependant preferences and variation in male facial hair. Biology Letters. 2014 10 20130958; doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0958 (published 16 April 2014)

If the scientific jargon isn't for you, then Rob also did an excellent piece in The Conversation called "Fear not the hipster beard: it too shall pass" that has been picked up by media around the world. 

Have you got some strong opinions about the beard yourself?  
Then why not participate in our latest study here.

1 November 2013
New papers in press
Our paper on the effects of ambient temperature on the birth sex ratio in Australia in now in press in the journal Human Biology. We also have a new paper measuring women's visual attention to male bodies as they judge attractiveness in press in Evolution and Human Behavior. 

 

8 October 2013
Australasian Evolution Conference
The lab just got back from a great conference in Geelong last week - everyone gave fantastic talks ranging from mate choice copying to intra-sexual competition in women, including my own on "the evolution of men's secondary sexual traits".

30 July 2013
Field work in Vanuatu & Catalyst episode aired on TV

I recently returned from a successful field trip to the Pacific islands of Efate and Tanna (Vanuatu) where I collected data on facial attractiveness. Read more about my adventures here.

In other news, an episode of Catalyst entitled "The Chemistry of Attraction" aired last week and featured some of the members of Rob Brooks' Sex Lab at UNSW (including my own 2 minutes of fame!). You can find a link to the episode online on my media page.

7 July 2013
Australasian Science article on the paradox of masculinity now out  

Does being manly make you a better mate or does it signal undesirable characteristics?  My article in Australasian Science Magazine 'The Masculinity Paradox' was recently published as part of a special edition on Sexuality.  

29 May 2013
Check out this cool comic of my beard research!

Props to Maki for this sweet comic of one of my beard papers "Beard Science" - seriously the highlight of my day to have this sent to me by the students in the lab!  Check it out here.

15 May 2013
Seminar at ANU in Canberra

I gave a seminar last week on human attractiveness in Canberra at the Australian National University. It was really nice to visit, present my work and chat with some world experts in sexual selection. Thanks to Lisa Schwanz and Mike Jennions for hosting my visit.

23 April 2013
New on-line study on male facial and bodily attractiveness now live!

My new survey on the role of men's bodies and faces is now live. I am hoping to make this a real international study so please click here to participate!

5 April 2013
New paper on beards published in Evolution and Human Behavior

My new paper with Rob Brooks is now available online: Dixson, B. J., & Brooks, R. C. (2013). The role of facial hair in women's perceptions of men's attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities. Evolution and Human Behavior.

28 January 2013
New online experiments are now live!

Ph.D. student Amany and Honours student Zinnia both have their new experiments up and running.  Click here to participate.

12 December 2012
Latest beard paper published in Behavioral Ecology

Our latest paper is now available online: Dixson, B.J., Tam, J.C., & Awasthy, M. Do women's preferences for men's facial hair change with reproductive status? Behavioral Ecology first published online December 12, 2012, doi:10.1093/beheco/ars211 

6 December 2012
Conference - Australasian Society for Human Biology 2012

I recently attended the ASHB conference in Port Villa, Vanuatu, where I presented a paper entitled "The evolution of the human beard". The abstract should be available online soon....stay tuned!

17 September 2012
ABC Canberra interview 

Can't get enough of beards? Me neither!  Here's a link to my recent interview on the beard for ABC Canberra's Big Ideas Monday radio show: "Hair we are now, entertain us". Enjoy!  You can also find it on the media page of this website.