The Benefits of Beauty: Pretty Women Have Lower Levels of Cortisol in Body

What are the other benefits of being beautiful, besides being fawned over and adored? Well, a new study suggests that people who are considered more physically attractive (women in particular) have lower levels of cortisol in their body, the hormone tied to stress.

Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland recruited 52 Latvian women around the age of 20 to investigate this theory further. Leading the study, Dr. Markus Rantala examined photos that were taken and their levels of attractiveness were measured based on the opinions of 18 heterosexual undergraduate males. The participants were then vaccinated against hepatitis B so that the researchers could record the levels of antibodies produced. The researchers found that facial attractiveness did not correlate with improved immune systems. In a previous study, researchers found that for men, facial attractiveness correlated with a better immune system. However, they found that women who were considered more beautiful had lower levels of cortisol. The researchers believe that more stress could reduce a woman's facial attractiveness.

"Interestingly, facial attractiveness correlated negatively with plasma cortisol level suggesting stress reduces attractiveness in women. This supports previous findings from male faces, which show cortisol is inversely related to facial attractiveness. In contrast to findings in men, we found women's immune response is not associated with their facial attractiveness," Rantala said, according to the study. "Perhaps then, low levels of cortisol also signal health in female faces. This would be consistent with many studies in humans that have found stress has strong negative effect on health, including immune function, heart disease and susceptibility to cancer."

Since cortisol, which is produced by the adrenal glands, is believed to help with metabolism, energy levels and blood pressure, the researchers believe that women with less cortisol levels could also be viewed as more fertile. Since elevated levels of stress have been tied to fertility, the researchers concluded that not only are stress-free women prettier, they are also more desirable due to their fertility. The researchers did not find any cause-and-effect relationships. The conclusions are based on the small sample set that the researchers used. Several limiting factors, such as how beauty is measured, could have skewed the results.

The study was published in the Royal Society Journal, Biology Letters.