A man’s neck size affects perception of his parenting skills: study

When it comes to men, size does matter.

Neck size, that is.

A new study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology found the perception of how nurturing or protective a man is toward his children is tied to the trapezius muscle.

The muscle starts at the base of the neck, goes across the shoulders and extends into the middle of the back. It helps move the head, neck, arms, shoulders and torso and stabilizes the spine and posture, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

“We’re talking about muscles that are both connected to the neck and visible from a face-to-face interaction,” Dr. Mitch Brown, co-author of the study, told The Times UK.

Researchers from the University of Arkansas asked 305 male and female participants to look at four computer-generated images of the same man — everything remained the same except for his neck muscles.

Participants rated the pictures from 1-7 based on their perception of the man as a good fighter, interest in long- and short-term mating, and effectiveness at protecting and nurturing offspring.

The men with large neck muscles were perceived as more protective of offspring, but less nurturing and less interested in long-term relationships.

Those with smaller neck muscles were rated as better nurturers.

According to Brown, looking at a man’s neck has historically determined physical prowess.

This is because the neck is “more reliable than the face and more immediate than the body as a cue.”

“[Judging the neck] is a nice compromise between the immediacy of face perception and the accuracy of body perception,” Brown explained to The Times. “Body cues are less immediate when milliseconds could count, whereas faces may not be the most reliable.”

In the photos, researchers also manipulated the sternocleidomastoid — a muscle that flexes the neck and extends the head — but it didn’t appear to affect perception of a man’s parenting skills.

“The effects were specific to trapezii [muscles],” Brown said.

To PsyPost last month, Brown noted reliance on computer-generated images impedes researchers’ “ability to know whether there are kernels of truth to these perceptions.”

“Future work would benefit from explicitly assessing the motives of men while similarly measuring their neck musculature,” he said. “It is additionally important to consider how these stereotypes may or may not generalize across cultures; the current study considered participants in the Southern US.”