Is male dimorphism under sexual selection in humans? A meta-analysis | bioRxiv

" Humans are sexually dimorphic: men and women differ in body build and composition, craniofacial structure, and voice pitch, likely mediated in part by developmental testosterone. Sexual selection hypotheses posit that, ancestrally, more ‘masculine’ men may have acquired more mates and/or sired more viable offspring. Thus far, however, evidence for either association is unclear. Here, we meta-analyze the relationship between six masculine traits and mating/reproductive outcomes (96 studies, 474 effects, N = 177,044). Voice pitch, height, digit ratios, and testosterone all predicted mating; however, strength/muscularity was the strongest and only consistent predictor of both mating and reproduction. Facial masculinity did not significantly predict either. "

I actually read it and to me the strength of the correlation from my understanding of statistics would actually suggest something different than the authors of the paper conclude, but I don't know how strong correlations tend to be in social sciences so take my comment with a huge grain of salt. Anyway the full study is free to read if anybody wants to.