Beauty Beat: Scarface

If your latest drunken antics left you with a facial scar, don't feel embarrassed. Research shows that non-severe scars don't decrease female beauty—Tina Fey's a case in point. And they can actually make men more attractive to women.

Men rated the appeal of women based on headshots with or without digitally added scars, and women did the same with men's pics. Guys with a marked visage looked better as short-term hookups, but scars didn't affect their appeal as long-term partners. Nor did scars affect women's allure, either for short- or long-term relationships. The researchers argue that signs of trauma indicate masculinity, but more so in men than in women: When subjects guessed the scars' origins, men's were assumed to result from battle rather than buffoonery more often than women's.

Lead researcher Robert Burriss of the University of Liverpool says knowing a scar's etiology might influence its effect. So if the gash on a man's mug results from clumsiness rather than heroism, he should keep his mouth shut. Women like men of mystery, anyway.