Do men’s sexual tastes broaden when they’re stressed?

Yes:

Men are drawn to a wider range of women when they are feeling stressed out, according to research into the psychology of sexual attraction.

People are usually attracted to partners with similar facial features to their own, but after a brief but stressful experience, men’s preferences changed to include a wider variety of women, the study found.

Relaxed men who took part in the study rated women on average 14% less appealing if they looked very different from themselves compared with women who looked similar. But a group of stressed men found dissimilar women 9% more attractive.

Johanna Lass-Hennemann, who led the study at the University of Trier in Germany, said the findings echo research suggesting that animals lose their normal mating preferences when they are under stress.

More here. So remember ladies: if a guy who looks stressed hits on you, it might be an insult…

Why do we get so stressed? Here’s Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky, an expert on the subject:

His book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers elaborates on the subject and is a must-read.