People stating their preferences are often at odds with what they actually prefer, especially when there’s social expectations. If you had a dating profile of

People stating their preferences are often at odds with what they actually prefer, especially when there’s social expectations. If you had a dating profile of both, you could more directly test people’s true preferences. Anecdotally, for every woman who says she prefers a dad bod, there are ten who would swipe right on the muscled gym rat. I’ve also heard anecdotally that for a woman in a relationship, dad bods means there’s less attention from other woman so it reduces competition, whereas for women who aren’t in a relationship they actually prefer a man who is popular with the ladies. Both sexes have differences in preference for when in a relationship vs single.