By Stewart Tongue

YNOT – Women associate penis size with attractiveness in men, according to new clinical research.

As reported in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, a multi-university team led by Brian Mautz, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa, asked 105 Australian women to rate the perceived attractiveness of unfamiliar men they viewed in life-size video clips and digital images. The naked males varied in height, body shape and flaccid penis size, but not in facial features, hair and other attributes typically believed to contribute to attractiveness.

Each woman gave each male a sexual-attractiveness rating from 1 to 7, without assessing individual body parts.

The results indicated “penis size actually is important on some level and, importantly, it interacts with other traits,” Mautz said.

Notably, height and penis size seem to be correlated, the researchers noted. Penis dimensions loomed more important for taller men, apparently because body proportions figure into the equation. Taller men generally scored higher than shorter men, but only when a taller man’s penis appeared proportionately larger than a shorter man’s.

“A change in penis size has a larger effect for taller men than it does for other heights,” Mautz said. “This result could be because penis size was smaller when assessed relative to the height of a taller man.”

For decades, adult entertainment sales have provided anecdotal evidence that size matters. The new peer-reviewed study indicates porn was right all along.

[SIZE=1]Images: Leonardo da Vinci’s Vetruvian Man and Mona Lisa: Now we know why she’s smiling.[/SIZE]