Most People Like Aggressive-Looking Cars, Study Shows

While the guy portion of the demographic will join voices in a big “doh”, the big surprise here is that girls also fall for angry-looking cars. The big surprise comes from the University of Vienna where some guys in white coats performed a study on both male and female subjects.

Each test subject was given a list of photos with 38 production passenger cars introduced from 2004 and 2006 and asked to give an assessment on their visual appearance. After that, they were asked if they saw a 'face' in the car's appearance. Though you might think that is a clear sign you need to check yourself in a mental institution, actually it's a quite frequent occurrence and it's called 'pareidolia'.

At the end of it all, each subject was asked to point to the car that he/she liked the most. The results were quite surprising, because the more masculine, dominant and angry a car looked, the more people tend to like it.

Though this has not been yet correlated with any sales report, it will more than likely give automakers something to think about before going to bed this week. These independent tests seem like they don't affect anyone, but they sure end up influencing later decisions.

This study comes in to confirm the fact that most people buy their car based on the visual aspect mainly (yes, we're that shallow!) and only a few basing on safety or performance. Also, it explains why car designers have such big salaries and why cars receive numerous face-lifts throughout their existence.

What this also means is that you should rethink your options in case you were pondering a new car for your wife/GF this Christmas. So forget about that pink or purple Bug and go for a Corvette or, since it's Christmas, why not get her a Hummer? That should aggressive enough for her.