Thinking about growing out your beard? You might want to read up a bit on the latest scientific studies, particularly about the presumptions that other people make based on a man's beard. Here's a breakdown from MSNBC to help you decide if you want to go through with it:

• People view bearded male faces as more threatening than angry non-bearded folks.
• In tests, women around the world did not rate bearded men as any more attractive than the same men pictured without beards.
• Beards intimidate other men, and "may intimidate rival males by increasing perceptions of the size of the jaw, overall length of the face, and by enhancing aggressive and threatening jaw-thrusting behaviors ... This suggests that the beard plays an important role in intermale signaling of threat and aggression."
• When mock juries are presented with pictures of men accused of crimes like rape, the juries are much more likely to believe the bearded men are the culprits. When a study asked 381 people to sketch the face of a criminal offender, eighty-two percent of the sketches contained some form of facial hair.
• Beards "have often been seen a sign of maturity, education, and competence" because they reflect one's androgen status (how much testosterone he's making).
• Beards can give the impression of "physical strength."