On the topic of attraction, while we agree that clothing/fashion isn’t a big factor in attraction, many do dress very conservatively. Often wifey picks out boring but acceptable clothes for him. Or she won’t let him buy nicer clothes because he’s not allowed to spend too much on himself.
This is relevant. This becomes more relevant for men who are married/live together with girlfriends and the relationship is longer than 5 years.
Wives, long term girlfriends, and mothers tend to pick out boring but acceptable clothes for their husbands, long term boyfriends, or unmarried sons.
When I was in high school and college, my mom had a terrible habit of picking out clothes for me that were too conservative. They were nice clothes but more acceptable for refined social situations as a 30+ year old married man. Imagine going to college with a wardrobe with too many classy type polo/collared shirts and fine gauge sweaters for leisure situations. Younger, unmarried women in leisure situations tend to respond better to guys in t-shirts. I kept many of her outfit choices but relegated them to fewer situations and instead tried to opt for clothing styles that would get more sexual responses than polo/collared shirts. My mom's choices were classic styles that never became outdated. They were the kinds of clothes that are equally in style whether it is 1985, 2005, or 2025.
Wives, long term girlfriends, and mothers can pick out some good shirts and good outfits for business casual wear for white collar working setting (an office or for video calls in white collar settings).
It's a good idea for all men to go through their wardrobes every 2-5 years and make any changes. Some clothes getting too worn out and some clothes do go out of style. Some also might not be useful for certain social settings if there are changes, such as becoming newly divorced and needing to meet women for the first time in X number of years.
At best, they are noticing women being friendly to them (because they are married/safe) and assuming these same women would jump their bones if the guy were single.
Or they think that, with the freedom of being single, they would suddenly become some Grand Master PUA.
Married men tend to get more attention from women in general because of that safeness factor.
There's even been debate among unmarried men for decades about whether or not to wear a fake wedding ring to attract more women. My take is that's generally a bad idea that will backfire.
If the typical married man got divorced or widowed, he would revert to the attention levels that he got before he was married.
A lot of this depends on the age of the man and how long he's been in a relationship.
If we're taking about a 50 year old man who has been with the same woman for 25 years (since the year 2000), he would have a rough time being newly single. This hypothetical 50 year old man would have likely have 2 kids between ages 14-20. From 1995-2000, the last time he was single (ages 20-25), the mating environment was far different in general and far different to his specific circumstances. In 1995-2000, he was dating fellow childless early 20 something. In 2025, as a newly single 50 year man with kids who are teens/young adults, he's probably dating 40 something single moms. That's a different audience. Plus, since 2000, dating technology changed. Online dating websites got de-stigmatized, then swipe apps came around. Smartphones and social media got invented and popularized. Bar game has changed. Non-bar approaching is probably the most constant option as compared to 2000, but even non-bar approaches have been affected by headphones and earbuds.
Most of my married friends/acquaintances are in their mid-30s to early 40s and have been with the same woman since 2010-2015. There have been fewer technological changes since they started because smartphones and social media were around when they started. Most started after online dating had become de-stigmatized and some even got to see the early days of swipe apps. For most of my married friends/acquaintances, their biggest challenge in re-entry would be the presence of children. Most of them have young children under 5 right now.
Most of the married people I know around my age don't express any desire to be single themselves right now. However, multiple married men have told me that they would have liked to have made different choices. They have told me that my life path choice of never marrying and not having children is a superior path to the path they've chosen. I also suspect certain married fathers and even certain single dads I know who are around my age also feel that way about me, even if they've never said it out loud to me.