Cultural significance of leg‐to‐body ratio preferences? Evidence from Britain and rural Malaysia

Swami, Viren; Einon, Dorothy; Furnham, Adrian

doi:10.1111/j.1467-839x.2007.00235.x

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Another issue is possible factors influencing leg length preferences. Testing the most obvious hypothesis about Western culture influence has given ambiguous results (Sorokowski et al, 2011;Swami et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Are Preferences for Legs Length Universal? Data From a Semi-Nomadic Himba Population From Namibia

Sorokowski

Sorokowska

Mberira

2012

The Journal of Social Psychology

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Leg-to-body ratio (LBR) is one of the morphological traits that influences a person's attractiveness. To date, studies confirming that hypothesis have been conducted mainly in Western cultures. They have shown that the average or slightly higher-than-the-average LBR is perceived to be attractive in women. In the case of men, results were more ambiguous; however generally shorter or similar LBRs compared to females were attractive. Here, data on LBR preferences of a traditional, semi-nomad ethnic group (i.e., the Himba of northern Namibia, n = 81) are reported. Also in Himba people LBR influences a person's attractiveness. Similar to Western societies, extremely high and low LBRs were unattractive. However, contrary to previous findings, Himba preferred women of relatively low LBR and men of relatively high LBR.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The first evidence showing significant cross-cultural differences in LBR assessments was by Swami, Einon, and Furnham (2007). British participants preferred a higher LBR in women but a lower LBR in men.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Are Preferences for Legs Length Universal? Data From a Semi-Nomadic Himba Population From Namibia

Sorokowski

Sorokowska

Mberira

2012

The Journal of Social Psychology

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“…[ 31 ]). Early studies indicated that men with low LBRs are more attractive [ 32 , 33 ], but more recent studies have found that average [ 34 , 35 ] or above-average [ 31 , 36 ] proportions are preferable. Other research has found that optimum male LBR varies cross-culturally [ 37 ], with no detectable preference at all in some cases [ 38 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of leg-to-body ratio on male attractiveness depends on the ecological validity of the figures

Versluys

Skylark

2017

R. Soc. open sci.

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Leg-to-body ratio (LBR) predicts evolutionary fitness, and is therefore expected to influence bodily attractiveness. Previous investigations of LBR attractiveness have used a wide variety of stimuli, including line drawings, silhouettes, and computer-generated images based on anthropometric data. In two studies, community samples of heterosexual women from the USA rated the attractiveness of male figures presented as silhouettes and as detailed computer-generated images with three different skin tones (white, black, and an artificial grey). The effects of LBR depended on the image format. In particular, a curve-fitting analysis indicated that the optimally-attractive LBR for silhouettes was fractionally below the baseline, whereas the optima for more detailed computer-generated images was approximately 0.5 s.d. above the baseline and was similar for all three skin-tones. In addition, the participants' sensitivity to changes in the LBR was lowest for the silhouettes and highest for the grey figures. Our results add to evidence that the most attractive LBR is close to, but slightly above, the population mean, and caution that the effects of limb proportions on attractiveness depend on the ecological validity of the figures.

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“…Previous studies of the link between limb proportions and attractiveness have focused on leg-to-body ratio (LBR), defined as the ratio of total leg length to total height. Two early papers reported a preference for low LBRs [ 17 , 18 ], but these experiments used line-drawn figures with anatomical distortions in the hands, feet and crotch introduced through crude image-manipulation techniques. Subsequent work has typically used silhouettes based on photographs and has found a preference for average or above-average LBRs [ 19 , 20 ] (see also [ 21 – 23 ]).…”

Section: The Influence Of Leg-to-body Ratio Arm-to-body Ratio and Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of leg-to-body ratio, arm-to-body ratio and intra-limb ratio on male human attractiveness

2018

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Human mate choice is influenced by limb proportions. Previous work has focused on leg-to-body ratio (LBR) as a determinant of male attractiveness and found a preference for limbs that are close to, or slightly above, the average. We investigated the influence of two other key aspects of limb morphology: arm-to-body ratio (ABR) and intra-limb ratio (IR). In three studies of heterosexual women from the USA, we tested the attractiveness of male physiques that varied in LBR, ABR and IR, using figures that ranged from −3 to +3 standard deviations from the population mean. We replicated previous work by finding that the optimally attractive LBR is approximately 0.5 standard deviations above the baseline. We also found a weak effect of IR, with evidence of a weak preference for the baseline proportions. In contrast, there was no effect of ABR on attractiveness, and no interactions between the effects of LBR, ABR and IR. Our results indicate that ABR is not an important determinant of human mate choice for this population, and that IR may exert some influence but that this is much smaller than the effects of LBR. We discuss possible reasons for these results, including the limited variability in upper limb proportions and the potentially weak fitness-signal provided by this aspect of morphology.

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Cultural significance of leg‐to‐body ratio preferences? Evidence from Britain and rural Malaysia

Cited by 19 publications

References 15 publications

Are Preferences for Legs Length Universal? Data From a Semi-Nomadic Himba Population From Namibia

Are Preferences for Legs Length Universal? Data From a Semi-Nomadic Himba Population From Namibia

The effect of leg-to-body ratio on male attractiveness depends on the ecological validity of the figures

The influence of leg-to-body ratio, arm-to-body ratio and intra-limb ratio on male human attractiveness

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