“Drawing” Conclusions About Perceptions of Ideal Male and Female Body Shapes

Abstract

Preferences for bodily traits (e.g., waist-to-hip ratio; WHR) have been widely documented through the use of stimulus sets (e.g., line drawings, photographs). The purpose of the present study was to explore preferences for bodily traits using a method that does not constrain the range of possible values for each trait. Participants drew a figure depicting the most attractive member of the opposite sex they could imagine and a figure depicting a member of their own sex that they believed members of the opposite sex would find maximally attractive. Participants drew some traits similarly to values identified in previous research (e.g., WHR); however, other traits (e.g., leg-to-body ratio) were drawn differently from values documented through the use of stimulus sets. Additional analyses showed that men were fairly accurate in predicting what women prefer in a man's bodily traits, but women underestimated the ideal WHR and overestimated the ideal bust-to-waist ratio considered by men to be maximally attractive. In contrast to our predictions, participants' morphological trait preferences were independent of their sociosexual orientations. While the unconstrained drawing task produced slightly different results than those obtained through the use of stimulus sets for some traits, its sensitivity to a larger range of potential values renders it a powerful method of exploring morphological trait preferences.

Mate Value Discrepancy and Mate Retention Behaviors of Self and Partner

“…Individuals with higher mate value are more desirable as mates than those with lower mate value. Mate value comprises physical traits (e.g., higher shoulder‐to‐hip ratio in men, lower waist‐to‐hip ratio in women, greater facial symmetry in both sexes; Cloud & Perilloux, ; Hughes & Gallup, ; Marlowe, Apicella, & Reed, ; see Rhodes, , for a review; Singh, ) and social attributes (e.g., social status, generosity, intelligence, resource‐earning potential, history of fidelity; Miller, ; Mogilski, Wade, & Welling, ; Shackelford, Schmitt, & Buss, ) that signal health, genetic quality, fertility, parenting skills, or likelihood and quality of investment in offspring (Buss & Shackelford, ; Gangestad & Simpson, ; Johnston & Franklin, ; Miller, ; Pérusse, ; Singh, ). Self‐report measures of mate value typically ask participants to self‐assess socially desirable and sexually desirable traits such as physical attractiveness, health, industriousness, intelligence, social status, relationship fidelity, generosity, and financial prospects.…”

Homo sapiens are bilaterally symmetrical but not with toe length and toe-length ratios among Nigerians

“…Researchers has found that men with physical traits commonly associated with masculinity, such as greater height, broader shoulders, and smaller hip-to-waist ratios, tended to have more symmetrical bodies. Similarly, women who were more symmetrical tended to have more typical feminine traits, such as larger hips, longer and more slender legs, and larger breasts (Cloud and Perilloux, 2015).…”

Evolved human male preferences for female body shape

“…Other studies conducted on homogenous (most frequently college-educated western) populations have found similar results. For example, one centering on British university students also concluded that a WHR of 0.7 was an evolved universal preference (see [23] ; for a more recent example, see [29] ). Universal preferences for other body measurements have been proposed as well.…”