Visual perception of male body attractiveness

Abstract

Based on 69 scanned Chinese male subjects and 25 Caucasian male subjects, the present study showed that the volume height index (VHI) is the most important visual cue to male body attractiveness of young Chinese viewers among the many body parameters examined in the study. VHI alone can explain ca. 73% of the variance of male body attractiveness ratings. The effect of VHI can be fitted with two half bell-shaped exponential curves with an optimal VHI at 17.6 l m À2 and 18.0 l m À2 for female raters and male raters, respectively. In addition to VHI, other body parameters or ratios can have small, but significant effects on male body attractiveness. Body proportions associated with fitness will enhance male body attractiveness. It was also found that there is an optimal waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) at 0.8 and deviations from this optimal WHR reduce male body attractiveness.Keywords: male body attractiveness; volume height index; body mass index; body proportion; waist-to-hip ratio INTRODUCTIONThe notion that male body attractiveness is a reliable indicator of male qualities was proposed by Wallace as an alternative to Darwin's good taste explanation (Cronin 1991). This alternative explanation assumes that: (i) a reliable connection exists between body attractiveness and male quality; (ii) male attractiveness is an indicator of some components of fitness such as health and vigour; and (iii) females detect and use this indicator for choosing a mate (Singh 1995b;Shackelford et al. 2000). In contrast to the considerable investigations of the female attractiveness (Singh 1993a(Singh ,b, 1994a(Singh ,b, 1995aFurnham et al. 1997Furnham et al. , 1998Tovée et al. 1998Tovée et al. , 2002, 2001Fan et al. 2004), less work is reported on the body attractiveness of males.The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is considered as an important measure of the health of both men and women as it is related to the distribution of fat between the upper and lower body and the relative amount of intra-versus extraabdominal fat. The degree of obesity is positively correlated with WHR in both men and women (Hartz et al. 1984;Jones et al. 1986;Shimokata et al. 1989). The typical range of WHR for Caucasian men had been reported to be 0. 80-0.95 ( Jones et al. 1986;Marti et al. 1991).Singh (1995b) investigated the role of WHR in the male body attractiveness as viewed by females. In his study, 87 women volunteers (68 white and 19 hispanic) aged between 18 and 22 years ranked 12 line drawing stimuli of male figures representing four levels of WHR and three levels of body weight. The results showed that the stimulus whose WHR is 0.9 was overwhelmingly ranked as the most attractive out of all stimuli. This finding was also confirmed with German men in a separate study using the same line drawing stimuli. Maisey et al. (1999) considered two new body parameters in addition to WHR, namely waist-to-chest ratio

Fluctuating asymmetry and preferences for sex-typical bodily characteristics

“…Further, because our composite measure of FA included more bilateral traits than previous studies (31,32) and removed a potential source of measurement error (i.e., a human measurer), it may be a more accurate reflection of underlying developmental stability. Effect sizes are within the range of previous reports (34,35) using the [TC] 2 3D body scanner, thus lending further credibility to the usefulness of this technology for future studies. Findings are consistent with previous reports that bodily FA is negatively associated with sex-typical facial structure (36,37) and that relative leg length correlates differently with attractiveness across the sexes (12).…”

“…After acquiring informed consent, we collected measurements for 77 subjects (40 males, mean age ϭ 20.90 Ϯ 3.03 years; 37 females, mean age ϭ 20.50 Ϯ 2.36 years) with the [TC] 2 body scanner, a 24-camera optical imaging system with submillimeter accuracy (according to the manufacturer) that has been used in previous studies of human bodily attractiveness (34,35). Participants entered the body scanner and were instructed to place their feet on the standardized floor markings and to hold the handlebars to keep their arms stationary during the scanning process.…”

“…Additional difficulties are that subtle FAs are difficult to measure precisely, and composite measures of FA are more likely to reflect underlying developmental stability when more bilateral traits are included in the composite (33). We solved these problems by using a 3D optical scanner (34,35) to extract precise body measurements for a large number of traits and to create controlled 360°video stimuli (Fig. 1A) that were stripped of visual information extraneous to body shape.…”

Patterns of eye movements when male and female observers judge female attractiveness, body fat and waist-to-hip ratio

“…It can also be extended to male body judgements, where the relative importance of two potential cues, overall body mass and upper body shape, has been the subject of some debate (e.g. Maisey et al, 1999;Fan et al, 2005;Sell et al, 2008). The technique can also be used in judgements of facially conveyed information, making it possible to make fine distinctions over the features used in social cognition.…”

Is sociopolitical egalitarianism related to bodily and facial formidability in men?

“…This measure of bodily attractiveness was calculated by dividing waist circumference by chest circumference. Several studies suggest that measures of torso "v-shapedness," in particular lower waist-to-chest ratio, are excellent predictors of male bodily attractiveness (Coy, Green, & Price, 2014;Fan, Dai, Liu, & Wu, 2005;Horvath, 1979;Maisey, Vale, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 1999;Price, Pound, Dunn, Hopkins, & Kang, 2013;Swami & Tovée, 2005;Swami et al, 2007).…”