The Body Beautiful

Evolutionary and Socio-Cultural Perspectives

V. Swami; A. Furnham
ISBN: 9780230596887
DOI: 10.1057/9780230596887
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 The Body Beautiful
Evolutionary and Sociocultural Perspectives

Edited by
Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham
 The Body Beautiful

10.1057/9780230596887 - The Body Beautiful, Edited by Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham
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10.1057/9780230596887 - The Body Beautiful, Edited by Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham
The Body Beautiful
Evolutionary and Sociocultural
Perspectives

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to Universidad del Valle - PalgraveConnect - 2011-11-04
Edited by

Viren Swami
and

Adrian Furnham

10.1057/9780230596887 - The Body Beautiful, Edited by Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham
 Selection, editorial matter and introduction © Viren Swami and
Adrian Furnham 2007
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Contents

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List of Figures and Tables vii

Notes on Contributors x
Preface xvii

Part I Introduction
1 Mutual and Partaken Bliss: Introducing the Science of Bodily
Beauty 3
Adrian Furnham and Viren Swami

Part II Methodological Critiques

2 Waist-to-Hip Ratios and Female Attractiveness: Comparing
Apples, Oranges, and Pears 15
Donald H. McBurney and Sybil A. Streeter

3 The Volume-Height Index as a Body Attractiveness Index 29

Jintu Fan
4 Methodological Issues in Studies of Female Attractiveness 46
Melissa Bateson, Piers L. Cornelissen, and Martin J. Tovée

Part III Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

5 An Evolutionary Perspective on Male Preferences for Female
Body Shape 65
Isabel Scott, Gillian R. Bentley, Martin J. Tovée,
Farid Uddin Ahamed, and Kesson Magid
6 Masculinity, Culture, and the Paradox of the Lek 88
Douglas W. Yu, Stephen R. Proulx, and Glenn H. Shepard

7 Healthy Body Equals Beautiful Body? Changing Perceptions

of Health and Attractiveness with Shifting Socioeconomic
Status 108
Martin J. Tovée, Adrian Furnham, and Viren Swami

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vi Contents

Part IV Theory Development: Evolutionary

Perspectives
8 The Shaping of Women’s Bodies: Men’s Choice of Fertility
or Heat Stress Avoidance? 131
Dorothy Einon

9 Interpersonal Metaperception: The Importance of

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Compatibility in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Bodily Cues 159
Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary
10 Mate Preferences in Social Cognitive Context: When
Environmental and Personal Change Leads to Predictable
Cross-Cultural Variation 185
Leif D. Nelson, Terry F. Pettijohn II, and Jeff Galak

Part V Theory Development: Sociocultural

Perspectives
11 The Roles of Stereotypes and Group Norms on Perceptions
of Bodily Attractiveness 209
Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner

12 Feminism and Body Image 236

Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen

13 The Impact of Western Beauty Ideals on the Lives of

Women: A Sociocultural Perspective 259
Rachel M. Calogero, Michael Boroughs, and J. Kevin Thompson

Index 299

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List of Figures and Tables

Figures

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2.1 Attractiveness as a function of waist-to-hip ratio (data of
Tassinary & Hansen, 1998). 17
2.2 Attractiveness values adjusted for the effect of estimated
weight as a function of waist-to-hip ratio (Streeter &
McBurney, 2003). 18
2.3 Same data as Figure 2.2 plotted by connecting figures with
the same waist size, following Tassinary and Hansen
(1998) (Streeter & McBurney, 2003). 19
2.4 Replotted data of Jacobsen and Gilchrist (1988). 20
2.5 Data showing attractiveness ratings as a function of
BMI (Tovée, Swami, Furnham, & Mangalparsad,
2006). 23
2.6 A power function and a logarithmic function that are
similar to each other. 24
3.1 An example of a movie still in front view (a) and side
view (b). 33
3.2 Plot of female attractiveness ratings versus BMI for 102
real female stimuli. 36
3.3 Plot of female attractiveness ratings versus VHI for 102 real
female stimuli. 37
3.4 Plot of female attractiveness ratings versus VHI for 102 real
female subjects and 20 virtual female images. 39
3.5 Plot of VHI versus male attractiveness ratings by female (a)
and male observers (b). 40
4.1 A schematic diagram illustrating the difference between
visual cues to a feature and the physical features
themselves. 49
4.2 Examples of the Streeter and McBurney (2003) stimuli. 51
4.3 Ratings based on the Streeter and McBurney (2003) images. 53
4.4 Attractiveness as a function of WHR. 55
4.5 A sequence of five synthesised images created by applying
four independent descriptors of shape derived from a
principal components analysis of the variation in natural
body shape to an average female torso. 59

vii

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viii List of Figures and Tables

5.1 Attractiveness as a function of BMI and WHR respectively. 73

5.2 Average ratings for health, wealth fertility and age by BMI. 76
5.3 Average ratings for health, wealth, fertility and age by
WHR. 76
6.1 Preference for masculinised or feminised male faces as a
function of question asked. 95
7.1 Comparison plots of the attractiveness ratings against the

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health ratings by the three observer groups. 114
7.2 Comparison plots of the attractiveness and health ratings
by the three observer groups as functions of BMI. 115
7.3 Comparison plots of the attractiveness and health ratings
by the three observer groups as functions of WHR. 116
9.1 WHR from 0.5 to 0.9. Wireframe models were exported to
Maya™ for accurate circumference measurements. 164
9.2 Each walker completed approximately 10 steps over 10s. 164
9.3 Judgements of sex (a) and gender (b) for animated walkers. 165
9.4 Distribution of visual scanning when the sex of a walker
had been specified (a) or remained unspecified (b). 167
9.5 Judgements of attractiveness for walkers facing forward (a)
and backward (b). 169

Tables

5.1 Demographic and socioeconomic indicators. 72

5.2 GLMs for BMI of peak attractiveness, average attractiveness
of obese images and correlation between WHR and
attractiveness. 75
5.3 Mean values, by group, of BMI of peak attractiveness,
attractiveness of obese women and preference for low
WHR. 75
5.4 GLMs for BMI of peak perceived SES, average perceived
SES of obese images and correlation between WHR and
perceived SES. 77
5.5 Mean values, by group, of BMI of peak perceived SES,
perceived SES of obese women and correlation between
perceived SES and WHR. 78
7.1 Summary of the proportion of variance accounted
for by BMI and WHR in the regression analyses of
attractiveness and health judgements, plus the peak BMI
for each group and the gradient of the relationship
between attractiveness and WHR. 117

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 List of Figures and Tables ix

8.1 The number of societies in which jobs are assigned solely

to men or women, or carried out by both, based on the
Ethnographic Atlas of Murcock (1967). 137
8.2 The calories that men and women provide for their
families: The disadvantages of male investment to
women. 138
8.3 The cup size of 100 students of different ethnic origin. 146

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8.4 The area beneath the breast (attachment area), the
surface area of the bra cup (cup area) and the percentage
increase in skin surface (% increase) that is produced by
adding breasts to the body of a slim woman. 148
10.1 Summaries of studies testing the Environmental Security
Hypothesis. 190

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Notes on Contributors

Farid Uddin Ahamed is Professor and Chair at the Department of

Anthropology, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, where he lectures

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in anthropology, medical anthropology and South Asian ethnography.
His research interests include environmental adaptation, bio-medical
anthropology, public health, anthropology and development, and the
anthropology of marginality, public action and non-governmentality.
He currently oversees fieldwork among the hill tribes of Chittagong,
and has recently collaborated with Kesson Magid on an investigation
of the effects of marriage and fatherhood on salivary testosterone levels
in Bangladeshi men, and with Gillian Bentley on an investigation of
migration, socioecology and male preferences for female body shape.

Melissa Bateson is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the

Centre for Behaviour and Evolution at Newcastle University. Her
research lies in the general area of cognitive ecology with a specific focus
on the interaction between evolutionary and mechanistic explanations
for choice behaviour in humans and other animals. She has a D.Phil. in
animal behaviour and an M.A. in zoology with biological anthropology
from the University of Oxford.

Gillian R. Bentley is Professor of Anthropology at Durham University

and formerly Royal Society Research Fellow at Cambridge University
and University College London. A reproductive ecologist whose research
focuses on how environmental factors impact human reproductive
function, she is currently collaborating on a number of projects
among migrant and non-migrant Bangladeshis, including how devel-
opmental conditions affect male hormones, and a comparative study
of menopause in older women. She is on the editorial boards of Journal
of Biosocial Science and American Journal of Human Biology, and the
Executive Committee of the Human Biology Association. She publishes
in both social science and medical journals.

Michael Boroughs, M.A., is a faculty researcher at the Louis de la Parte

Florida Mental Health Institute. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in
Psychology, and a Master’s degree in Sociology, with a specialty in
Social Psychology, at the University of South Florida. With research

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 Notes on Contributors xi

experience in programme evaluation in school settings and body

image, he is currently a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at
the University of South Florida, where his research focuses on body
image issues in men.

Rachel M. Calogero received her M.A. in Psychology from the

College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, USA, and is currently

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completing her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Kent
in Canterbury. Between degree programmes, she worked with women
in residential treatment for eating disorders. Her diverse research areas
include motivated social cognition, antecedents and consequences of
self-objectification processes, resistance to change, and eating disorders
prevention. She has presented her research regularly at international
conferences for the past several years and has published articles in a
variety of scholarly journals.

Piers L. Cornelissen is a Reader in Psychology at the University of

York. As an undergraduate, he studied medicine at Worcester College
Oxford, continuing his clinical training at St. Thomas’s Hospital in
London. He studied for a D.Phil. with Prof. John Stein at the (then)
University Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford, funded by the Wellcome
Trust. After 3 years as a McDonnell-Pew postdoctoral Fellow, he lectured
at the Psychology Department, Newcastle University until 2006. His
inter-disciplinary research interests are divided between investigating
body image perception and the neural basis of reading, using combin-
ations of psychophysical and neuroimaging techniques (MEG and
FMRI).

Dorothy Einon is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at University College

London. Her interests in evolutionary psychology include critical
examination of the advantages of male promiscuity and the cross-
generational advantages of polygamy, as well as studies of human
mate choice, particularly the leg-to-body ratio. She is currently writing
a book about the peculiar nature of human love and sexual desire,
and the role this may have played in the development of human
societies.

Jintu Fan is Professor of Textiles and Clothing at the Hong Kong

Polytechnic University. He is known for his invention of the world’s
first sweating fabric manikin – known as ‘Walter’ – and for developing
the world’s first apparel knowledge portal (www.apparelkey.com).

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xii Notes on Contributors

He has published extensively, and has over a hundred and ninety

academic papers or patents to his name. In particular, his work on
bodily attractiveness is seen as an important contribution to the science
and was widely reported in international media. He was the recipient
of the Gold Medal Award from the International Invention Exhibition
in Geneva in 2004, and the Distinguished Achievement Award of US
Fiber Society in 2003.

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Adrian Furnham is Professor of Psychology at University College London
where he has taught for 25 years. He has written and edited over 50 books,
as well as over six hundred scientific publications. He has wide interests
in evolutionary, health, and personality psychology. He cycles to work,
does not have a mobile phone and loves living in London.

Jeff Galak is a marketing doctoral candidate at New York University’s

Stern School of Business. His research interests are primarily in the
___domain of judgement and decision-making, with a focus on adaptation
to repeated experiences and choices over time. Much of his work is
done in collaboration with his advisor, Leif D. Nelson. Jeff also received
his bachelor of science in Marketing and Economics from New York
University. Aside from his academic interests, Jeff is an avid cyclist,
photographer, and technology geek.

Tom Hildebrandt, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry of the Eating and

Weight Disorders Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, has
research interests in how evolutionary and sociocultural theories explain
extreme forms of weight and shape control, substance use and eating
disorder pathology, and male body image. He has particular clinical
and research expertise in male body image and the use of appearance
and performance enhancing drugs (e.g., anabolic-androgenic steroids).
He has authored and presented over twenty-five articles, book chapters
and presentations in these areas and is on the editorial board of Body
Image: An International Journal of Research.

Kerri L. Johnson is a social psychologist in the Department of Commu-

nication Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research
examines how perceptual and social processes combine to affect basic
person construal (including social categorisation and evaluation). In
much of this research, she and her collaborators have focused on the
perception and evaluation of sexually dimorphic body cues such as
shape and motion.

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 Notes on Contributors xiii

Janet D. Latner, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of

Hawaii, has research interests focused on the diagnosis, maintenance,
and treatment of obesity and eating disturbances. She has authored
and presented over fifty articles, book chapters, and presentations on
eating disorders and obesity, has served as an investigator on several
nationally funded research projects, and is on the editorial board
of Behaviour Research and Therapy. Her forthcoming book, Self-help

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Approaches for Obesity and Eating Disorders: Research and Practice, edited
by Dr. Latner and G. Terence Wilson, is to be published in 2007 by
Guilford Press.

Kesson Magid is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Anthropology,

University College London. His project compares hormonal profiles
in male Bangladeshi migrants to Britain with non-migrants and the
children of migrants. The changes in environmental conditions and
socioeconomic position accompanying migration is being assessed in
relation to reproductive and metabolic hormones. His research interests
include human reproductive ecology and androgen effects on cognitive
development.

Donald H. McBurney is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the

University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include the psycho-
physics of taste, evolutionary psychology, a skeptical approach to the
paranormal, and critical thinking. He and his colleagues are currently
developing a mathematical model of the time course of adaptation to
painful stimuli.

Sarah K. Murnen, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology, and Women and

Gender Studies at Kenyon College. Her teaching and research interests
concern feminist perspectives in psychology, as well as research design
and statistical analysis. Her published research examines feminist
perspectives on the gendered issues of body image/eating disorders,
and sexual violence. She and her colleagues have conducted various
meta-analyses related to these issues. For example, they have conducted
meta-analyses on the effects of athletic participation, traditional
femininity, child sexual abuse, and consumption of the media on
indices related to eating problems.

Leif D. Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Stern School

of Business, New York University. He trained in psychology both as
an undergraduate at Stanford University and as a doctoral candidate

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xiv Notes on Contributors

at Princeton University. His work focuses on well-being: what makes

an experience most enjoyable, what eliminates discomfort, and what
leads to sustained happiness? Additionally he has studied how hunger
makes men prefer heavier women, how bookmakers exploit a gambler
bias for picking favourites, how metaphors make north feel uphill, and
why Doug earns lower grades than Alvin. He lives in Manhattan with
his beautiful wife and his astonishing daughter.

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Terry F. Pettijohn II is an Associate Professor of Psychology at
Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D. in
Social Psychology from the University of Georgia and he conducts
research in the areas of interpersonal attraction, relationships, and
how environmental conditions influence social preferences. He is a
member of the Association for Psychological Science, the American
Psychological Association, and the Society of Personality and Social
Psychology. His research findings have been published in the journals
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the Journal of Social Psychology,
and Media Psychology.

Stephen R. Proulx is a theoretical evolutionary biologist at Iowa State

University. He uses mathematical models and computer simulations
to explore the evolutionary dynamics of a diverse set of phenotypes,
including sex ratio, mating preferences, life-history traits, and genome
structure.

Isabel Scott is a Ph.D. candidate in Evolutionary Psychology at Bristol

University, supervised by Ian Penton-Voak. Her current project involves
testing for evidence of ‘strategic pluralism’ in human mate choice.
This entails using socioecological factors, such as disease, resource
stress and marriage system, to predict cross-cultural variations in mate
preferences, specifically preferences for facial sexual dimorphism. She
is also assisting Gillian Bentley with an investigation of the effects
of migration upon somatic preferences. This project seeks to predict
changes in preferences using age at migration and length of stay in
a new socioecology as independent variables, in order to explore the
mechanisms via which attraction preferences are acquired.

Glenn H. Shepard is a medical anthropologist at the University of East

Anglia. He has worked with diverse indigenous groups in Peru, Brazil,
and Mexico studying ethnobiology, ethnoecology, medical anthropo-
logy and sensory ecology.

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 Notes on Contributors xv

Linda Smolak is Samuel B. Cummings Jr. Professor of Psychology and

Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research and teaching
interests focus on the developmental psychopathology of body image
and eating problems, including the role of gender in the development
of these problems. She has published numerous papers on body image
development in elementary and middle school aged boys and girls.
She has also published several books on body image in children and

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adolescents, including the forthcoming second edition of Body image,
eating disorders, and obesity in youth (with J. Kevin Thompson; American
Psychological Association).

Sybil A. Streeter received her B.Phil. from the University Honours

College at the University of Pittsburgh, with a double major in
Psychology and Human Origins and Evolution. She is currently a
graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the University
of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include evolutionary psychology,
perceptions of female physical attractiveness, development of taste
preferences, and the role of scent and adult attachment in mating.
In addition to research, she is actively involved in undergraduate
teaching.

Viren Swami is a Research Associate at the University of Liverpool.

His research interests include an eclectic mix of topics, including
interpersonal attraction, gender and health, and lay beliefs. His specific
interest in physical attraction centres on cross-cultural differences
in preferences, particularly the potential of cross-cultural research to
inform evolutionary psychological theorising. Despite having authored
or co-authored two books on interpersonal attraction (The Missing Arms
of Vénus de Milo and The Psychology of Physical Attraction, with Adrian
Furnham), and over thirty-five research papers, he has yet to uncover
the secrets of human beauty.

Louis G. Tassinary, Ph.D. J.D., is a Professor of Architecture and an

Adjunct Professor of Psychology, as well as the Associate Dean for
Research and the Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Architec-
ture, at Texas A&M University. He is the co-editor of, and contributing
author to, two editions of The Handbook of Psychophysiology. His current
research interests are in the areas of perception and evolutionary psycho-
logy, with an emphasis on the morphological cues to biological sex,
gender and attractiveness. He thinks everyone should read John Spivak’s
autobiography, A Man in his Time (1967).

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xvi Notes on Contributors

J. Kevin Thompson, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at the

Department of Psychology, University of South Florida. He has worked
in the area of body image and eating disorders for 25 years, with current
interests in the areas of measurement, adolescent risk factors, media
influences, and body image issues in diverse samples. He has been on
the editorial board of the International Journal of Eating Disorders since
1990. He has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited six books in

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the field, including several published by the American Psychological
Association (Body image, eating disorders and obesity, 1996; Exacting
beauty: Theory, assessment and treatment of body image disturbance, 1999;
Body image, eating disorders and obesity in youth, 2001; The muscular ideal,
2007).

Martin J. Tovée did his Ph.D. at the Experimental Psychology Depart-

ment, Cambridge University, before moving to the Experimental
Psychology Department, Oxford University, to work on face recog-
nition. He is currently Reader in Visual Cognition at the Psychology
Department, Newcastle University. His research interests lie in the
general areas of physical attractiveness and human mate selection,
body image and body image distortion in eating disorders, and face
recognition and discrimination.

Douglas W. Yu is a behavioural and spatial ecologist at the Univer-

sity of East Anglia, with interests in tropical ecology, the evolution of
mutualisms, and tropical conservation. Since 1996, he has worked in
collaboration with Glenn Shepard and the Matsigenka people on various
topics, including tropical forest beta diversity, conceptions of human
attractiveness, and wild meat hunting.

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Preface

In the Meno, Plato begins the dialogue by asking Socrates if ‘virtue can
be taught, or is it rather to be acquired by practice? Or is it neither to be

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practised nor learned, but something that comes to men by nature or
in some other way?’ Plato is asking about the causes of human dispos-
ition and behaviour, and casting it within the archetypal form of the
nature-nurture question. While the latter has typically fallen within the
purview of philosophers of science, it also invites commentary from
scientists involved in diverse fields of research, including those inter-
ested in human interpersonal attraction. The essays in this volume
address precisely the divide between biology and culture, in pursuit
of answers to the elusive question of human beauty. It represents
seminal work from anthropology, psychology and related fields, and
provides a fresh perspective for understanding the perception of human
physical attractiveness. Many people have helped with bringing this
volume together. We are particularly grateful to Daniel Bunyard at
Palgrave Macmillan, whose support for the volume provided constant
encouragement.

∼VS & AF

xvii

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 Part I
Introduction

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1
Mutual and Partaken Bliss:
Introducing the Science of Bodily
Beauty

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Adrian Furnham and Viren Swami

Beauty is Nature’s coin, must not be hoarded,

But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss.

∼ John Milton, Comus

It was no easy decision that Paris had to make. According to Ovid’s

Heroides, Paris had been resting against a tree in the valleys of Mount
Ida, when he was startled by the sudden appearance of Hermes and,
in his wake, the three goddesses: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. There
had been an ‘incident’ at the banquet celebrating the marriage of Peleus
and Thetis, to which Eris, Goddess of Discord, had been left uninvited.
Angered by the snub, Eris turned up anyway and threw a golden Apple of
Discord into the proceeding. On the apple was a most simple inscription:
Kallisti, ‘for the fairest one.’ Only, the three goddesses, Hera, Athena,
and Aphrodite, each claimed the apple as their own.
Zeus, mighty Zeus – king of the Gods, ruler of Mount Olympus, god
of the sky and thunder – was reluctant to favour any claim himself, and
instead gave the task to Paris, a mere mortal. And so, as Hermes tells
him, Paris is to be ‘the final judge of beauty.’ He must decide which of
the three goddesses ‘has such beauty/that will conquer the other two.’
No, it was no easy decision that Paris had to make. ‘My frightened heart
took comfort, I became bold/enough to study each one of them./All
were worthy; I sighed because only one/could win.’
To sway him in his decision, each of the three goddesses used their
powers to bribe Paris. Hera offered to make him king of Europe and
Asia; Athena offered wisdom and skill in war. But the decision was no

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4 Introduction

easier: ‘How could I choose between power and/a courageous heart?’

Finally, Aphrodite – ‘she who causes love’ – offered Paris the love of the
world’s most beautiful woman, Helen of Sparta. Aphrodite is effortlessly
beautiful, sexual, and charming, and her gift is well-received: Paris
awards her the Apple of Discord, at once earning the love of the beau-
tiful Helen and the enmity of the Greeks (Paris’ subsequent abduction
of Helen from Sparta is the mythological basis for the Trojan War).

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In a sense, the Judgement of Paris might be seen as the prototypical
beauty contest: the contest which Eris initiates sets the three goddesses
against each other, vying for the approval of Paris. But it is a contest in
which Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, holds the upper hand: not only is
she physically beautiful herself, but she also offers Paris the hand of the
most beautiful mortal, Helen of Sparta. But the mythologised Judgement
of Paris also serves a different purpose: it highlights the importance of
physical beauty, or at least, the fact that human beings have always
taken an interest in the beauty of others (although, of course, in the
Judgement of Paris, it is a specific beauty that is being judged – the
beauty of women).
But the interest does not end there: a consistent theme throughout
the history of beauty has been a quest for its secrets. Attempting
to define and explain what makes an object or individual beautiful
has consumed some of the world’s greatest minds. Pythagoras and
the ancient Greeks, for example, attempted a mathematico-aesthetical
explanation of beauty, when they argued that it just was a matter of
having the right proportions. And because these proportions – or ‘golden
ratios’ – were universal, the secret to beauty was the same whether we
consider the human face or the dimensions of a building or even music
and literature (Armstrong, 2004; Eco, 2004; Swami, 2007).
So convincing was the Pythagorean explanation of beauty that it
remained virtually unchallenged until the late 18th century. Leonardo
da Vinci, for instance, is said to have designed the proportions of Mona
Lisa according to Pythagorean notions of beauty; certainly, there can be
no denying that his Vitruvian Man conformed to quite precise measure-
ments of the human body which he considered ideal. But da Vinci was
not alone in doing so: architects and writers, artists and designers, all
subscribed to the Platonic thesis that there is an ideal, objective beauty
that can be understood and perceived by all individuals. So long as
an object has the right proportions, everyone will agree that in it is
contained the essence of beauty.
Beginning in the late 18th century, however, a different idea of beauty
began to be raised by philosophers like David Hume and Edmund

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 Adrian Furnham and Viren Swami 5

Burke, for whom beauty was subjective to the individual. Hume’s

(1757: 208–209) thesis on beauty is often held up as a paradigmatic
example of this notion:

Beauty is no quality in things themselves; it exists merely in the

mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a
different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where

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another is sensible to beauty    To seek in the real beauty, or
deformity, is as fruitless an enquiry, as to pretend to ascertain the
real sweet or real bitter. According to the disposition of the organs,
the same object may be both sweet and bitter; and the proverb has
justly determined it to be fruitless to dispute concerning tastes.

For philosophers like Hume, the subjective nature of beauty meant that
it could only be understood once individual feelings and emotions had
been taken into account. Beauty had firmly been placed in the proverbial
eye of the beholder.

The psychology of beauty

The psychological sciences are relative late-comers to these debates. The

widespread belief that beauty is idiosyncratic, combined with the maxim
that ‘beauty is only skin-deep,’ ensured that the topic of human beauty
remained in psychology’s blind spot until recently. After all, if beauty was
a matter of personal taste, if each of us has her or his own unique idea
of what constitutes beauty, then it makes any scientific analysis of such
preferences extremely difficult. Moreover, if beauty is only skin-deep –
and, by extension, if we should not judge a book by its cover – then
beauty becomes a triviality to be explained away (Langlois et al., 2000).
This is especially true between cultures, where it was thought there was
little consensus in judgements of attractiveness and hence no consistent
effect of physical beauty on social judgements, interactions and beha-
viours. In 1871, for instance, Charles Darwin published his Descent of
Man, in which he amassed an impressive array of evidence highlighting
cross-cultural and historic differences in beauty practices. Whether it
was ‘breasts hanging down to the belt’ or ‘obliquity of the eye’ or
‘teeth    stained black, red and blue’ (quoted in Swami, 2007), Darwin
believed that there existed great variability in idealised beauty from one
culture to the next.
Then, in 1966, Walster, Aronson, Abrahams, and Rottmann advert-
ised a ‘computer dance,’ in which participants would ostensibly be
paired on a blind date by a super-computer based on their similarity. In

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6 Introduction

reality, the experimenters paired the participants in a random manner,

except that no man was paired with a taller woman. During the dance,
participants were asked to rate their date, with Walster et al. (1966)
expecting personalities, intelligence or other such variables to be the
best predictors of liking. Instead, what they found was that the more
attractive participants were favoured as dates over less attractive parti-
cipants, and overall, physical attractiveness was the best predictor of

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mutual liking. Indeed, six months after the dance, partners who were
similar in terms of physical attractiveness were more likely to still have
been dating.
Walster et al.’s (1966) serendipitous finding was the catalyst for
interest in physical attractiveness within the psychological sciences. A
great many studies began to document the important, though often
surreptitious, role that physical attractiveness plays in our daily lives
(see Patzer, 2002; Swami & Furnham, 2007). Our first impressions of
strangers, for example, are based almost entirely on non-verbal cues
(Baron, Byrne, & Branscombe, 2006), particularly physical appearance
(Park, 1986). When we meet someone for the first time, we tend to focus
on information that we believe will provide cues about that person’s
personality, principles, and values – which typically means categorising
individuals based on their looks.
Over the years, numerous studies and reviews of the literature have
shown that physical attractiveness and appearance has a predictable
effect on the judgements that people make about others (Dion, 1974;
Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972; Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo,
1991; Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid, 1977). In general, we imbue attractive
individuals with perceived positive qualities – including social compet-
ence, intelligence, dominance and psychological adjustment – and we
shower them with more positive social interactions in a wide variety of
everyday domains (Eagly et al. (1991).
These inferences are not only directed at adults: attractive babies tend
to receive greater attention (kissing, cooing, smiling, eye contact, even
cuddling) from their mothers and nurses than less attractive babies
(Corter et al., 1978; Langlois, Ritter, Roggman, & Vaughn, 1991; Stephan
& Langlois, 1984). In school, attractive children are more popular than
unattractive children (Kleck, Richardson, & Ronald, 1974; Langlois &
Styczynski, 1979) and even teachers assume that attractive students are
more likely to be academically successful than less attractive students
(Adams, 1978; Clifford & Hatfield, 1973). In college, too, attractive
students are more likely to receive better grades, regardless of the quality
of their work (cf. Landy & Sigall, 1974).

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 Adrian Furnham and Viren Swami 7

But, of course, it is in adulthood that the pervasive effects of physical

attractiveness truly become evident. Attractive individuals are more
likely to date and marry (Kalick, Zebrowitz, Langlois, & Johnson, 1998;
Udry & Eckland, 1984), and they are also more likely to be helped by
strangers in the event of an accident (Benson, Karabenick, & Lerner,
1976; Sroufe, Chaikin, Cook, & Freeman, 1977; Swami, Chan, Wong,
Furnham, & Tovée, in press). In the courtroom, attractive defendants

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benefit from more lenient sentencing than less attractive defendants and
are less often perceived as guilty (Castellow, Wuensch, & Moore, 1990;
Darby & Jeffers, 1988; Kulka & Kessler, 1978; Solomon & Schopler, 1978;
Stewart, 1980, 1984). And compared with less attractive individuals,
attractive people are more likely to be hired for jobs (Dipboye, Arvey, &
Terpstra, 1977; Swami et al., in press) and receive higher starting salaries
(Dipboye, Fromkin, & Wiback, 1975).

The social and evolutionary psychologies of beauty

In short, then, a wealth of evidence suggests that, despite the exhorta-

tions of received wisdom and age-old maxims, physical beauty has both
an immediate and predictable effect on social interactions (Langlois et
al., 2000). Within psychology, two relatively distinct bodies of work have
developed in an attempt to answer the question of ‘why’ attractive indi-
viduals are perceived and treated more positively. The first of these stems
from social psychological and anthropological work, which highlights
the social and cultural contexts in which attractiveness judgements are
formed and acted upon. Specifically, this view suggests that a great deal
of social learning must take place when it comes to defining standards
of attractiveness, and that both individual proclivities and subcultural
ideals play important roles in defining what we find attractive.
On the other hand, some psychologists have taken an evolutionary
approach to physical attractiveness, arguing that some aspects of
perceptions of beauty may be influenced by our common biological
heritage. This approach can be traced back to the publication of Don
Symons’ Evolution of Human Sexuality in 1979, in which he applied an
explicit evolutionary framework to the science of physical attractive-
ness. Symons’ work inspired a great many other researchers to approach
the topic of human beauty from a fresh perspective and, in the past two
decades especially, research guided by an evolutionary framework has
intensified dramatically (see Swami & Furnham, 2007).
Yet, with very few exceptions, evolutionary and social perspectives
on human physical attractiveness have rarely been combined within a

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8 Introduction

more general theoretical framework. In a recent account, Swami and

Furnham (2007) lamented this fact, and argued that neither an evolu-
tionary nor a social psychological approach in isolation is sufficient to
understand the science of human beauty. Of course, the different paths
taken by social and evolutionary psychologists in attempting to under-
stand human beauty stems from their different perspectives. The point
remains, however, that in isolation neither perspective can account for

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the myriad of different factors that affect our attraction to others.

Body beautiful

This, then, is the primary aim of the present volume: we have brought
together seminal work from evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives,
which explore the questions of what our attractiveness preferences are
and why we find certain others physically attractive. The research and
theoretical contributions presented in this volume offer a fresh perspective
to understanding the perception of attractiveness, within evolutionary,
cognitive, social, motivational, and cultural contexts. The only caveat we
introduce is that these contributions focus specifically (though not exclus-
ively) on the human body. The simple reason for this is that much psycho-
logical research has been devoted to human facial attractiveness, to the
detriment of bodily beauty (see Rhodes & Zebrowitz, 2002).
As might be expected, the human body is an important site of beauty
practices (Swami, 2006), and the focus on bodily beauty is not alien to
either evolutionary or sociocultural researchers. In terms of the former,
for instance, a great deal of research time and expertise has been spent
on defining the characteristics of ideal feminine and masculine beauty
(see Swami & Furnham, 2007). This body of work has focussed quite
specifically on the female waist-to-hip ratio as an index of women’s
bodily beauty (McBurney & Streeter, Chapter 2), arguing that because a
low waist-to-hip ratio was correlated with women’s health and fertility
in evolutionary history, men should find such ratios attractive today.
Others agree that it is useful to study the human body, but disagree
as to the utility of the waist-to-hip ratio as an index of women’s phys-
ical attractiveness. Fan (Chapter 3) presents the volume-height index as
a more accurate predictor of both women’s and men’s attractiveness,
whereas Bateson and colleagues (Chapter 4) take issue with the way
in which women’s attractiveness has been studied. Instead, they find
that overall body weight may be a more important – and accessible –
factor in defining what it means to be beautiful, at least for women. The
most important conclusion to emerge from these chapters, however, is

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 Adrian Furnham and Viren Swami 9

that there is unlikely to be a single defining characteristic of attractive-

ness (Fan, Chapter 3; Bateson, Cornelissen, & Tovée, Chapter 4); rather,
body shape, body weight and possibly other characteristics (e.g., the
leg-to-body ratio, skin tone and so on; Swami, Einon, & Furnham, 2006;
Smith, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 2007) all contribute to men’s and women’s
physical attractiveness.
Another important conclusion to emerge from these chapters is

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that there is great cross-cultural variability in what is perceived as an
attractive body. Scott et al. (Chapter 5) examine ideals of body weight
in Bangladesh and Britain, and describe how such ideals may be intric-
ately linked with differences in socioeconomic status. Similarly, Tovée,
Furnham, and Swami (Chapter 7) document shifting patterns of body
weight ideals in South Africa and Britain, and show how this is asso-
ciated with similarly changing patterns of what is perceived as healthy
body weights. Finally, Yu and colleagues (Chapter 6) show how, in a
population of Matsigenka Amerindians, mate choice varies within the
same individual depending on the sociocultural role of the potential
mate. In short, these chapters highlight the way in which socioeconomic
and cultural contexts interact with evolved biology to alter perceptions
of an attractive body.
The contributions to this volume also make important theoret-
ical advancements in our understanding of human beauty. Einon
(Chapter 8) questions whether attractiveness ideals really do reflect
an evolved mechanism for choosing fertile mates; rather, she suggests
that there may be alternative adaptive explanations for such ideals,
which evolutionary perspectives will need to incorporate. Other chapters
highlight the importance of incorporating more inclusive perspectives
on human physical attractiveness: Johnson and Tassinary (Chapter 9)
explore how body shapes affect evaluative social judgements, whereas
Nelson, Pettijohn, and Galak (Chapter 10) examine the cognitive and
motivational states that give rise to predictable variation in attractive-
ness ideals.
An important final contribution of this volume comes from the expli-
citly sociocultural perspective taken by some researchers (Hildebrandt &
Latner, Chapter 11; Smolak & Murnen, Chapter 12; Calogero, Boroughs,
& Thompson, Chapter 13). These chapters, which focus on research
conducted in the West, highlight the many different ways in which
social learning and political contexts influence ideals of attractive-
ness. Importantly, these chapters also explicate the ways in which an
unhealthy pursuit of such ideals can sometimes result in ‘normative
discontent,’ including body image and eating disorders. These are topics

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10 Introduction

of study that are rarely considered within the evolutionary psychological

scheme, and their discussion here serves to highlight key aspects of the
literature in which a combined perspective will be fruitful.
Attempts to provide definitive answers to the persistent quest for
human beauty have typically relied on either objective or subjective
perspectives. The dominant paradigm for some years now, derived
from evolutionary psychology, argues that there are objective criteria

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of attractiveness which most, if not all, individuals perceive and agree
upon, because these were shaped by their common evolutionary history.
However, we believe that the pendulum is now swinging back: most
contemporary accounts of attractiveness have highlighted the way in
which both sociocultural and evolutionary pathways influence the
construction and reconstruction of beauty ideals.
Rather than there being consistent ideals of beauty across individuals
or cultures, any true understanding of beauty must analyse the way in
which individuals incorporate, either consciously or otherwise, biolo-
gical and subcultural ideals of attractiveness (Swami & Furnham, 2007).
The chapters in this book highlight these themes and illustrate the
productive nature of work that combines different perspectives within
a single over-arching perspective. As the contributors to this volume
argue, bodily attractiveness is a complex phenomenon, which in turn
requires comprehensive methods of research and analysis. Certainly,
this is a premise known to artists and novelists, such as Giovanni Ruffini:

The perception of the beautiful is gradual, and not a lightning revel-

ation; it requires not only time, but some study.

References
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Benson, P. L., Karabenick, S. A., & Lerner, R. M. (1976). Pretty pleases: The effects
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Corter, C., Trehub, S., Boukydis, C., Ford, L., Celhoffer, L., & Minde, K. (1978).
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Dion, K. K. (1974). Children’s physical attractiveness and sex as determinants of
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Dion, K. K., Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal
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Eagly, E. H., Ashmore, R. D., Makhijani, M. G., & Longo, L. C. (1991). What
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Part II
Methodological Critiques

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2
Waist-to-Hip Ratios and Female
Attractiveness: Comparing Apples,
Oranges, and Pears

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Donald H. McBurney and Sybil A. Streeter

An evolutionary approach to female attractiveness predicts that men

should prefer honest signals of health, youth, and fertility in potential
mates (Buss, 1989). Singh (1993a, 1993b) proposed that the waist-to-hip
ratio (WHR) was a signal of female fertility, and thus served as a measure
of attractiveness. How revolutionary this approach was can be seen by
reviewing what leading books on social psychology said concerning
attractiveness before Singh’s work. In Baron and Byrne’s (1994) leading
textbook of the time, the chapter on attractiveness has a section entitled,
‘What, exactly, determines attractiveness?’ In it they say, ‘[It] seems
to be difficult to specify precisely what cues people utilize to evaluate
attractiveness’ (Baron & Byrne, 1994: 290). Baron and Byrne (1994)
discussed the importance of childlike and mature facial features. They
also reviewed work using computer-generated composite faces which
showed that average faces were most attractive. Concerning the body,
they cited research showing the attractiveness of medium-sized breasts
and a slim figure (Baron & Byrne, 1994: 291). Another leading book
(Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 1994: 381) asked the question, ‘What is
beautiful, anyway?’ and answered by stating that, ‘From early childhood
on, the media tell us what is beautiful    ’.
What made Singh’s work so revolutionary was not only that it gave
us the WHR as a measure of attractiveness, but it also gave an adaptive
explanation of what had previously either been taken for granted or
explained essentially atheoretically. We now know that ‘female attract-
iveness at a glance provides a multitude of information essential for
a male’s reproductive success’ (Singh, 2006: 43). Further, the WHR is
closely related to a number of variables associated with a woman’s
fertility.

15

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16 Methodological Critiques

Before puberty, boys and girls have similar WHRs of about 1.0.
As women approach menopause, their WHRs rise until once again it
approaches that of males (Kirschner & Samojlik, 1991). In addition,
Singh (1993a, 1993b) reviewed a considerable body of evidence that
fertility is associated with the WHR. The rise in estrogen at puberty is not
only necessary for fertility, but contributes to a lower WHR. ‘Women
with higher WHRs and low body mass index (BMI) have more diffi-

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culty getting pregnant and have their first live birth at a later age than
married women with lower WHR’ (Singh, 1993a: 294). Higher WHRs
impair the pregnancy rate of in-vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (Wass,
Waldenstrom, Rossner, & Hellberg, 1997). In a prospective study of
women being treated at a fertility clinic for reasons of male infertility,
the WHR was the single best predictor of pregnancy rates, including BMI
and age. An increase in the WHR of 0.1 yielded a decrease of 30 per cent
in achieving pregnancy (Zaadstra et al., 1993). The WHR is also related
to conditions not directly related to pregnancy, including diabetes,
hypertension, heart attack, stroke, and gallbladder disease (Singh,
1993a).
We believe it is useful to consider the WHR as an example of a fast and
frugal heuristic (Gigerenzer, Todd, & the ABC Research Group, 1999)
that people can use to solve an adaptive problem efficiently. Gigerenzer
and his group (1999) have demonstrated a large number of domains
in which people use a rule of thumb to make a decision more rapidly
than would be possible by a more complete algorithm. In fact, people
are often more accurate when they have less information. We believe
this explains why the WHR is so universal and so powerful a signal of a
female’s desirability.

Critical commentary

Singh’s elegant proposal, however, did not go unchallenged. Some have

found that the WHR preference may be influenced by the range of WHRs
found in local environments, or by scarcity of food resources (Furnham
& Alibhai, 1983; Marlowe & Wetsman, 2001; Marlowe, Apicella, & Reed,
2005; Swami & Tovée, 2005, 2006; Wetsman & Marlowe, 1999; Yu &
Shepard, 1998). Our purpose in this chapter is not to consider what the
‘optimum’ WHR is, but rather the role of the WHR as a measure.
Tassinary and Hansen (1998) criticised Singh’s line drawings as
confounding the WHR with weight. Curiously, however, their own set
of line drawings suffered the same problems, as Henss (2000) pointed

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 Donald H. McBurney and Sybil A. Streeter 17

out. Tassinary and Hansen (1998) claimed to have found that attract-
iveness actually increased with WHR, in direct opposition to all other
investigators, before or after. The point we wish to make with regard
to Tassinary and Hansen (1998) simply concerns the way they plotted
their data. It is well known that ratios can be tricky to work with for a
number of reasons. Here, we are concerned with the problems that arise
because of the several ways they can be plotted. In the present case, we

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consider the ratio of waist size to hip size.
Now, when plotting attractiveness as a function of WHR with a set
of stimuli that vary both by waist and hip size, one has two choices.
One can use the hip as the parameter, and connect all the data points
that have the same size hip. Or one can use waist size as the para-
meter, connecting data points having the same waist size. Tassinary and
Hansen (1998) chose to use waist size as the parameter. This choice
determined their conclusion, because if Tassinary and Hansen’s (1998)
data are plotted in the conventional manner, we see that they show that
attractiveness increases with lower WHR (Streeter & McBurney, 2003), as
others have found. Figure 2.1 shows Tassinary and Hansen’s (1998) data
plotted both ways. The dotted lines show the data the way Tassinary and
Hansen (1998) plotted them, using waist size as the parameter. It appears
that attractiveness increases with WHR. The solid lines show the data

4
Average rank

10

12
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
WHR

Figure 2.1 Attractiveness as a function of waist-to-hip ratio (data of Tassinary &

Hansen, 1998). Solid lines connect figures with the same hip size. Dotted lines
connect figures with the same waist size (Streeter & McBurney, 2003).

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18 Methodological Critiques

plotted in the conventional way, with hip size as the parameter, and the
conventional relationship is demonstrated, namely that attractiveness
is greatest at around a WHR of 0.70.
This effect is not an artefact of these data. Consider the area of a
rectangle which, of course, equals height times width. If we plotted the
area of a set of rectangles as a function of the ratio of their height to
width, we could show either that area increased or decreased with the

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height-to-width ratio, depending on whether we connected data points
by height or width. Thus, Tassinary and Hansen’s (1998) conclusions
depend completely on their choice of method of plotting their data.
Which method of plotting the data is appropriate? Fortunately we need
not make the choice, because the data of Streeter and McBurney (2003)
showed the usual relationship no matter which way they are plotted,
when attractiveness is adjusted for the effect of weight (see Figures 2.2
and 2.3). In addition, a replication using Tassinary and Hansen’s (1998)
line drawings showed the usual preference for a WHR of 0.70, without
adjusting for the effect of weight (Forestell, Humphrey, & Stewart, 2004).

1.50
Adjusted attractiveness value

1.00

0.50

0.00

–0.50

–1.00

–1.50
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.9 1.2
WHR

Large hip, Large hip, Large hip,

Large chest Medium chest Small chest
Medium hip, Medium hip, Medium hip,
Large chest Medium chest Small chest
Small hip, Small hip, Small hip,
Large chest Medium chest Small chest

Figure 2.2 Attractiveness values adjusted for the effect of estimated weight as a
function of waist-to-hip ratio (Streeter & McBurney, 2003).

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 Donald H. McBurney and Sybil A. Streeter 19

1.5
Adjusted attractiveness value

0.5

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0

–0.5

–1

–1.5
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.9 1.2
WHR

Large waist, Large waist, Large waist,

Large chest Medium chest Small chest
Medium waist, Medium waist, Medium waist,
Large chest Medium chest Small chest
Small waist, Small waist, Small waist,
Large chest Medium chest Small chest

Figure 2.3 Same data as Figure 2.2 plotted by connecting figures with the same
waist size, following Tassinary and Hansen (1998) (Streeter & McBurney, 2003).

The relative importance of characteristics

Others have criticised the WHR work on the basis that the line draw-
ings are artificial (Henss, 2000; Swami & Furnham, 2006). We have
two responses to that objection. First, several studies (Henss, 2000;
Singh, 1994; Streeter & McBurney, 2003) have used photographs and
found results consistent with those using line drawings. But, second
and more important: artificial stimuli, like artificial laboratory situations
in general, often permit an investigator to isolate a variable so that its
effects are seen more clearly, rather than less so (Mook, 1983).
Another challenge to Singh’s work comes from Tovée and his group
(see Bateson, Cornelissen, & Tovée, Chapter 4). They have shown that
the WHR may account for less variance than body mass index (BMI), and
conclude that the WHR is thus unimportant. This analysis overlooks the
fact that whether one variable accounts for more variance than a second
in no way invalidates the importance of the second variable. This may

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 20 Methodological Critiques

1
Log matching luminance

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0

–1

–2
–4.5 –3.5 –2.5 –1.5 –0.5 0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5
Log target luminance

Figure 2.4 Replotted data of Jacobsen and Gilchrist (1988). Luminance required
to match the lightness of a target as a function of the overall luminance of the
target and surround. Each line represents a target of different reflectance (white
to black). Note that the luminance required to match the target varies little over
a range of approximately 6 log units (a million-to-one range).

be seen in perception of lightness (i.e., the dimension of white to black).

Consider a patch of light surrounded by another (see Figure 2.4). Two
variables, level of overall illumination, and the ratio of reflectances of
the center and surround, are considered. It is interesting that varying
the level of overall illumination over an enormous range has very little
effect on the perception of lightness (e.g., Jacobsen & Gilchrist, 1988),
as shown by the fact that the lines are practically flat over a range of
approximately 6 log units (a million-to-one range).
An everyday example of this point is the robust principle of white-
ness constancy; namely, that surfaces appear to have the same level of
whiteness whether indoors or in full sunlight. Ratio of reflectances of
the target and surround, however, has a very large effect. This set of facts
in no way implies that level of illumination can be ignored in favor of
ratio of reflectances, for it is absolutely necessary that there be some
level of illumination in order to see anything at all.
Many examples come to mind where multiple variables influence
a particular dependent measure. Perhaps an everyday example will
suffice. The quality of a loaf of bread depends on the amount of

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 Donald H. McBurney and Sybil A. Streeter 21

flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and water; the extent to which it is kneaded;
and the temperature and time of baking. Certain of these variables by
themselves will have an all-or-none role in determining the quality
of the resulting loaf. It is pointless to ask how much variance each
accounts for.
Returning to physical attractiveness, it is quite pointless to consider
the differences in the variance in attractiveness accounted for by different

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variables. We could vary the apparent age of the figure by varying such
signs as wrinkles in the skin and the greying of hair, or we could add
large variations in symmetry, visible signs of disease, and so forth. Any
of these would no doubt have a considerable effect on attractiveness.
For example, Furnham, Lavancy, and McClelland (2001) found that
facial attractiveness had a larger effect than WHR on overall attract-
iveness. This result illustrates that the effect of one particular variable
depends strongly on what variables are manipulated and how they are
manipulated.
In this connection, it is particularly significant that almost all of the
studies of this subject have used young adult women, ignoring variables
other than the WHR that signal age. We are aware of one study (Furnham
& Reeves, 2006) that varied signals of age along with the WHR. Larger
eyes and mouth, and smaller nose increased neoteny, and the reverse
decreased it. They found that neoteny was a significant determinant of
attractiveness, but the WHR was not. This result makes our point because
a previous study (Henss, 2000) using the same pictures, but varying
only the WHR, had found significant effects of WHR. Although one can
imagine experiments pitting many other variables against the WHR, and
one could no doubt show the WHR accounting for any arbitrarily small
percent of the variance, nothing would be gained in our understanding
of the importance of the WHR.

Statistical analyses

Next, we turn to the question of the equations and transformations used

to describe the data in this area. We must distinguish between two very
different purposes for using transformations and mathematical equa-
tions. The first purpose, and perhaps most familiar to most people today,
is to satisfy the assumptions of statistical tests. One common example
is taking the logarithm of all data points to normalise a skewed distri-
bution. For example, it is common for a distribution to have a mean
close to the lower end of the distribution, with a long tail toward the
high end. Transforming all scores to the logarithm of the numbers will

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22 Methodological Critiques

tend to make the distribution symmetrical because the numbers 10, 100,
and 1,000 have common logarithms of 1, 2, and 3. So if the mean of
the distribution were 100, with 10 and 1,000 as one standard deviation
below and above the mean, respectively, then the logarithms of the
scores would be symmetrical about the mean. Closely related is the use
of various equations such as the polynomial, logarithmic, power, and
so on, in order to compare sets of data that display non-linear relation-

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ships. These are an essential part of the statistical armamentarium. They
must not be confused, however, with the second purpose of using trans-
formations and mathematical equations, which is for empirical curve
fitting.
The purpose of empirical curve fitting is to determine the mathem-
atical relationship between variables in order to discover fundamental
processes revealed by the data. Consider the data from Tovée, Swami,
Furnham, and Mangalparsad (2006; see also Tovée, Furnham, & Swami,
Chapter 7) (see Figure 2.5). There, a polynomial equation is used to
analyse the difference between various populations in the effect of BMI
on attractiveness ratings. There is no problem in this application because
it served the purpose of statistics. However, it would be a serious mistake
to conclude that the polynomial describes any underlying processes
relating to attractiveness, in particular the separate roles of BMI and
WHR. Note that the curves systematically underestimate attractiveness
at a BMI of about 17 to 25 kg/m2 , depending on the particular sample,
but especially the case for the British Caucasians (squares) and the
Britons of African origin (stars). The polynomial systematically misses
the true relationship. But the divergence between the curve and the data
becomes most obvious above a BMI of 35, where the fitted line begins to
increase, and if shown, would continue to increase dramatically above
45. It is clear that the curve does not reveal any fundamental processes
underlying attractiveness.
Empirical curve fitting, on the other hand, has as its goal revealing
underlying processes. A particularly well-known example for sensory
psychologists would be the question of the validity of S. S. Stevens’
power law of sensation, compared to alternatives such as Fechner’s
logarithmic law, and Helson’s adaptation level theory. Stevens said that
the magnitude of sensation is proportional to the stimulus magnitude
raised to a power [Sensation = k(Stimulus Intensity)n ]. Fechner said that
sensation is proportional to the logarithm of stimulus intensity [Sensa-
tion = k(log Stimulus Intensity)]. Helson’s equation is too complicated
to be instructive here, and the significance of that fact will become
relevant soon.

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 23

(a)
7

6
Attractiveness rating
5

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3

1
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
BMI

(b)
7

6
Attractiveness rating

1
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
BMI

(c)
7

6
Attractiveness rating

1
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
BMI

Figure 2.5 Data showing attractiveness ratings as a function of BMI (Tovée,

Swami, Furnham, & Mangalparsad, 2006). Although the curves adequately serve
the purpose of statistical tests, they do not describe any psychologically mean-
ingful relationship in the data.

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24 Methodological Critiques

3
y = 0.47x 0.3
2.5
y = log10(x)
2

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1.5
Y

0.5

0
1 50 100 150 200 250 300
X

Figure 2.6 A power function and a logarithmic function that are similar to each
other. Choosing which function is better to describe a set of data involves theor-
etical considerations as well as goodness of fit of the data.

Choosing among these approaches, and their respective equations,

is more than simply considering the relative fits of data to theoretical
curves, because a power function and a logarithmic function can look
very similar in particular cases. In such situations, it is necessary to
consider the equations in a broader context. For example, data that fit
a power function with a slope of 0.3 can also be fit quite well by a
logarithmic equation, as shown in Figure 2.6. But a power function with
a slope greater than 1 looks nothing like a logarithmic equation, because
it is positively accelerating (curved upward, and increasing) rather than
negatively accelerating (curved downward, but increasing). In the case
of Stevens versus Fechner and scaling of sensory magnitude, it is thus
critically important to note that some senses, such as pain of electric
shock, and the heaviness of lifted weights, show slopes greater than 1,
greatly weakening the case for Fechner’s logarithmic equation. If one
only wished to consider the dimension of brightness, it would be hard
to choose between Stevens and Fechner. But when one realises that
brightness is only one of a large number of sensory dimensions that
vary considerably in slope, Stevens gets the nod.
Further, adding more variables, and hence, more mathematical terms,
will always increase one’s ability to fit a particular set of data. As Stevens
(1966: 395–396) says with respect to Helson’s more complex model,

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 Donald H. McBurney and Sybil A. Streeter 25

‘[Helson’s] formulation contains several constants that are supposed to

be evaluated ad hoc. Consequently a decisive test of the quantitative
model becomes rather elusive. But notwithstanding our dismay at the
hyperflexibility of the quantitative model, we must admit that a wide
spectrum of applications has been recounted    Into a loose tent and a
loose theory much can be crowded.’
So how would we approach empirical curve fitting in the case of BMI,

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WHR, and attractiveness? First, we avoid functions such as the polyno-
mial, where one can account for more of the variance simply by adding
more parameters. In fact, a polynomial equation can account for any
arbitrary amount of the variance by adding more variables (Weisberg,
2005).
Closely related is the tack taken by Fan and colleagues (Fan, Chapter 3;
Fan, Liu, Wu, & Dai, 2004), who have considered the contribution
to attractiveness of many variables other than WHR. They found that
attractiveness can be well described as a power function of BMI (for
stimuli with a BMI of 16 or greater, which simplifies the relationship
by considering only normal-weight and heavier figures). This is a large
improvement over the polynomial equation used by the Tovée group
because it avoids the problem raised above. Fan et al. (2004) then defined
another variable, the volume-height index (VHI) that was slightly better
than the very similar BMI in predicting attractiveness.
Fan et al. (2004) additionally found the ratio of waist-height to chin-
height (WHC) to be slightly more important than WHR. (This ratio is
larger when legs are longer, and is an indicator of youth.) This approach
of considering many different variables may be suitable for accounting
for overall attractiveness, especially in the context of clothing design,
but does not invalidate the importance of any particular measure, as we
discussed above. Consideration of more variables will always reduce the
relative contribution of any particular variable.
Second, we look for dimensions that are relatively simple: BMI (or
VHI) and WHR qualify. Tovée and his group have taken a different
approach. They treated the outline of the torso as a waveform, and used
the mathematical technique of waveform analysis to investigate contri-
butions of shape to attractiveness (e.g., Tovée, Hancock, Mahmoodi,
Singleton, & Cornelissen, 2002). They measured 68 slices of the torso
and legs and plotted the size measures against position as a wave-
form. Fourier analysis of this waveform deconstructed the waveform
into its constituent parts. Such a process, however, permits an arbitrary
number of components of shape to be considered, without any a priori
consideration. For this reason, it shares with the polynomial function

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26 Methodological Critiques

the arbitrariness of its results, which is fine if one’s purpose is simply

statistical. But Tovée et al. (2002) then look for some theoretical basis
for the various principal components of the waveform analysis, which
brings us to the next consideration.
The third consideration in doing empirical curve fitting is crucially
important, and that is to find theoretical reasons for the relationship.
Once again BMI and WHR are both systematically related to important

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health outcomes, and the list is similar, but not the same. Higher BMI is
related to a long list of diseases (Weeden & Sabini, 2005, and references
therein), including hypertension, adult-onset diabetes, coronary artery
disease, and stroke. Reproductive problems in women associated with
BMI include complications of pregnancy, menstrual irregularities, amen-
orrhea, polycystic ovarian syndrome, increased morbidity for mother
and child, and increased risk of congenital abnormalities.
Higher WHR is negatively predictive of female reproductive health
(Weeden & Sabini, 2005, and references therein), including higher
plasma testosterone, polycystic ovary syndrome, and lower rate of preg-
nancy. WHR was the best predictor of pregnancy rates among the tested
variables, including BMI (Weeden & Sabini, 2005). Although the list of
health outcomes for WHR and BMI partially overlap, the considerable
differences suggest that these are two different but important measures,
each of which gives different information about women’s health.
A striking example of the different information provided by BMI
and WHR has recently been given by Lassek and Gaulin (2006). These
authors point out that the hips and thighs of women store particular fats
that are essential for the development of a baby’s brain during gestation
and lactation. Because these fats are scarce in the diet, they must be
stored before pregnancy, and they are depleted over the woman’s fertile
lifetime. WHR, but not BMI, provides a visible signal of the stores of
these essential fats. Although BMI affects the size of hips and thighs, it is
not possible to evaluate a woman’s store of these crucial fats by looking
at hips and thighs alone. For that purpose it is necessary to evaluate
WHR. Thus, Lassek and Gaulin’s (2006) finding suggests another reason
for the importance of WHR as a signal of fertility.

Conclusion

In summary, Singh’s proposition that WHR is a measure of female

attractiveness because of its usefulness as a signal of fertility remains
a powerful example of the evolved human mind. Those who have
proposed that other measures are capable of predicting more of the

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 Donald H. McBurney and Sybil A. Streeter 27

variance confuse curve fitting for the purpose of statistics with curve
fitting to reveal underlying psychological functions.
Much in the popular press is made about the relative health benefits
of ‘pear-shaped’ bodies over ‘apple-shaped’ ones. We contend that using
BMI gives information mainly about the plumpness of the fruit, whereas
WHR gives information about the kind of fruit. Plumpness can be an
important determinant of quality when in the produce aisle. Pitting BMI

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against WHR, however, is more like contrasting apples with oranges. We
believe that in the case of judging attractiveness it is more important to
compare apples to pears.

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3
The Volume-Height Index as a
Body Attractiveness Index
Jintu Fan

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The study of bodily attractiveness is important to evolutionary
psychology and contributes more generally to an understanding of
beauty. The fundamental questions within this literature are: how do we
judge bodily beauty, and what are the physical cues for bodily attract-
iveness? And finally, are these cues related to health and reproduction?
This chapter reviews past works on bodily attractiveness, introduces a
new body index – the volume-height index (VHI) – and discusses the
influence of VHI and other body parameters on bodily attractiveness.

Review of past works on bodily attractiveness

The ancient Greeks believed that the world is beautiful because there is
a certain proportion, order and harmony in its elements (Gaut & Lopes,
2001). For centuries, classical Greek body proportions were considered
ideal (Horn & Gurel, 1981). For both the Greek male and female
ideals, the height of the figure was approximately seven-and-a-half head
lengths, with the fullest part at the hipline and wrist level dividing the
total length exactly in half. The fullest part of the bust or chest was
located two head lengths from the crown. The waistline, which coincides
with the bend of the elbow, was two-and-two-third head lengths from
the crown, whereas the knees and ankles were five-and-a-half and seven
head lengths from the crown, respectively. Male and female proportions
differed only in circumference ratios. For the ideal female, the width
of the hip in frontal view was almost the same as the shoulder width;
the shoulder width of the ideal male, by contrast, was greater than the
width of his hips.
Despite the wide appeal of these Greek body proportions, the concept
or perception of the ideal body has never been static. It varies from time

29

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30 Methodological Critiques

to time and from culture to culture. From the 15th through the 17th
centuries, a plump body shape was considered sexually appealing and
fashionable, at least in the West. The ideal woman was portrayed as
plump, big-breasted and, as a consequence, maternal. This observation
has recently been confirmed by Swami, Gray, and Furnham’s (2007)
empirical study on 17th century paintings by Pieter Pauwel Rubens. By
measuring the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) of the nude female beauties in

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the paintings by Rubens, they showed that the mean WHR of Rubens’
women was 0.776, suggesting that the ideal female figure during that
period was plumper than it is today (Swami et al., 2007).
Indeed, by the 19th century, the ideal had shifted to a more
voluptuous, corsetted figure, idealising a more hourglass shape. In
contemporary Western culture, thinness – coupled with somewhat
inconsistently large breasts and a more toned, muscular physique –
has become the ideal of feminine beauty (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe,
& Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). Detailed discussions of the ideal female body
image of today are provided in Calogero, Boroughs, and Thompson
(Chapter 13).
In addition to historical factors, cultural differences play an important
role in the concept of bodily beauty. For example, traditional Chinese
culture associated plumpness with affluence and longevity, whereas
Arab cultures associate heavier body weights with female fertility
(Nasser, 1988). In one study, Yu and Shepard (1998) investigated men’s
preferences for women’s bodies in a culturally isolated Matsigenka
village in southeast Peru, and discovered that the body preferences of
the Matsigenka males were strikingly different from those prevalent in
a more modern, Western culture. Matsigenka males ranked the ‘over-
weight’ female figure as most attractive, healthy and preferable for
marriage.
Within this literature, and in spite of historical and cultural factors,
the WHR and body mass index (BMI) have been widely regarded
as the most important cues to female bodily attractiveness. Earlier
researchers suggested that a low WHR (i.e., a curvaceous body) corres-
ponds to the optimal fat distribution for female health (Folsom et
al., 1993; Singh, 1993a, 1993b) and high fertility (DeRidder et al.,
1990; Zaadstra et al., 1993), and hence female attractiveness. In Singh’s
(1993a, 1993b, 1994a, 1994b, 1995a) studies, ratings of attractiveness
were elicited using a set of line-drawn figures of women’s bodies with
varying WHR and three body weight categories. Singh found that men
and women aged between 18 and 85 years regarded normal-weight
female figures with a low WHR (typically centred around 0.70) as

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 Jintu Fan 31

more attractive than those with a higher WHR with the same or lower
body weight. In addition, the normal-weight figures were judged as
being more attractive than the underweight figures, which were more
attractive than the overweight. Additionally, an overweight woman with
a low WHR was judged to be more attractive than a slim woman with a
high WHR.
Singh’s findings were supported by Furnham, Tan, and McManus

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(1997), who found the WHR to be the most parsimonious measure
of bodily attractiveness. In this and other studies, an optimal WHR
for attractiveness of 0.70 was suggested, corroborating Singh’s conclu-
sions (Furnham et al., 1997; Singh, 1993a, 1993b, 1994a, 1994b, 1995a).
Furnham, Dias, and McClelland (1998) further investigated the effect
of breast size on judgments of female attractiveness and found that the
effect of breast size was dependent on overall body weight and WHR. For
females with a low WHR, large breasts enhanced attractiveness ratings,
whereas for females with a high WHR, the reverse was true.
Recent studies by Tovée and colleaguess (Tovée & Cornelissen, 1999,
2001; Tovée, Maisey, Emery, & Cornelissen, 1999; Tovée, Hancock,
Mahmoodi, Singleton, & Cornelissen, 2002), however, have shown that
BMI, rather than WHR, is much more important to female bodily attract-
iveness. Their analyses showed that BMI accounted for over 70 per cent
of the variance in attractive ratings, whereas WHR only accounted for
less than 5 per cent. They further argued that the perimeter-area ratio
(i.e., the path length around the perimeter of a figure divided by the
area within the perimeter) provides a good visual proxy of BMI, and
the importance of WHR in Singh’s findings was due to the fact that the
WHRs of Singh’s line-drawn figures co-varied with BMI (see Bateson,
Cornelissen, & Tovée, Chapter 4).
Tovée and Cornelissen (2001) believe that the reason for WHR being so
poor a predictor of attractiveness could be due to the difficulty in accur-
ately judging WHRs. Tovée et al. (2002) further argue that features such
as the WHR may be used to discriminate broad categories, such as male
from female or pregnant from non-pregnant women (i.e., a between-
category discrimination), and discrimination within the category of
potential partners may use cues such as BMI and other cues, such as the
proportions of the body or body shape. These arguments remain open to
debate. Since the WHR is one of these body proportions and since BMI is
an indicator of overall fitness and easy to estimate by viewers, one might
argue that BMI is first used to discriminate broad categories in terms of
underweight or emaciated, medium weight, and overweight. Discrim-
ination within each category then requires other traits, including skin

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32 Methodological Critiques

tanning (Smith, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 2007) and other body propor-
tional parameters such as the WHR, leg-to-body ratio (LBR), bust size,
and the position of the hips (Fan, Dai, Qian, Chau, & Liu, 2006).

3D body images as stimuli for body attractiveness research

Until recently, work on bodily attractiveness have used line-drawn

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figures (Singh, 1993a, 1993b, 1994a, 1994b, 1995a) or front- and
side-view photographic images (Tovée & Cornelissen, 2001; Tovée et
al., 1999, 2002). These findings have not been tested using three-
dimensional (3D) stimuli. Could previous findings be the result of the
limitation in stimulus sets and are there possibly other body parameters
important in bodily attractiveness? In order to answer these questions, it
is essential to use 3D body images as stimuli for attractiveness judgment.
We (Fan, Liu, Wu, & Dai, 2004), therefore, used 3D body-scanning tech-
nology to obtain 3D body images and various body measurements of
different types of female bodies (Figures 3.1a and 3.1b show examples of
the scanned bodies). Recently, colour 3D female body images obtained
by digital camcorder were also used for the investigation of body attract-
iveness (Smith et al., 2007).

3D body scanning technology

3D body scanning technology is a major technological development in

body metrics that has developed in the late 1980s and 1990s. A compre-
hensive review of the development of this technology was recently
provided by Fan, Yu, and Hunter (2004). 3D body scanning technologies
use different kinds of techniques for making non-contact measurements
of the human body. The most common techniques are phase meas-
urement profilometry and laser triangulation techniques. Phase meas-
urement profilometry (PMP) is applied in the commercial [TC]2 body
scanner, in which structured lights are projected onto the body surface
to create a curved, two-dimensional patterned grating. The patterned
images on the body surface are then captured by CCD cameras to be used
to derive the 3D profile of the body surface. Laser triangulation tech-
niques are applied in a number of other commercial body scanners such
as Cyberware, Techmath. With this technique, a laser beam is projected
by a sensor towards the body surface, and the direction of the reflected
laser beam is used to derive the distance between the sensor lens and the
incident point on the body surface. From this distance and the known
position of the sensor lens, the 3D coordinates of the incident point is

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 Jintu Fan 33

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Figure 3.1 An example of a movie still in front view (a) and side view (b).

determined. By determining numerous points on the body surface to

form a point-cloud, 3D body measurements are then achieved.
3D body scanning technology has an important application in the
clothing industry, in terms of improving garment sizing, improving

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34 Methodological Critiques

garment fitting, and computerised pattern generation for mass

customisation fitting (Fan, Yu, et al., 2004). The huge potential of
applying 3D body scanning technology for psychological research, in
particular for studies of human physical attractiveness, is also recognised
(Treleaven, Furnham, & Swami, 2006).

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Discovery of VHI as a body attractiveness index

We applied 3D body scanning technology to obtain 3D body images

and investigated the relationship between the attractiveness ratings of
these 3D stimuli and the various body measurements and their derived
ratios. In our first experiment (Fan et al., 2004), scanned bodies images
of 31 Caucasian women were made into short movie clips and shown
to 54 Hong Kong Chinese participants (29 men and 25 women), who
were asked to rate the images for attractiveness. Thereafter, we applied
a multiple linear regression method and an associated stepwise vari-
able selection method to explore the possible relationship between the
attractiveness ratings and the female body measurements or proportions.
The multiple linear regression method is a statistical method for estab-
lishing the relationship between a dependent variable and a number
of independent variables. The stepwise variable selection method is a
statistical technique to choose statistically significant independent vari-
ables. In our study, the logarithm of the attractiveness ratings were
considered as a dependent variable and the numerous body measure-
ments or proportions were considered as independent variables.
When bodily attractiveness ratings were regressed onto BMI and WHR,
we found:
logAR = 3314 − 0888logBMI − 2212logWHR
(1)
R2 = 0821 p < 015
where, log(AR) is the logarithm of attractiveness ratings, log(BMI) is the
logarithm of BMI and log(WHR) is the logarithm of WHR. Equation
(1) means the logarithm of attractiveness ratings is linearly related to
the logarithm of BMI and the logarithm of WHR. The total variance of
attractiveness ratings explained by Equation (1) is 82.1 per cent, with
log(BMI) accounting for 80.4 per cent and log(WHR) accounting for the
additional 1.7 per cent.
When the body attractiveness ratings were regressed onto body
volume and height, we found for female observers:
 
V
logAR = −4431 − 1367 log R2 = 09010 p < 005 (2)
H 216

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 Jintu Fan 35

where, V is the body volume and H is the body height. For male
observers:
 
V
logAR = −4046 − 1382 log R2 = 08899 p < 005 (3)
H 199

It was clear from this study that about 90 per cent of the variance of the

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attractiveness ratings made by either female or male participants was
explained by the body volume divided by the square of the height. We,
therefore, defined a new index, which we named the Volume-Height
Index (VHI):

V
VHI = (4)
H2
Comparing the percentage of fits of Equations (1), (2) and (3), VHI is
clearly a better predictor of women’s bodily attractiveness than BMI
and WHR. Since no other body measurement or ratio was found to
have a stronger relationship with bodily attractiveness ratings than
VHI in our analysis of the data, we concluded that VHI was the most
important determinant of women’s attractiveness, at least in terms of
the body.
The discovery of VHI from the analyses of our experimental data also
explains why BMI (i.e., body mass divided by the height squared), but
not body mass divided by the height to the power of other magnitudes,
has been identified in the earlier research by Tovée and colleagues
as being an important determinant of women’s bodily attractiveness.
Mathematically speaking, there is a possibility of body mass divided by
the height to the power of other magnitude being a better predictor
of bodily attractiveness than that to the power of two. However, our
analysis showed that BMI (body mass divided by the height to the power
of two) is not simply a choice of convenience, but most probably because
of the strong relationship between BMI and VHI. Our study (Fan, Dai,
et al., 2006) showed that:

VHI = 0586BMI + 6713R2 = 0526 p < 001 (5)

The physical meaning of VHI is in fact the ratio of average cross-sectional

area over height or, in other words, the ratio of the horizontal dimen-
sion over the vertical dimension. Therefore, it is possible that when
people judge the attractiveness of others, they make an estimate of
the ratio of the subjects’ horizontal dimension over the vertical dimen-
sion. Although BMI and VHI are correlated, the finding that VHI, rather

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36 Methodological Critiques

than BMI, is the better visual cue to bodily attractiveness is important,

because it means that women’s bodily attractiveness could be enhanced
by modifying the perception of body volume without changing the
body mass.

Validation of the effects of VHI on women’s bodily

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attractiveness

In the first experiment described above, the number of female body

images was necessarily limited. Further work (Fan, Dai, et al., 2006)
was, therefore, carried out to scan an additional 71 Chinese women
with BMIs ranging from 14.1 to 44.0 kg/m2 (the corresponding VHIs
ranged from 13.3 to 50.5 l/m2 ). Based on an analysis of a total of
102 female body images (i.e., the 31 Caucasian women scanned earlier
and the additional 71 Chinese women), we confirmed that there is
only a weak negative correlation between WHR and attractiveness
ratings (r = −043, p < 001). Moreover, as can be seen from Figures 3.2
and 3.3, VHI is clearly a better predictor of attractiveness ratings
than BMI.
For the range of BMI concerned, the relationship between BMI and
attractiveness ratings could be best fitted by a power law curve, or in

Attractiveness rating vs. BMI

9
8
Attractiveness rating (AR)

7
R 2 = 0.640
6 B

5
A
4
3
2
1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
BMI(kg / m2)

Chinese
Caucasian

Figure 3.2 Plot of female attractiveness ratings versus BMI for 102 real female
stimuli.

10.1057/9780230596887 - The Body Beautiful, Edited by Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham
 Jintu Fan 37

Attractiveness rating vs. VHI

9
8
ARP = 483.83VHI –1.5934
Attractiveness rating(AR)

7 R 2 = 0.897
6
5

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4
3
2
1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
VHI(l/m2)
Caucasian
Chinese
ARP

Figure 3.3 Plot of female attractiveness ratings versus VHI for 102 real female
stimuli.

other words, the attractiveness rating is related to BMI to the power of

a certain magnitude. We had:

AR = 2952BMI−14018 R2 = 0640 p < 001 (6)

with the percentage of fit being 64.0 per cent. The relationship between
VHI and attractiveness ratings could be fitted by the following equation:

AR = 4838VHI−15934 R2 = 0897 p < 001 (7)

with the percentage of fit being 89.7 per cent.

VHI was a particularly useful cue for more ‘masculine’ female bodies,
such as those indicated by points A and B in Figure 3.2, who have relat-
ively high body mass indices but relatively low body volume (for point
A, BMI = 43.97, VHI = 20.46 and AR = 4.01; for point B, BMI = 35.30,
VHI = 17.09 and AR = 5.85). However, even without these two subjects
and using a power law curve to fit the relationship between BMI or VHI
and attractiveness ratings, VHI is still a better predictor of attractive-
ness. If fitted with a power law curve without points A and B, for VHI,
we have:

AR = 48383 · VHI−15934 R2 = 0897 p < 001 (8)

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38 Methodological Critiques

whereas for BMI, we have:

AR = 12472BMI−18883 R2 = 0753 p < 001 (9)

Optimal VHI for women’s bodily attractiveness

For the 102 female stimulus subjects, the highest attractiveness rating was

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accorded to the woman with a VHI of 14.7 l/m2 . There was a trend of
decreasing attractiveness ratings with a further reduction in VHI. Since
there were only six female subjects in the sample having VHIs less than
14.7 l/m2 , and since it is practically impossible to recruit many female
subjects with VHIs of less than 13.0 l/m2 (i.e., underweight and emaci-
ated women), 20 digitally manipulated virtual female figures were gener-
ated using commercially available software to test whether there is an
‘optimal’ VHI value. These virtual images were generated by compressing
the horizontal dimensions of average female body images The virtual
female figures had VHIs ranging from 4.7 to 17.0 l/m2 . For the virtual
female figures, the highest attractiveness rating was accorded to the figure
with a VHI value of 14.1 l/m2 . We, therefore, concluded that there is an
optimal VHI value of about 14.0 l/m2 for women’s bodily attractiveness.
Figure 3.4 shows the plot of attractiveness ratings against VHI for both
the 102 real subjects and the 20 virtual images. Assuming that there
is continuity at the peak, the relationship between VHI and attractive-
ness ratings could be best fitted with two half bell-shaped exponential
curves (i.e., as VHI deviates from its optimum value, attractiveness rating
initially reduces slowly, then very quickly and then further deviations
of VHI do not reduce attractiveness ratings any further):
 −005VHI−142107
AR = e199e VHI ≥ 142 R2 = 0906 p < 001
−02142−VHI086 (10)
AR = e199e VHI < 142 R2 = 0850 p < 001

Judging from the similarity between the trend shown in Figure 3.4 and
that of attractiveness ratings with changing BMI found in the work of
Tovée and colleagues, and from the fact that there is a linear relationship
between BMI and VHI, a similar trend of attractiveness with changing
VHI might be expected if the stimuli used by Tovée and colleagues
(1999) was analysed in the same manner. Moreover, since Tovée and
colleague’s stimuli were rated by Caucasian observers, whereas ours were
rated by Chinese viewers, it is reasonable to believe that VHI is used in
a similar manner by both Chinese and Caucasian observers in judging
bodily attractiveness. In other words, VHI is used as a cue to bodily
attractiveness by people in both Eastern and Western culture.

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 Jintu Fan 39

Attractiveness rating vs. VHI

9
Attractiveness rating(AR) 8
7
– 0.05(VHI –14.2)1.07
ARP = e1.99e
6
5

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4
3
2
0.86
1 ARP = e1.99e –0.2(14.2–VHI)
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
VHI(1/m2)
Caucasian
Chinese
Virtual female
ARP

Figure 3.4 Plot of female attractiveness ratings versus VHI for 102 real female
subjects and 20 virtual female images.

While the general trend of the effect of VHI may be culturally

invariant, the optimal value of VHI may be different for viewers cross-
culturally. From Tovée et al.’s (1999) data, and based on the general rela-
tionship between BMI and VHI, the optimum VHI as rated by Caucasian
viewers would be about 16.0 to 17.5 l/m2 (corresponding to a BMI
of about 18 to 19 kg/m2 ), which is higher than the optimum VHI of
14.2 l/m2 found in our work with Chinese viewers. This difference in the
optimum VHI for different ethnic groups may be the result of differences
in the optimal VHI for health and longevity in different ethnic groups
(Kopelman, 2000; Tovée & Cornelissen, 2001; Winkelgren, 1998). Future
cross-cultural research is needed to examine this possibility.

Effects of VHI on male bodily attractiveness

Applying the same methodology, we have also investigated the rela-

tionship between male bodily attractiveness and various body measure-
ments and their derived ratios (Fan, Dai, Liu, & Wu, 2005). Twenty-five
Caucasian men and 69 Chinese men with BMIs ranging from 17.4 to
30.7 kg/m2 (the corresponding VHI ranged from 15.2 to 44.2 l/m2 ) were

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40 Methodological Critiques

scanned to obtain 3D body measurements, which were then used to

create 3D wire-frame male body images and short movie clips. When
the 94 images were rated for physical attractiveness, we again found
that VHI was the best predictor of men’s bodily attractiveness, followed
by the waist-to-chest ratio (WCR), and finally the abdominal region (or
WHR, with an optimal WHR of 0.8) and BMI.
Figures 3.5(a) and 3.5(b) plot the attractiveness ratings versus VHI. As

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can be seen, the relationship between VHI and attractiveness ratings was
best fitted with a bell-shaped exponential curve:

(a) VHI vs. male attractiveness ratings by female raters

7.00

6.00

5.00

4.00
AR

3.00

2.00
– 0.02|VHI–17.6|1.30
1.00 ARP = e1.70e

0.00
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00
VHI

(b) VHI vs. male attractiveness ratings by male raters

7

4
AR

2
– 0.03 |VHI – 18.0|1.18
1 ARP = e1.74e

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
VHI

Figure 3.5 Plot of VHI versus male attractiveness ratings by female (a) and male
observers (b).

10.1057/9780230596887 - The Body Beautiful, Edited by Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham
 Jintu Fan 41

 −002VHI−176130
ARF = e170e R2 = 0731 p < 001
118 (11)
174e−003VHI−180
ARM = e R2 = 0748 p < 001

where, ARF are attractiveness ratings by female observers and ARM are
attractiveness ratings by male observers. We found an ‘optimum’ VHI for
ARF of 17.6 l/m2 and for ARM of 18.0 l/m2 , respectively. As VHI deviates

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from these optimum values, ratings of attractiveness reduces in a similar
trend as that for female bodily attractiveness.

Effects of other body parameters on attractiveness

The finding that VHI has the strongest relationship with bodily attractive-
ness does not mean other body proportions are not important for physical
attractiveness. In fact, for the ideal body, VHI alone is not sufficient. In
further analysing our data, we have shown that proportionally longer legs,
less deviation from a WHR of 0.7, a narrower bust-width and greater bust-
depth (or a larger bust) and a higher position of the hips in relation to waist
all enhance femininity and, by implication, women’s bodily attractiveness
(Fan, Dai, et al., 2006; Fan et al., 2004). Our finding that proportionally
longer legs are more attractive for female bodies corroborates recent work
by Swami, Einon, and Furnham (2006), which also showed that females
having longer legs were considered to be more attractive. The reason that
females having longer legs, optimum WHR, larger bust and more lifted
hips are more attractive most probably derives from the fact these are cues
to health, fitness and reproductive potential.
With regard to male bodily attractiveness, we have shown that phys-
ical attractiveness is related to WCR (waist to chest ratio) and WHR
(Fan, Dai, et al., 2005). A lower WCR is preferred as it corresponds to
an ‘inverted triangular’ shape (i.e., a narrow waist and a broad chest
and shoulders), which is consistent with physical strength and muscular
fitness. In addition, the optimum WHR for the range of male bodies
that we investigated was approximately 0.80. This is smaller than the
optimum value of WHR for males found by Singh (1995b), who investig-
ated the role of WHR in male body attractiveness by analyzing the attract-
iveness ranking of 12 line drawing stimuli of male figures and found
that the stimuli having WHR of 0.90 was the most attractive. Further
investigation is needed to examine whether such differences are caused
by differences in the viewer’s background or due to the fact that line
drawings lack ecological validity. It is interesting to note that, unlike
the longer female legs, our analysis did not reveal that longer male legs

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42 Methodological Critiques

had any significant effects of men’s bodily attractiveness. This again

corroborates recent findings by Swami, Einon, et al. (2006).

Conclusion

Ever since ancient times, there has been a long debate on whether there

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exists an objective beauty (i.e., whether there are properties in an object
which are sufficient or necessary for an object to be judged beautiful)
or whether beauty is simply ‘in the eye of the beholder.’ Our finding
that bodily attractiveness is overwhelmingly dependent on a single para-
meter which we have called the VHI adds to the belief that bodily beauty
is not simply a matter of personal preference, but is a perception of
optimum body proportions which indicate health and fertility.
Although VHI may appear to be just a slight modification to the more
commonly used parameter of BMI, the discovery that VHI, rather than
BMI, is the most direct and important visual cue to bodily attractiveness,
is significant for at least two reasons. First, it may mean that VHI is a
better indicator of people’s fitness levels than BMI. This can in fact be
easily understood; for example, a heavy person with a solid muscular
body is fit, although she or he may have a relatively high BMI. Further
research is, therefore, encouraged to examine whether VHI is indeed a
better health or fitness indicator than BMI.
Secondly, it means that bodily attractiveness can be enhanced by
changing the volume of the body without changing the body weight.
This again is easily understandable, as we all know that many women
use pressure garments, such as body shapers, to tighten their body to
improve attractiveness. We also know that one’s body image can be
enhanced by wearing garments which change the perception of body
size and height.
One might argue that VHI is too inconvenient to measure, so it cannot
become a popular indicator of fitness and attractiveness, as in the case
of BMI. However, with the increasingly wide application and availability
of 3D body scanning technology, this will not be a major impediment
in the near future. Indeed, in some countries, 3D body scanning techno-
logy has been used to conduct population sizing surveys (see Treleaven
et al., 2006). It can be envisaged that, in the near future, everyone may
have her or his own card containing body scanning data, which will not
only be useful for garment fitting, but also provide measures of personal
health or fitness level.
The finding that VHI is the most important visual cue to bodily attract-
iveness, however, does not mean that other body proportions are not

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 Jintu Fan 43

important. For ideally attractive bodies, not only VHI, but also other
body proportions should be optimum. For women, we have shown that
proportionally longer legs, optimum WHR, larger busts, and more lifted
hips contribute to bodily attractiveness. For men, we have shown that a
lower WCR and optimum WHR enhance bodily attractiveness in addi-
tion to VHI.
The discovery of VHI has further implications for our understanding

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of the perceptual processes governing human beauty. For female bodies,
VHI alone explained about 90 per cent of the variance in attractiveness
rating; for male bodies, VHI alone explained about 70 per cent of the
same variance. Why should bodily attractiveness be so overwhelmingly
dependent on such a simple parameter as the VHI? Is it because our
minds first estimate the horizontal dimension over the vertical dimen-
sion of the body, which VHI represents, for assessing body attractive-
ness, before using other body proportions to ‘fine tune’ the judgements?
Further research is needed to examine this speculation.
The importance of VHI for bodily attractiveness also has a significant
implication for future research in the field. In the past, many studies
have been carried out in trying to identify body proportions related to
fitness or attractiveness. Body proportions, such as BMI, WHR, WCR, and
LBR, were identified as potentially important parameters. Since these
body proportions may co-vary with VHI, it is necessary to first extract
the effect of VHI before the effect of other body proportions can be
identified. Research on the effects of other body proportions on bodily
attractiveness should, therefore, be re-visited in the light of our findings.
In summary, then the present investigation demonstrates, for the
first time, the usefulness of 3D body scanning technology in psycholo-
gical and health research. As pointed out by Treleaven et al. (2006), 3D
body scanning is poised to become a mainstream psychological tool of
major value, and researchers studying physical attractiveness will need
to incorporate such technologies into their research if they are to fully
understand the perception of human beauty.

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4
Methodological Issues in Studies of
Female Attractiveness
Melissa Bateson, Piers L. Cornelissen, and Martin J. Tovée

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Evolutionary models of mate choice predict that we should be sensitive
to the cues in a potential partner that signal honest information about
their mate quality (i.e., their health and reproductive potential). Indi-
viduals displaying cues indicative of high quality should be judged
as more sexually attractive than those signalling lower quality. In
recent years, much research in evolutionary psychology has focussed on
applying this approach to understanding variation in the attractiveness
of female body shapes. Several features of a body’s size and shape have
been suggested as potential indices of mate quality based on biological
data linking these indices to measures of health and fertility.
In order to prove the relationship between a specific index of body
shape and attractiveness, the research strategy typically adopted has
been to generate a series of bodies varying in the index of interest and
investigate whether this variable explains attractiveness judgements.
These studies tend to use artificial stimuli in the form of either line-
drawn figures or digitally manipulated photographs for two reasons.
First, if stimuli are generated artificially then it is possible to exaggerate
the variation in the index of interest, thus ensuring that the variation
is sufficient to affect attractiveness judgements. Second, it is assumed
that if only the index of interest is varied and other features that might
play a role in attractiveness judgements are not explicitly altered, then it
follows that any correlated variation in attractiveness judgements must
prove that the explicitly varied index must be the cue used in making
these judgements.
These two goals produce two interrelated problems. First, extreme
variation in an index may result in unrealistic bodies. Second, variation
in one index of body shape is difficult or impossible to achieve without
simultaneously varying other indices. This co-variation problem can

46

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 Melissa Bateson et al. 47

make it difficult to disambiguate which physical feature is responsible

for producing a change in the attractiveness percept. In this chapter we
discuss these problems inherent in the use of artificial stimulus sets, and
demonstrate how they can lead to misleading conclusions about which
physical features are the true focus of attractiveness judgements. We
explore how these problems can be reduced by the use of stimulus sets
based on naturally occurring variation in female body shape.

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Distinguishing perceptual cues from physical features

The above introduction highlights some important distinctions that are

often overlooked in studies of female attractiveness and that we feel it
is crucial to clarify. The simple indices used by scientists to quantify
variation in human body shape are not the same as either the biolo-
gical traits that we presume underlie variance in mate quality, or the
visual cues that subjects attend to when they make attractiveness judge-
ments. Furthermore, it is possible that both the precise nature of the
indices used to quantify shape variation and the visual cues used by
observers to determine attractiveness may be affected by the nature of
the stimuli available, and may vary from one study to the next. For
example, different indices of shape and different visual cues are avail-
able depending on whether two- or three-dimensional information is
available for the stimulus bodies.
A common problem in research on attractiveness is the confusing of
indices of shape with the visual cues that may be used by observers
to identify these. First, the assumption is made that a specific index is
being used by observers to judge an underlying biological trait. Then
the images are rated for attractiveness and the ratings are correlated not
with either the trait itself or the index in question, but with a putative
visual cue to the index. This can lead to problems. If an index accurately
reflects mate quality, it is this that has to be correlated with attractiveness
preferences for the behaviour to have any validity. It would be possible,
for example, for a putative visual cue to be moderately correlated with
an index. The visual cue might then be moderately correlated with
attractiveness ratings. As we see below, it would be wrong to then assume
a significant link between attractiveness and the underlying biological
trait on this basis, as a direct correlation between attractiveness and the
trait may be weak and non-significant.
In women, the two indices which have received the most attention
in attractiveness studies are weight scaled for height (kg/m2 ) and lower
body shape. The former index is called the body mass index or BMI

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48 Methodological Critiques

(Bray, 1978), while for shape, research has focused on the ratio of the
waist to the hips (the WHR). There are several alternative measures to
BMI. Fan, Liu, Wu, and Dai (2004) have suggested the volume-height
index (VHI) based on their three-dimensional laser-scanned images (see
also Fan, Chapter 3). Given that a body tissue has a density on average
of 1.06 kg/l, an increase in body mass will tend to come with a corres-
ponding increase in volume (i.e., as a body’s mass rises and falls, so will

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the volume the body occupies) (Garrow, 1999). As a result, features such
as BMI and VHI are highly correlated. For example, in our own laser-
scanned images, the Spearman correlation between weight and volume,
and between BMI and VHI is better than 0.90 (Tovée & Cornelissen,
unpublished data). So both BMI and the VHI scale can be seen as scaling
an approximation of relative body mass. However, if we assume that the
observer making an attractiveness judgement is attempting to estimate
body fat composition, then a possibly more accurate way of measuring
the actual body fat of a subject is through the skin calliper technique
which directly measures body fat deposition and is strongly correlated
with both BMI and attractiveness judgements (Smith, Cornelissen, &
Tovée, 2007).
WHR can also be measured in more than one way. There is the actual
WHR, which is the distance around a woman’s waist divided by the
distance around the hips. This is the WHR measure that some artifi-
cial insemination studies have correlated with female fertility (Waas,
Waldenstrom, Rossner, & Hellberg, 1997; Zaadstra et al., 1993). WHR
can also be taken from a two-dimensional photograph by measuring
the distance across the waist and dividing it by the distance across the
hips. The difference between the two WHR measures is important. Actual
WHR is the index that has been linked to fertility; the WHR as measured
across the front is just one possible visual cue to this (see Figure 4.1).
If we are trying to correlate physical attractiveness to indices that are
linked to health and fertility, it is more direct to correlate attractiveness
with actual WHR, rather than this indirect cue, in the same way that it
is more direct to link attractiveness to a measure of body fat (such as
BMI) and not one of its possible visual cues.
The two measures of WHR are correlated, but only at around r = 060
(compare with the correlation of around 0.97 between the BMI and its
visual cues) (Tovée & Cornelissen, 2001). So a weak correlation between
attractiveness and WHR as seen from the front is likely to be an even
weaker correlation between attractiveness and actual WHR (previous
studies using photographs of real women have found a very weak or
non-significant relationship between attractiveness and ‘front’ WHR

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 Melissa Bateson et al. 49

Observer Visual Physical Physical

cue index trait

Body width BMI Overall body

fat

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Front-WHR Actual WHR Body fat
distribution

Figure 4.1 A schematic diagram illustrating the difference between visual cues
to a feature and the physical features themselves.

and a non-significant relationship with actual WHR (e.g., Thornhill &

Grammer, 1999; Tovée, Maisey, Emery, & Cornelissen, 1999). Thus, the
confusion between two measures can lead to an over-estimation of the
importance of the role of actual WHR in determining attractiveness
judgements. In the studies discussed below, WHR is always front WHR,
yet the studies fail to make any discrimination between actual WHR and
front WHR.
We now turn to exploring the way in which images have been manip-
ulated to produce variation in specific features, and how this manipu-
lation can generate results which may prove misleading or difficult to
interpret.

Artificial manipulation of features

The initial evidence for WHR as a predictor of attractiveness judge-

ments came from studies using a set of line-drawn figures of women
(Singh, 1993; Henss, 1995; Furnham, Tan, & McManus, 1997). The line-
drawn figures are arranged in three series: underweight, normal, and
overweight. Within each series, the WHR is varied by altering the torso
width around the waist. The problem with this approach is that when
the figures are modified by altering the width of the torso around the
waist, this not only alters the WHR, but also the apparent BMI. As the
value of the WHR rises, so does that of the apparent BMI, and so it is
not possible to say whether changes in attractiveness ratings are made
on the basis of WHR or BMI, or both (Tovée & Cornelissen, 1999).
One attempt to overcome this co-variation in the line-drawn images
has been to ‘inflate’ the size of the arms and legs as the waist width
narrows (Furnham, Petrides, & Constantinides, 2005). The rationale for

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50 Methodological Critiques

this shape change is that the change in the apparent weight of the
figure from altering the width of the lower torso is countered by altering
the size of the arms and legs. This approach has two flaws. First, it
is an unrealistic representation of how fat is distributed on the body
(e.g., Garn, 1955; Garn & Harper, 1955; Garn, Sullivan, & Hawthorne,
1987). Second, eye-movement studies suggest that when observers make
attractiveness judgements they concentrate their gaze on the upper

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and middle parts of the torso and do not look at the arms (George,
Cornelissen, Hancock, & Tovée, 2007; Singleton, Cornelissen, & Tovée,
2004). Thus, this arm-based compensation for the effect of altering the
waist width may not be considered when observers are making their
attractiveness judgements, and as a result there would be no percep-
tion of a constant body mass across the range of shape changes in the
drawings.
The co-variation problem is also found in studies using modified
photographic images of women, where their WHR has been artificially
altered by thickening or narrowing their torsos (e.g., Henss, 2000).
Altering the torso width also alters their apparent body mass and so, once
again, the WHR and apparent BMI are co-varied. Streeter and McBurney
(2003) used the same technique to produce a set of images varying in
WHR based on a single digital photograph. They use a very much wider
WHR range than previous experiments, ranging from 0.50 to 1.20. This
range of shapes includes pregnant women, which is a departure from
the shape ranges used before. Previous studies have looked at judge-
ments discriminating between potentially fertile women (i.e., excluding
pre-adolescent and pregnant women).
They asked 95 undergraduates to rate their image set for attractiveness
on a seven-point scale. Streeter and McBurney (2003) were aware of
the co-variation problem and, therefore, also asked their observers to
estimate the weight of the women in the images, so that they could try
and control for body mass. Unlike previous studies, they report a non-
linear relationship between attractiveness and WHR. The attractiveness
of the images was higher in the middle WHR range (centred at about
0.70), and declined towards either end of the WHR range.
The images are not a good representation, as the digital manipula-
tion’s need to alter the WHR of a body over such a wide WHR range
makes the resultant bodies unrealistic (see Figure 4.2). The degree of
image distortion increases with the degree of image manipulation; so at
either ends of their WHR range, the degree of obvious distortion also
increases. So an obvious apprehension is that their result may be influ-
enced by the ‘plausibility’ of their image manipulation (i.e., can their

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 Melissa Bateson et al. 51

Figure 4.2 Examples of the Streeter and McBurney (2003) stimuli. As can be seen Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to Universidad del Valle - PalgraveConnect - 2011-11-04
there are number of problems with their image manipulation. For example, the
fact that the head remains a constant size gives a strong cue to the degree to
which the body has been altered. The manipulation also impacts on features such
as the hands which are elongated and distorted in some of the images. Finally,
and most importantly, the manipulation of the body produces shapes that are
just not credible as human bodies.

results simply be explained by the images that appear less realistic being
rated more highly?).
To explore this possibility, we asked a group of 13 observers (6 male
and 7 female) to perform a 2-alternative forced-choice experiment. They
were presented with the 27 images from this set viewed in a random
sequence on a 17-inch flat panel monitor. The observers were informed
that the images had been digitally manipulated and asked to make a
2-alternative forced-choice on whether each of the images were realistic
or unrealistic. We also measured the distance across the waist and hips

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52 Methodological Critiques

of the woman in the images, and so calculated a WHR value for each
image. A plot of the realism of the images against the WHR is shown in
Figure 4.3a. The ‘base’ image of a female model with a WHR of 0.70 is
naturally regarded as the most realistic. The more this shape is modified,
the less realistic the images become. On a separate sequence of present-
ations, the observers were asked to rate the images for attractiveness
on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 = Unattractive, 7 = Attractive). The relationship

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between realism and attractiveness is very strong (Spearman correlation,
r = 070, p < 0001; see Figure 4.3b).
As stated earlier, Streeter and McBurney (2003) reported an inverted
U-function for the ratings of attractiveness plotted against WHR (i.e.,
the extremes of the WHR range are rated as less attractive). We found
the same relationship (see Figure 4.3c). The shape of this relationship is
important because the two dips in attractiveness (where there is a large
change in the perception of attractiveness) correspond to the extremes
of the WHR range where the images ‘appear unrealistic.’ The evidence
suggests that this change in perceived attractiveness is an artifact of the
distortion of the images inherent in their manipulation of WHR. Thus,
the apparent change in attractiveness with changing WHR is actually
a change in attractiveness with changing ‘realism’ (which in turn co-
varies with WHR). This is not to say that WHR may not play a role in
attractiveness judgements, but it does not seem justified to make such
an assertion based on this image set.
Another image set recently used to test attractiveness is that used by
Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005). They focused on the fact
that because WHR is a ratio rather than an absolute value, a small, and
thus potentially attractive, WHR can result either from a small waist or
from large hips. Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005) argue that
because the biological information contained in waist size and hip size
is different, we might expect men to pay more attention to either waist
or hip size depending on which provides the better predictor of repro-
ductive potential in a given environment. Specifically, they argue that
in food-limited populations large hips, which are associated with fat
reserves, are the best cue to reproductive success, whereas in populations
that are not limited by food, waist size is a better cue to a woman’s
fertility and general health. On this basis, they hypothesised that West-
ernised men should be more sensitive to changes in WHR when these
are produced as the result of changes in waist size than as the result of
changes in hip size.
To test their hypothesis, Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005)
generated two series of images of female bodies in which: (a) hip width

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 53

(a)
100
90
80

How real is the image?

70
60
50
40

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30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Attractiveness rating
(b)
100
90
80
How real is the image?

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
(c) Waist-to-hip ratio
6

5
Attractiveness rating

0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3

Waist-to-hip ratio

Figure 4.3 Ratings based on the Streeter and McBurney (2003) images. Panel A
shows the relationship between judgements of how realistic the images are plotted
against the WHR of the images. The WHR of the woman model in the unaltered
image is 0.70. As the magnitude of the change in WHR increases, the degree
to which the image is seen as unrealistic increases. Panel B shows the relation-
ship between attractiveness judgements and WHR. As in Streeter and McBurney
(2003), the images become less attractive at either end of the WHR range. Panel C
shows the relationship between the attractiveness ratings and the realism of the
images. As can be seen, there is a very strong correlation between these two features.

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54 Methodological Critiques

was held constant, and WHR was altered by varying waist width, and;
(b) waist width was held constant, and WHR was altered by varying
hip width. Each series consisted of five images with WHR ranging from
0.60 to 0.80 in increments of 0.05. In both series, the central image
with a WHR of 0.70 was identical. The images were based on morphed
versions of the same black-and-white photograph of a female model in
both front and back view. The images from each series were rated for

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attractiveness on a 5-point scale (1 = Not attractive, 5 = Very attractive) by
two different groups of 170 men.
Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski’s (2005) results show that in series
(a), in which waist width varied, there was a negative monotonic rela-
tionship between WHR and attractiveness, with the most attractive
image being that with the lowest WHR (0.60). By contrast, in series (b),
in which hip width varied, there was an inverted U-shaped relationship
between WHR and attractiveness with the image with the central WHR
(0.70) being rated most attractive overall (see Figure 4.4a). There was also
a greater range in attractiveness ratings in series (a) than in series (b).
On the basis of these findings, Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski
(2005: 304) conclude: ‘Our results indicate that men are very sensitive to
WHR differences based on waist change and much less sensitive to WHR
differences based on hip changes.’ Thus, ‘Women with the same WHR
but manipulated either by waist or hip size are perceived differently
by men.’ However, we believe that these conclusions are not justified
on the basis of the results presented, because Rozmus-Wrzesinska and
Pawłowski (2005) failed to control for variation in apparent body mass in
their stimuli. BMI is known to be a strong negative predictor of attract-
iveness in laboratory studies (Tovée, Hancock, Mahmoodi, Singleton, &
Cornelissen, 2002; Tovée, Reinhardt, Emery, & Cornelissen, 1998; Tovée
et al., 1999), a finding that is supported by field data showing that
Western women with slimmer hips, but not lower WHRs, have a higher
frequency of sexual intercourse (Brody, 2004). Here we will present evid-
ence that the difference in attractiveness ratings between series (a) and
(b) reported by Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005) is explained
by differences in apparent BMI between the two image sets.
In series (a), in which hip width was held constant and waist
width was varied, apparent BMI must increase as WHR increases. In
contrast, in series (b), in which waist width was held constant and
hip width was varied, apparent BMI must decrease as WHR increases.
Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005) did not quantify BMI for their
images; however, they did ask their subjects to rate which of the images
in the series was the heaviest and which the slimmest. In agreement

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 55

(a) 4.5

3.5
Attractiveness rating

2.5

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2

1.5

0.5

0
0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85
WHR
(b) 1

0.8
Residual attractiveness

0.6

0.4

0.2

–0.2

–0.4

–0.6
0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85

WHR

(a) Varying waist

(b) Varying hips

Figure 4.4 Attractiveness as a function of WHR. Panel A shows the original

mean attractiveness ratings for the back views of the images reported by
Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005). Panel B shows the residual attractive-
ness for the same images once the effects of apparent BMI have been statistically
removed.

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56 Methodological Critiques

with our predictions, they reported that in series (a) the woman with the
lowest WHR was the slimmest and the woman with the highest WHR
the heaviest, whereas in series (b) the opposite was true.
We quantified apparent BMI for the 10 back-view images given in
Figure 4.1 of the Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005) study by
using ImageJ (version 1.34s; National Institutes of Health, USA) to
measure the area and perimeter of each body. A similar analysis was not

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possible for the front-view images because they were not presented in the
original paper. However, given that Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski
(2005) found similar results for front and back views there is no reason
to believe that our re-analysis will be biased by only using data from
the back views. To obtain a proxy measure of BMI for each image, we
computed the ratio of the perimeter of each image to its area (PAR),
an index available for two dimensional images that has previously been
shown to have a high correlation with actual BMI, and is henceforth
referred to as PAR (Tovée et al., 1999, Tovée, Benson, Emery, Mason, &
Cohen-Tovée, 2003).
Our results confirm that PAR is positively correlated with WHR in
series (a), but negatively correlated with WHR in series (b). We, therefore,
suggest that the difference in attractiveness ratings reported for series (a)
and (b) can be explained by the opposite associations between BMI (as
measured through its proxy) and WHR in the two stimulus sets. In series
(a), BMI influences attractiveness in the same direction as WHR resulting
in a strong overall effect on attractiveness, whereas in series (b), BMI
and WHR influence attractiveness in opposite directions, producing an
overall weaker effect. The fact that the image with lowest attractiveness
in series (b) is that with the lowest WHR and highest apparent BMI
fits with extensive data showing that BMI explains considerably more
variance in attractiveness than WHR (Tovée et al., 1998, 1999, 2002).
In order to control for the effects of apparent BMI on attractive-
ness ratings we statistically removed the effects of BMI by regressing
attractiveness on PAR for each series, and calculating the residual attract-
iveness not explained by PAR for each image. Figure 4.4b shows this
residual attractiveness plotted against WHR for series (a) and series
(b). It is clear that the pattern of effects is very different in Figures 4.4a
and 4.4b: in Figure 4.4b there is now a similar, non-monotonic rela-
tionship between WHR and residual attractiveness for both the series
(a) and series (b) data, with peaks at WHRs of 0.65 and 0.70 respectively.
Once PAR (the proxy for BMI) is controlled for, the difference between
series (a) and (b) reported by Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski (2005)
disappears.

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 Melissa Bateson et al. 57

Although the data presented by Rozmus-Wrzesinska and Pawłowski

(2005) do not support the hypothesis that men are differentially sens-
itive to absolute waist and hip size, we agree with their basic sugges-
tion that there is likely to be more to female attractiveness than BMI
and WHR. For example, Tovée et al. (2002) carried out a principal
component analysis (PCA) based on 60 front-view digital photographs
of real women sampled from a controlled BMI range. The image of

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each woman’s torso was divided into 31 slices of equal thickness, and
a waveform was generated by plotting the width of each slice against
its position in the body. The PCA was then used to derive independent
descriptors of this waveform. The analysis identified four statistically
independent descriptors of shape. These results are consistent with a
number of factors (such as hormone levels, overall body fat, nutrition,
exercise, etc.) contributing independently to the determination of body
shape. If this is the case, then simple width and ratio measures alone are
inadequate for capturing the biologically meaningful variation in female
body shape, and are thus unlikely to be the only cues used to judge
attractiveness.

Natural images

An alternative to using images in which features have been artificially

manipulated is to use the natural variation of these features within
a population. This approach has the advantage that such images, by
definition, will fall within the naturally occurring range of size and shape
found within the female population, and will not have the problem
of individual images looking unrealistic. So one simple solution is to
use digital photographs of women taken under standardised conditions
and build up an image library, from which sets of body images may be
selected varying in their range of size and shape.
A commonly used image set consists of 100 nude photographs
produced by the Japanese photographer Akira Gomi (e.g., Thornhill &
Grammer, 1999). However, this image set was not produced for scientific
study, and the pictures have some manipulations which introduce noise
into an experiment. For example, the focal distance at which the photo-
graphs were taken was varied. The aim of the photographer was that
each woman should appear to be roughly the same ‘size’ in each photo-
graph. As the pictures were taken against a plain background, there are
no cues to the relative distance at which the photographs were taken.
As a result, all information about the relative size of the women is lost,
making judgements about relative height and weight more difficult.

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58 Methodological Critiques

Another problem is the relative range of physical features in an image

set. For example, if the range of BMI values used is significantly greater
than that of the WHR range (relative to the range of values found in a
normal population), then BMI may appear a stronger predictor than it
actually is. In our initial studies we used the widest range of BMI and
WHR in our library of photographs and found that BMI was the primary
predictor of attractiveness judgements (Tovée et al., 1998, 1999). In

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subsequent studies, we have varied the relative range of BMI and WHR
to determine how the relative ranges altered the results. For example, we
varied the relative ranges such that the range of WHR was three times
that of BMI, but BMI was still the primary predictor (Tovée et al., 2002).
However, it may be argued that a two-dimensional image cannot
adequately capture a three-dimensional shape. For example, in
Caucasian women, the pattern of fat on the buttocks is not visible
in a photograph taken in front-view. To counter this problem, some
studies have used either laser-scanned three-dimensional body shapes
(Fan et al., 2004) or video sequences of bodies rotating through 360
(Smith, Tovée, et al., 2007). However, it should be mentioned that the
results from the rating of two- and three-dimensional representations
are very similar.
For example, ratings of the three-dimensional video sequences from
Smith, Tovée, et al. (2007) and two-dimensional digital photographs
of the same women have very highly correlated attractiveness ratings.
The correlations between the two- and three-dimensional attractiveness
ratings ranged from r = 088 to 0.96 (comparing the three-dimensional
ratings with the three ratings obtained from two-dimensional views
of the front, side, and back; Smith, 2006). This is consistent with a
previous study which showed a very high correlation of 0.90 between
attractiveness ratings of two-dimensional photographs taken from front
and profile (Tovée & Cornelissen, 2001). It seems that the cues used to
make attractiveness judgements are salient from any view-point, and
the additional information an observer may acquire from varying his or
her view-point may provide information that is largely redundant.

Principled manipulation of images

Of course, there may be occasions when a manipulation of the relative

range of features in a controlled manner may be desired. It is important
that any such change has to be biologically plausible and also not
co-varying other physical features which are potentially important to
attractiveness judgements. For example, in order to address properly

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 Melissa Bateson et al. 59

the question of whether simple changes in waist and hip size exert
differential effects on attractiveness independent of their effects through
BMI and WHR it would be necessary to generate a stimulus set in which
BMI and WHR are held constant, but waist and hip width are allowed
to vary. Streeter and McBurney (2003; see also McBurney & Streeter,
Chapter 2) claim that this is impossible to achieve in a factorial design.
However, while this may be true with simple images based on line draw-

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ings or with crude uni-dimensional manipulation of photographs, we
believe that it would be possible to produce such a stimulus set either by
selecting images from a large sample of real bodies, or by synthesising
images using information about naturally occurring variation in body
shape (see Figure 4.5).
If one wishes to synthesise a set of biologically plausible, artificial body
shapes (as in Figure 4.5), it is necessary to use objective information
about female body shape derived from real women. As we described
above, Tovée et al. (2002) carried out a PCA of female torso shape,
and found that 4 PCs adequately described the shape variation. Each
PC described a different shape dimension over which the body shapes
varied. For example, PC1 represented changes in overall body width
and PC2 captures a significant change in the shape of the hip region,
varying from thickset to slender. It is then possible, to use these 4 PCs to
construct a new set of stimulus bodies (Smith, Tovée, et al., 2007). This is
possible because the PCs are statistically independent shape descriptors
that can be linearly re-combined to create new shapes, each of which

Figure 4.5 A sequence of five synthesised images created by applying four inde-
pendent descriptors of shape derived from a principal components analysis of
the variation in natural body shape to an average female torso (see Smith, Tovée
et al., 2007, for details). The images were chosen from the full set of 625 images
such that BMIPAR is approximately constant (the variation equates to only 4
per cent of that in the complete image set), but WHR increases from a minimum
of 0.65 on the left to a maximum of 0.78 on the right (equal to 69 per cent of the
variation in the complete image set). This figure illustrates the complex shape
changes that are necessary to effect a dissociation between BMI and WHR.

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60 Methodological Critiques

is uniquely specified by its particular combination of PCs. In this way,

it is possible to create a carefully controlled set of body shapes that are
based on the natural shape variation in the original sample, and which
take into consideration the contours of the entire torso.

Conclusion

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The co-variation of features and the lack of realism in most artificial
image sets make it impossible to determine the underlying cause of vari-
ation in attractiveness ratings. It is not possible to determine easily the
effect of changing an individual index of body shape because several
indices are typically co-varied when any single index is systematically
manipulated. Additionally, the extreme caricaturing of physical shape
used in some studies can make figures seem unrealistic, adding an
additional stimulus parameter to the experiment that may confuse the
pattern of results yet further. To avoid these problems we suggest that
image sets for use in attractiveness studies should be based on natural
images. A simple approach is to use unmodified digital photographs that
can be utilised to capture the natural variation in body shape present in
a population. Alternatively, biometric measures from a sample popula-
tion of women can be used to construct artificial images in a statistically
principled way. Using this latter approach, it is theoretically possible to
construct image sets in which various indices of body shape such as BMI
and WHR are uncorrelated.

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Part III
Attractiveness Research Across
Cultures

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 Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to Universidad del Valle - PalgraveConnect - 2011-11-04
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5
An Evolutionary Perspective on
Male Preferences for Female Body
Shape

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Isabel Scott, Gillian R. Bentley, Martin J. Tovée,
Farid Uddin Ahamed, and Kesson Magid

Cross-culturally, humans make systematic use of physical attractiveness

to discriminate among members of the opposite sex, and physical cues to
youth, health, and fertility may be particularly important to men (Buss,
1989). Nevertheless, there is controversy over whether attraction pref-
erences are adaptive, particularly in novel environments, and whether
they are universal or flexible depending on cultural circumstances (Singh
& Luis, 1995). To date, a good deal of research into somatic (i.e., body)
attractiveness has focused on two particular characteristics: waist-to-hip
ratio (WHR) and the body mass index (BMI). WHR is calculated as the
circumference of the waist divided by circumference of the hips, and
provides an index of a woman’s ‘curvaceousness.’ BMI is calculated as an
individual’s weight (kilogrammes) divided by height (metres) squared,
and provides an estimate of body fatness.
The evolutionary rationale for the existence of somatic preferences is
that it allows men to distinguish women of high mate value. There are
a number of traits indexed both to mate value and somatype, including
fertility, health, youth, and access to resources. In the West, all of these
traits are positively associated with slimness and curvaceousness. BMI
rises with age across a range of ethnic groups (Department of Health,
1999), but falls with socioeconomic status among women (Department
of Health, 1999; Sobal & Stunkard, 1989), so that slimmer women are on
average younger and wealthier. Low WHR (i.e., having a narrow waist
relative to hips) is observed predominantly among reproductive-aged
women (Lanska, Lanska, Hartz, & Rimm, 1985) and is more common
among women in non-manual professions (Department of Health, 1999;
Lahti-Koski, Pietinen, Männistö, & Vartiainen, 2000). In contrast, high

65

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66 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

WHR is associated with lower levels of reproductive hormones – at

least among Polish women (Jasienska, Ziomkiewicz, Ellison, Lipson,
& Thune, 2004) – as well as reduced chances of ovulation and concep-
tion (Ley, Lees, & Stevenson, 1992; Wass, Waldenstrom, Rossner, &
Hellberg, 1997; Zaadstra et al., 1993). Obesity (as studied in the West)
reduces fertility (Zaadstra et al., 1993), increases morbidity and mortality
(Manson et al., 1995) and, along with high WHR, is linked to elevated

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risks for a range of chronic diseases including diabetes and heart disease
(Björntorp, 1988; Hartz, Rupley, & Rimm, 1984; Lahti-Koski et al., 2000).
When restricted to within-population comparisons, and most import-
antly when BMI is controlled for, the association between low WHR
and high fertility – or more specifically, probability of conception – is
claimed to be universal (or at least there is little evidence to contra-
dict it; DeRidder et al., 1990; Jasienska et al., 2004; Lanska et al., 1985;
Sugiyama, 2004; Zaadstra et al., 1993). To the best of our knowledge,
in all societies studied to date, women of reproductive age have lower
average WHRs than males, children or non-reproductive aged women
in the same population. In addition, Pawłowski and Grabarczyk (2003)
report that centre-of-mass is lower in females with low WHR, a char-
acteristic which the authors suggest is designed to compensate for the
destabilising effects of pregnancy and child-carrying upon the balance
and mobility of bipedal animals. Such facts have been taken to suggest
that females with a ‘locally’ low WHR represent a high fertility pheno-
type the world over.
While we acknowledge that (locally) low WHR probably signals
(locally) high fertility, we argue here that the inference that low WHR
(by Western standards) represents the optimal phenotype for mate value,
and that WHR preferences should be universally low, is premature.
This argument is supported by a number of considerations. First, an
increasing body of data suggests that local anthropometric norms of
female WHR are highly variable and that, whereas male and female WHR
ranges were once seen as mutually exclusive, when viewed in a cross-
cultural context there may be a degree of overlap (Marlowe, Apicella,
& Reed, 2005). In addition, fertile women (by local standards) do have
high WHR (by Western standards) in some societies (Sugiyama, 2004).
If low WHRs represent a universally optimal phenotype for reproductive
success, then it seems unlikely that such variation would be maintained.
Secondly, there is the issue of BMI. While research from developing
countries is relatively scant, the limited data available suggest that the
relationships between weight and other indices of mate value may be
reversed in environments of caloric stress and uncertainty. In poorer
countries (including those in South Asia; Sobal & Stunkard, 1989), there

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 Isabel Scott et al. 67

is a positive association between obesity and socioeconomic status (SES)

which is, in turn, associated with more secure access to resources. In
such societies, high BMI should increase the probability of a woman
maintaining energy balance during periods of deprivation, which in
turn increases the chances of carrying a pregnancy to term and produ-
cing offspring (Kramer et al., 1995; Steer, 2005). A higher precon-
ception maternal BMI is also correlated with a higher birth weight

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for the resulting child and hence a better chance of survival in a
low resource environment (Baker, Michaelsen, Rasmussen, & Sorensen,
2004; Bhargava, 2000; Mohanty et al., 2006).
In addition, the potential long-term health penalties resulting from
overweight are likely to be compensated by the ‘more immediate
positive consequences of being plump’ (Anderson, Crawford, Nadeau,
& Lindberg, 1992; Hosegood & Campbell, 2003), while the relationship
between age and weight gain common in the West is also unlikely to
be present in much of the developing world, where maternal deple-
tion syndrome (negative energy balance brought about by frequent
reproductive cycling) is much more common (King, 2003; Shell-Duncan
& Yung, 2004; Tracer, 2002). Consequently, in developing countries
women with high BMI are likely to be healthier, wealthier, and possibly
younger and more fertile as well.
However, within those populations that have been studied, the correl-
ation between fatness and WHR is positive (e.g., Lahti-Koski et al., 2000;
Department of Health, 1999), possibly a consequence of metabolic
adjustments (see below). This means that, while a low WHR/high BMI
combination might be optimal for fertility, few women will exhibit such
a phenotype. In such situations, the advantages associated with low
WHR may be ‘trumped’ by those of high BMI (Marlowe & Wetsman,
2001; Tovée, Swami, Furnham, & Mangalparsad, 2006), although in
order for this to be the case, BMI must be considered to be more critical
to mate value than is WHR.
A third consideration is that, in energetically stressful conditions,
features associated with an ‘android’ phenotype (i.e., high WHR) may
be advantageous in their own right. Irrespective of current body weight,
a high WHR appears to promote efficient storage of fat for utilisation in
times of caloric deprivation. Various authors (e.g., Kuh & Schlomo, 2004)
have suggested that a tendency toward central adiposity (commonly
referred to as a ‘thrifty’ phenotype) is an adaptation to anticipated ener-
getic stress. Such body types are suggested to result from foetal responses
to intrauterine maternal under-nutrition. This is argued to be an evolved
phenomenon of adaptive value in our ancestral past when food short-
ages were more common, or where particular food resources were in

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68 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

short supply or only seasonally available (Gluckman & Hanson, 2005;

Prentice, 2005; Simmons, 2005; although other authors challenge the
notion of severe food shortages prior to the development of agricul-
ture, e.g., Benyshek & Watson, 2006; Cordain, Miller, & Mann, 1999).
In such uncertain environments, the reproductive benefits of the low
WHR phenotype may have to be ‘traded-off’ against the metabolic
costs.

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A final point to take into consideration is that the relationship
between fertility and mate value is likely to be non-linear, and that
optimal levels of fertility should vary between populations. Life history
theory emphasises that because finite resources are available from the
environment, trade-offs must be made between effort devoted to survival
and to reproduction, and that maximal fertility is not necessarily
optimal. Recent research suggests that women raised in more stressful
environments not only adapt their metabolic activity, but also end up
with adult levels of reproductive steroids that are significantly lower
than women who grow up in resource-rich environments (Ellison et al.,
1993a, Ellison, Panterbrick, Lipson, & Orourke, 1993b).
As with metabolism, population variation in base-line sex hormone
levels may reflect developmental influences during pre-pubertal years
(Núñez-de la Mora et al., in press – a, b). This suggests that develop-
mental adjustments leading to a reduced probability of conception may
constitute an adaptation to environments where resources are scarce.
While it may seem counterintuitive to suppose that mate value should
be increased by a reduction in fertility, a mate that fails to time her
pregnancies correctly may have low reproductive success. In contrast,
women who appropriately adjust their fertility schedules to fluctuations
in resource-availability are likely to reproduce more successfully and,
therefore, should be considered as more desirable partners. Women born
into stressful environments may have a longer waiting time to concep-
tion, but still appear to be able to conceive and maintain relatively high
levels of lifetime fertility, and may carry more pregnancies to term or
have more surviving offspring as a consequence (Vitzthum et al., 2002;
Vitzthum, Spielvogel, & Thornburg, 2004).
In summary, then, both android and gynoid body shapes are associ-
ated with phenotypic costs and benefits, and so the optimal body shape
for reproductive success is likely to depend on local ecological condi-
tions. The low WHR phenotype is advantageous insofar as a woman
with low WHR is more likely to conceive, and may be morphologic-
ally better adapted to pregnancy. High WHR on the other hand, is
associated with high BMI, metabolic thrift, and potentially adaptive

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 Isabel Scott et al. 69

adjustments to fertility and to mobility when non-pregnant, all of which

may contribute to mate value where resources are scarce.
We, therefore, suggest that local variations in norms of body shape
represent adaptive phenotypic adjustment to local environments, in
particular to resource availability and energetic demands. Moreover, we
hypothesise that male preferences should track such norms, so as to
select mates of high reproductive value. This need not imply that pref-

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erences centre precisely on local averages. Rather, preferences for WHRs
that are slightly lower than local norms will select females that are of
reproductive age, and that have high probabilities of conception by
local standards. Preferences should be indexed to local norms, however,
if they are to track females with metabolic and reproductive schedules
appropriate to the current environment.
Whether such preferences should be hardwired or flexible depends
largely on the frequency of change in resource availability in our ances-
tral past. If change occurred relatively frequently over generations or
even decades, then it might well have been adaptive to be able to take a
flexible approach to mate choice, with preferences responding either to
local cultural norms or exposure to local anthropometry. If changes took
place over significantly longer periods, then genes for certain preferences
might have co-evolved with genes for different types of body shape.
We suggest that the former account is more plausible, largely because
of the documented existence in humans of developmental adjustments
to anticipated diet, as outlined in previous paragraphs. We, therefore,
hypothesise that male body shape preferences will be plastic and amen-
able to adjustment, as well as reflecting local environmental conditions
and norms of body shape.
Research findings to date are largely supportive of the hypotheses
outline above. Studies suggest that in populations experiencing nutri-
tional stress, males prefer plumper women (Anderson et al., 1992)
and deem images of overweight women to be maximally attractive
(Furnham & Alibhai, 1983; Marlowe & Wetsman, 2001; Sugiyama, 2004;
Wetsman & Marlowe, 1999; Yu & Shepard, 1998). In contrast, most
of the findings from developed countries show male preferences for
thin or moderate-weight women (Furnham, Tan, & McManus, 1997;
Henss, 1995; Singh, 1993; Smith, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 2007; Tovée &
Cornelissen, 2001; Wetsman & Marlowe, 1999).
While earlier research indicated a cross-cultural preference for low
WHR (centred at around 0.70) among Caucasians, Hispanics, Indone-
sians and African Americans, Britons, Israelis, and Kenyans (Furnham,
McClelland, & Omer, 2003; Gitter, Lomranz, Saxe, & Bar-Tal, 1983;

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70 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

Singh, 1993, 1994; Singh & Luis, 1995), in recent years, evidence of
indifference to or aversion to low WHRs has begun to emerge from a
number of non-Western populations, including the Matsigenka of Peru
(Yu & Shepard, 1998), the Hadza of Tanzania (Marlowe & Wetsman,
2001; Wetsman & Marlowe, 1999), South African Zulus (Tovée et
al., 2006) and rural Malaysians (Swami & Tovée, 2005). Direct evid-
ence of plasticity in somatic preferences remains relatively scarce, but is

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mostly positive. Research by Yu and Shepard (1998) on the responses of
the Matsigenka to exposure to American culture and socioecology, and
a study by Tovée et al. (2006) on the effects on preferences of migrants
from Africa to Britain, both offer preliminary support for the adjustment
of preferences to local conditions, while recent research shows that even
comparatively small changes in food intake can produce a measurable
and significant shift in male preferences for female weight and size
(Swami & Tovée, 2006). Further (albeit indirect) evidence for plasticity
of preferences is apparent in the literature connecting women’s ideal-
isation of thinness with development and modernisation at the popula-
tional level (Brewis & McGarvey, 2000), and in studies relating economic
factors to the kind of female somatype depicted in the media (Pettijohn
& Jungeberg, 2004; see also Nelson, Pettijohn, & Galak, Chapter 9). To
date, however, no research of which we are aware has attempted to
relate changes in WHR preference to changes in local anthropometric
norms.

Changing mate preferences: Migrant Bangladeshi pilot study

To measure the possibility of plasticity in male preferences for female

body shape, we initiated a pilot study in 2005 among 30 Bangladeshi
migrants to London, of whom 6 were second-generation migrants, and
compared the responses to 40 residents still living in Sylhet District,
Northeast Bangladesh. We chose this particular area of Bangladesh since
over 95 per cent of British migrants originate from here, thus ensuring
ethnic and geographic homogeneity (Eade & Momen, 1996). The length
of time in Britain for first-generation migrants ranged from 1 to 41 years,
with a mean of 13 years. Age differences between the groups were not
significant (mean age residents = 34.3, migrants = 32.6, p = 054).
Socioeconomically, Bangladesh rates as one of the poorest countries in
the world with one of the lowest gross national product indices; approx-
imately 47 per cent of the population live below the poverty line (gross
national income per capita Britain = US$37,600, Bangladesh = US$470;
World Bank, 2005). The population under study here represents the

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 Isabel Scott et al. 71

relatively affluent middle-class, namely middle-class men who originate

from relatively wealthy families that are often landowners and able
to afford servants within their own country. These families do not
suffer from nutritional or energetic stress themselves, but are never-
theless embedded within a society in which caloric deprivation is
commonplace, and do experience poorer health and sanitation condi-
tions relative to London.

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Bangladeshis are of specific interest in this context given the high
proportion of individuals (both men and women) with an android
body shape that places them at higher risk for metabolic syndrome
later in life. Statistics in many countries show that South Asian immig-
rants, including Bangladeshis, have significantly higher rates of central
adiposity, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (Depart-
ment of Health, 1999; Misra & Vikram, 2004; Vikram et al., 2003).
According to data from the Health Survey for England (Department
of Health, 1999), while the average WHR for women aged 16–34 in
Britain was 0.76, the average for Bangladeshi women of the same age
was 0.81. Moreover the average pre-menopausal Bangladeshi WHR is
higher than that of British women aged 35–54, despite the lower incid-
ence of obesity amongst Bangladeshi migrant women compared to all
other ethnic groups in Britain. It seems likely, therefore, that males in
Bangladesh have generally been exposed to a high proportion of people
with a high WHR compared to men in Britain.
During the course of the survey, participant information was collected
on a range of SES markers, including birthplace (rural or urban), over-
crowding (twice number of adults in household plus number of chil-
dren, divided by number of rooms in household), ownership of a
range of consumer goods (car, microwave, freezer, CD player, video,
computer, satellite television), and highest educational level achieved.
Of these, all but one was patterned in a way consistent with expecta-
tions, with migrant males scoring higher for SES markers than residents
(see Table 5.1). The exception was educational achievement, with 85 per
cent of residents in Sylhet achieving degree level or higher, compared
with only 40 per cent of migrants. It was, therefore, decided to control
for educational achievement.
Participants were presented with an anonymous questionnaire
requesting demographic information including age, education, employ-
ment, housing and migration. They were then shown a booklet
containing 35 composite photographic images in colour of real women
wearing leotards and tights in front and side view simultaneously (with
heads obscured). These women had documented BMIs ranging from 11.6

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72 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

Table 5.1 Demographic and socioeconomic indicators.

Average % % describing Average Average % with

age mean married birthplace as over- ownership degree
(median) rural crowding consumer or
goods higher

Residents 34.3 (30) 53 72.5 2.3 3.1 85

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Migrants 32.6 (26) 43 33.3 1.8 5.9 40

to 36.1 kg/m2 , and documented WHRs from 0.68 to 0.90. To control for
order effects two books were used, with images randomised in different
orders. Men were asked to rate each image for attractiveness, health,
wealth, and fertility, on a scale of 0 to 9 (0 = lowest, 9 = highest), and to
estimate the age of the women in the photo. All photographic images used
for the study were developed and tested in prior studies (Tovée, Hancock,
Mahmoodi, Singleton, & Cornelissen, 2002; Tovée, Maisey, Emery, &
Cornelissen, 1999). These images were first piloted among a few Banglade-
shis to ensure they would not be offensive or culturally inappropriate for
Muslim men of different ages living in different locations.
To check for significant differences between groups, three statistics
were generated for each respondent. First, the ‘peak BMI value for attract-
iveness’ was calculated for each male respondent. For each respondent,
a graph was plotted with the BMI of each woman in the photographs
on the x-axis and the respondent’s rating of her attractiveness on the
y-axis. A cubic polynomial was fitted to the graph, which was then used
to calculate the BMI at which attractiveness ratings peaked, demon-
strating the respondent’s most preferred female body weight. Secondly,
an average was taken for each respondent’s ratings of the seven obese
women in the image set (those with BMI > 30), which provided an index
of his appraisal of the attractiveness of obese women. Thirdly, the correl-
ation between WHR and attractiveness ratings was calculated for each
respondent, which provided an index of whether, and how strongly, he
preferred low values of WHR. A General Linear Model (GLM) was used
to assess the impact of group membership on BMI of peak attractiveness,
attractiveness of obese women, and preference for low WHR, controlling
for both age and educational attainment.
We also tested for group differences in the perceived relationships
between BMI, WHR and each of health, fertility, SES and age. In order to
do this, further statistics were generated for each participant. As before,
cubic polynomials were used to calculate the BMI at which health,
fertility and SES ratings were perceived to peak by each respondent. The

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 Isabel Scott et al. 73

BMI value at which age was perceived to be minimised was also calcu-
lated (the minimum average age rating for any image was 28 years). In
addition, averages were taken of the perceived healthiness, SES, fertility
and age of the obese images, and the correlation between WHR and each
of health, SES, fertility and age were calculated. These ratings were then
treated as dependent variables in a GLM, controlling for respondents’
age and education as before. Data were analysed using three statistical

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software packages: SPSS (version 12 for GLMs), OriginLab (version 7.5
for interpolating graphs and calculating maximal ratings), and MiniTab
(version 14 for best subsets regressions).

Results

Attractiveness ratings as a function of BMI and WHR respectively are

shown in Figures 5.1a and 5.1b. The relationship between attractiveness
and BMI is non-linear for both migrants and Sylhet residents, peaking

(a) Average attractiveness of images by BMI

6.00

5.00

4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00

10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00

BMI

Figure 5.1(a, b) Attractiveness as a function of BMI and WHR respectively. Each

point represents the average ratings of one image by either the sedentee or the
migrant group.

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74 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

(b) Average attractiveness of images by WHR

6.00

5.00

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4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00

0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90

WHR
Residents Migrants Residents Migrants

Figure 5.1 (Continued).

at around BMI 20, and falling away sharply on either side. The relation-
ship between attractiveness and WHR is weak, but linear and negative,
indicating a slight preference for low WHR.
Despite the absence of discernable group differences in the graphs
(Figures 5.1a and 5.1b), when confounds were controlled, the findings
were largely supportive of the adaptive flexibility hypothesis, with peak
BMI for attractiveness significantly higher in the Sylhet resident group
(mean for residents = 22.8, migrants = 19.8, p < 0001) and preference
for low WHR significantly higher in the migrant group (mean for resid-
ents = −020, migrants = −031, p < 005). There were no significant
differences between groups in their appraisal of the attractiveness of
obese women (mean for residents = 1.95, migrants = 1.58, p = 046; see
Tables 5.2 and 5.3).
The relationship between BMI, WHR and average ratings of the images
for health, fertility, SES and age are plotted in Figures 5.2 and 5.3. Results
of GLM testing for group differences showed that significant differences

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 Isabel Scott et al. 75

Table 5.2 (a, b, c) GLMs for BMI of peak attractiveness, average attractiveness of
obese images and correlation between WHR and attractiveness.

Unstandardised SE of B t value P
coefficient (B)

(a) General Linear Model for BMI of peak attractiveness

Constant 25.7 156 16.52 0.00

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Age −0.08 004 −2.16 0.03
Education −1.50 040 −3.78 0.00
Groups 3.05 082 3.71 0.00
(b) General Linear Model for average attractiveness of obese images
Constant 3.57 094 3.79 0.00
Age −0.03 002 −1.28 0.20
Education −0.47 025 −1.91 0.06
Groups 0.37 050 0.74 0.46
(c) General Linear Model for correlation between WHR and attractiveness
Constant 0.07 010 0.72 0.47
Age −0.01 000 −2.23 0.03
Education −0.09 003 −3.70 0.00
Groups 0.11 005 2.06 0.04

Table 5.3 (a, b, c) Mean values, by group, of BMI of peak attractiveness, attract-
iveness of obese women and preference for low WHR.

Marginal mean∗ for Marginal mean

residents for migrants

(a) BMI of peak attractiveness 22.82 1978

(b) Average attractiveness of 1.95 158
obese women
(c) Correlation between WHR −0.20 −031
and attractiveness

∗
Marginal means are the mean response of the group once confounds are controlled for.
Thus when age and education are factored out, Sylhet residents viewed attractiveness to peak
at BMI 22.82, gave obese women an average rating of 1.95 out of 9 for attractiveness, and the
average perceived relationship between WHR and attractiveness had a correlation coefficient
of −0.19

between groups were limited exclusively to SES ratings. Group differ-

ences mirrored differences in attraction judgements, with the migrant
group regarding SES as peaking at a reduced BMI compared to the Sylhet
residents, and obese women and women with high WHR to be less
wealthy (see Tables 5.4 and 5.5).

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76

(a) (b)
Average health ratings by BMI Average SES ratings by BMI

7.00
6.00
6.00

5.00 5.00

4.00
4.00

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3.00
3.00
2.00

1.00 2.00

10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00
BMI BMI
(c) (d)
Average fertility ratings by BMI Average age ratings by BMI

8.00 42.00

40.00
6.00 38.00

36.00
4.00
34.00

32.00
2.00
30.00
0.00 28.00

10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00
BMI BMI

Residents Migrants Residents Migrants

Figure 5.2 (a, b, c, d) Average ratings for health, wealth fertility and age by BMI.
Each point represents the average ratings of one image by either the sedentee or
the migrant group.

(a) Average health ratings by WHR (b) Average SES ratings by WHR
7.00
6.00
6.00

5.00 5.00

4.00
4.00
3.00
3.00
2.00

1.00 2.00
0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90
WHR WHR

Figure 5.3 (a, b, c, d) Average ratings for health, wealth, fertility and age by WHR.

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 77

(c) (d)
Average fertility ratings by WHR Average age ratings by WHR
8.00 42.00
40.00
6.00 38.00
36.00

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4.00
34.00
32.00
2.00
30.00
0.00 28.00
0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90
WHR WHR

Residents Migrants Residents Migrants

Figure 5.3 (Continued).

Table 5.4 (a, b, c) GLMs for BMI of peak perceived SES, average perceived SES of
obese images and correlation between WHR and perceived SES.

Unstandardised SE of B t value P
coefficient (B)

(a) General Linear Model for BMI of peak perceived SES

Constant 24.44 221 11.09 0.00
Age −0.02 005 −0.30 0.76
Education −0.55 056 −0.98 0.33
Groups 2.60 119 2.18 0.03

(b) General Linear Model for average perceived SES of obese images
Constant 4.51 089 5.09 0.00
Age −0.01 002 −0.51 0.61
Education −0.08 023 −0.35 0.73
Groups 1.01 047 2.13 0.04

(c) General Linear Model for correlation between WHR and perceived SES
Constant 0.12 011 1.10 0.28
Age −0.00 000 −1.77 0.08
Education −0.05 003 −1.81 0.08
Groups 0.17 006 2.89 0.01

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78 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

Table 5.5 (a, b, c) Mean values, by group, of BMI of peak perceived SES, perceived
SES of obese women and correlation between perceived SES and WHR.

Marginal mean Marginal mean

for residents for migrants

(a) BMI of peak perceived SES 25.23 2263

(b) Average perceived SES of obese 5.00 400

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women
(c) Correlation between WHR and 0.03 −015
perceived SES

Discussion

The results of the experiment showed that migrant Bangladeshi men

exhibited changing preferences for female body size and shape, with
migrant attitudes mirroring previously documented Western prefer-
ences. In addition, preferences were adjusted in a direction consistent
with principles of maximising mate choice. Bangladeshi residents rated
optimal attractiveness at a significantly higher BMI than migrants, and
the correlation between WHR and attractiveness was more negative in
the migrant group, indicating a stronger preference for a low WHR or
curvaceousness. This accords with the fact that, within the Bangladeshi
population, heavier, larger-waisted women are likely be of higher relative
mate value than their counterparts in Britain, as outlined in the para-
graphs above. Our findings, therefore, support an account of somatic
attraction in which preferences are flexible and adapt to new environ-
ments in such a way as to maintain an orientation towards women of
high mate value.
In addition, the experiment involved an exploration of the prox-
imate causes of group differences in preferences. Both mental model-
ling and exposure effects constitute possible mechanisms via which
differences are mediated. Various authors have suggested that attrac-
tion may respond to anthropometric means in the local population
(Sugiyama, 2004; Symons, 1979) and numerous studies from the facial
attractiveness literature have shown that mere exposure to facial types
is sufficient to adjust preferences in that direction (Buckingham et al.,
2006; Rhodes et al., 2003). To date, however, little research appears
to have investigated similar phenomena for bodies, presumably due to
the widely acknowledged fact that preference for overweight women is
inversely associated with their prevalence (Anderson et al., 1992). WHR
preferences, however, may well respond to local norms of body shape,

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 Isabel Scott et al. 79

particularly if they are the optimal value for reproductive success, and
our findings are consistent with this hypothesis. As stated earlier, the
average WHR for Bangladeshi women is significantly higher than that
for Caucasian women in Britain. Further, among the Sylhet residents in
our study, preference for low WHR was correlated with access to foreign
media, as indexed by ownership of television, video, home computer
and satellite television (r = 033, p < 005) and hence presumably images

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of Western women. Our results, therefore, are consistent with the hypo-
thesis that exposure to females of particular body shapes influences
preferences.
An alternative to the hypothesis of mere exposure is that of mental
modelling. This states that the association between particular somatypes
and certain attractive traits is reliable within populations, but differs
between them, and hence that within populations (either at the level
of the individual, or as part of a process of cultural evolution) certain
somatypes come to be psychologically associated with particular traits,
and are therefore seen as attractive. Our data indicated that only SES
perceptions differed significantly between the groups, with Sylhet resid-
ents viewing both SES and attractiveness to be optimised at significantly
higher BMIs and WHRs than migrants, while perceptions regarding
the relationship between somatype and each of health, fertility, and
age were the same between groups. Moreover, as outlined above, our
subjects’ perceptions regarding environment, SES and somatype (i.e.,
that the association between BMI and wealth was more positive in
Bangladesh than in Britain) were probably reasonably accurate (Islam,
Akhtaruzzaman, & Lamberg-Allardt, 2004; Sobal & Stunkard, 1989). The
results, therefore, indicated that perceptions about SES were a plaus-
ible mechanism through which group differences in attraction were
generated, a suggestion consistent with the hypothesis that resource
availability – specifically caloric resources – is of primary importance to
inter-population differences in male preferences for female body shape.
It should be noted, however, that there are a number of limitations
to our study, which further research might be able to rectify. The first
of these is that our method of testing for mental representations of the
relationships between somatype and other traits relied on participants’
ability to articulate such representations, and to consciously recognise
cues of particular traits (i.e., health, wealth, etc.). Our findings, therefore,
do not exclude the possibility that males are able to track the somatic
correlates of traits such as health and fertility across different environ-
ments, but are simply unaware of what their preferences signify. Indeed,
prior research suggests that when males are asked to make conscious

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80 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

judgements about the relationship between somatype and traits such as

health and fertility, like our subjects, they do not provide particularly
accurate models (Furnham et al., 1997, 2003; Garfinkel & Garner, 1982;
Henss, 1995; McGarvey, 1991; Powers, 1980; Singh, 1993).
This provokes the question of why males should be more cognisant of
the somatic correlates of wealth than of health or fertility. One sugges-
tion is that, cross-culturally, there exist invariant correlates of health

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and fertility (such as, for example, feminine facial features and good hair
and skin) but that wealth markers vary greatly from population to popu-
lation. If this is the case, then males need not be aware that a particular
body-type was more fertile in order to track fertile phenotypes across a
range of environments. All that would be required would be that certain
(e.g., facial) signals should be considered attractive by all males, and that
exposure to a population in which a particular somatype was reliably
associated with such signals should generate a preference for that soma-
type. Wealth cues, on the other hand, would have to be re-learnt in each
new environment, and one, therefore, expects an element of awareness
of the relationship between SES and somatype. It may, therefore, be the
case that some or all of the other traits under investigation (i.e., health,
fertility and age) are responsible for group differences in preferences,
but that SES is the only trait for which participants are able to articulate
accurate models. This hypothesis could, in principle, be easily tested by
priming participants with stimuli in which various somatic variables are
positively or negatively correlated with cues of health, wealth, fertility
and age, and subsequently testing both for somatic preferences, and for
judgements about the relationships between somatype and other traits.
A further shortcoming in this study is that our results are consistent
with a number of hypotheses regarding the ultimate explanation for
flexible variation in preferences. As outlined above, in Britain slim but
curvy women are on average younger, healthier, wealthier and more
fertile than average while, in much of Bangladesh, these trends are
likely to be reversed. With a large, multi-population sample, it would be
possible to treat population relationships between somatype and each
of these factors (wealth, health, etc.) as independent variables, and pref-
erences as a dependent variable, and hence to determine which factors
were genuinely salient. As there are only two groups in this experiment
however, it is impossible to determine which, if any, of these factors
is being tracked by male preferences. Moreover, it remains a possibility
that other factors not considered here may exert an effect on the adjust-
ment of preferences, and indeed various authors have proposed other
traits that may be important. For example, a higher androgen/oestrogen

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 Isabel Scott et al. 81

ratio may be associated with increased assertiveness and competitive

ability as well as increased WHR, which may be of benefit in societies in
which women compete directly for resources (Cashdan, 2003; Marlowe
et al., 2005). As described by Einon (Chapter 8), curvaceousness may
facilitate heat loss (see also Barber, 1995), which is of benefit in hot, arid
climates but may impose costs in environments where heat conserva-
tion in important (although this would not of course explain the current

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findings). High WHR may indicate an ‘ability to digest fibrous foods’
(Sugiyama, 2004), which could be important in societies in which these
constitute a staple part of the diet. And regional variation in fertility,
child-carrying practices and other mobility requirements, such as those
associated with foraging, water-carrying and so on, may also impact
both on the salience of mobility to survival, and on what is the ideal
fat distribution for mobility (Barber, 1995; Marlowe et al., 2005). All
of these hypotheses are in principle easily testable, and require further
investigation in a cross-cultural context.
In addition to the further research suggested above, we feel that there
are a number of questions of interest that could easily be addressed
by supplementary studies. Our findings indicated that, within groups,
education was a highly significant predictor of preferences for Western
ideals. Future research could address in more depth the subject of intra-
group variation in preferences, attempt to identify further intra-group
factors, and explain how and why they exert an effect on preferences.
Secondly, while we did not collect data on length of stay in Britain or
age at migration in this study, it would be of great interest to examine
the interaction of these two factors in determining preferences. It would
be interesting to examine whether there is a ‘critical window’ of devel-
opment during which preferences are acquired, and/or whether prefer-
ences are capable of modification throughout adult life. Third, given that
exposure to Western media has been proposed to impact on preferences,
but that such exposure presumably correlates with other socioecological
factors, it would be informative to compare the effects of exposure to
media images with exposure to ‘ordinary’ individuals of varying soma-
type, to determine which of these has the greatest effect of preferences.
Should one or the other have a disproportionate influence, this would be
relevant to the ongoing debate regarding the responsibility of the media
for body image problems among women. Fourth, to determine whether
exposure effects and/or mental modelling are pertinent to WHR prefer-
ences, we suggest lab-based priming experiments, in which individuals
are exposed both to stimuli sets with particularly high/low WHRs, and
to stimuli sets in which WHR is positively or negatively correlated with

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82 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

other cues of mate quality, in order to determine the proximate processes

responsible for adjustments to preferences.
Finally, a comprehensive investigation of the effects of different
stimuli should be undertaken. To date, researchers have employed
line drawings, greyscale and colour photographs, front, profile and 3D
perspectives, varying ranges for both BMI and WHR, and different ethnic
groups in their depiction of women for experiments. To the best of our

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knowledge, no one has thus far attempted to present such a variety of
stimuli to a single, homogenous group. Such a project would confirm
(or otherwise) that apparent group differences in preference are genuine
and not an artifact of some other factor. (Indeed, in the current study,
the use of colour photographs, while contributing to the realism and
impact of the stimuli, would have revealed the skin tone, and hence the
ethnicity, of the women depicted. While there is no theoretical reason,
of which we are aware, to suppose that there should be an interac-
tion between ethnicity of stimuli and subjects’ preferred body shape,
neither are we aware of any research that has specifically investigated
this possibility, and therefore cannot rule out that it was responsible for
group differences.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, we agree that males evidently possess an evolved ability

to assess women’s attractiveness on the basis of physiological indic-
ators that are linked to various criteria of mate value. However, a
great deal of evidence is also accumulating to show that this ability
is highly plastic depending on the kind of environment in which
humans are living. Rather than a universal male preference for a low
WHR ratio centred around 0.70, as posited by early research on the
issue of male preference for female body shape, male preferences for
a specific WHR and BMI appear to differ depending on the amount
of resources available in their environment. Where resources are more
abundant, as is typical for Western and/or urbanised cultures, men seem
to prefer women with a slim but curvy figure, but where resources
are scarce or uncertain, male preferences are for a higher WHR and a
higher BMI.
In certain circumstances, the high WHR/BMI phenotype could signal
higher mate value in a woman and potentially an evolved capability
to use scarce resources more efficiently. Although such a phenotype
is associated (in modern environments) with lower levels of oestrogen
and potentially reduced fecundity, the benefits to females of metabolic

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 Isabel Scott et al. 83

thrift may sometimes outweigh the drawbacks of a longer waiting time

to conception compared to those measured in contemporary women.
We argue for the existence of fluctuation in nutritional security in
our ancestral past, as evidenced in the developmental flexibility of
the physical body, which is capable of anticipating both plenty and
scarcity, and that there is hence a rationale for flexibility in preferences
as well. We further suggest that male preferences should respond to

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local socioecological conditions by tracking females of high mate value
across a range of environments, and that mechanisms exist which enable
them to do so. A combination of further cross-cultural/correlational
and experimental investigations is required in order to confirm our
suggestions.

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6
Masculinity, Culture, and the
Paradox of the Lek
Douglas W. Yu, Stephen R. Proulx, and Glenn H. Shepard

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Explaining why males vary in their attractiveness and ability to garner
mates is a long-standing problem in evolution (Darwin, 1871, Fisher,
1930). A well-accepted solution posits that ‘attractive’ traits, such as
bright feathers, are costly to produce and, thus, truthfully signal high
mate quality (Andersson, 1994). High quality males may confer direct or
indirect benefits to their offspring. Direct benefits are essentially phen-
otypic in nature, such as nuptial gifts, parental care, or territory, and if
such benefits vary across males, then female choice is easy to explain
(Kokko, Jennions, & Brooks, 2006; Thornhill, 1976). Indirect benefits
are genetic; a mate is chosen because it can pass on ‘good’ (versions of)
genes, such as those involved in disease resistance (Evans & Magurran,
2000; Jennions & Petrie, 2000; Milinski, 2006; Møller & Alatalo, 1999).
Evolutionary psychological explanations for male attractiveness in
humans have tended to emphasise indirect benefits, as revealed by
symmetry and markers of immunocompetence. In a well known study,
Penton-Voak et al. (1999, 2000), using computer-generated composite
photographs, found that some women consider masculine male faces to
be more attractive in the week of highest fertility, but judge feminine
male faces to be more attractive (and indicative of a caring partner)
during the rest of the menstrual cycle. This was interpreted as evidence
for a mixed-mating strategy (also known as the ovulatory-shift hypo-
thesis) in which females pair long-term with caring, more effeminate
males, but engage in extra-pair matings (EPM) with masculine males for
the latter’s ‘good genes.’
Much like what initially happened with Singh’s (1993) waist-to-
hip ratio hypothesis of bodily attractiveness, Penton-Voak et al.’s
(1999, 2000) results have spawned a small industry replicating and
extending the original results (Danel & Pawłowski, 2006; Gangestad

88

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 Douglas W. Yu et al. 89

& Simpson, 2000, Gangestad, Simpson, Cousins, Garver-Apgar, &

Christensen, 2004; Gangestad, Thornhill, & Garver-Apgar, 2005a,
2005b; Haselton & Gangestad, 2006; Haselton & Miller, 2006; Havlicek,
Roberts, & Flegr, 2005; Provost, Kormos, Kosakoski, & Quinsey, 2006;
Roney, Hanson, Durante, & Maestripieri, 2006; Scheib, Gangestad, &
Thornhill, 1999; Waynforth, Delwadia, & Camm, 2005). Nonetheless,
many studies with non-humans, mostly birds and insects, have shown

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that the ‘good-genes’ explanation for male attractiveness should be
applied with a bit of caution. There exist alternative explanations, and
corresponding empirical support, for why females should be selected to
mate outside the pair (Jennions & Petrie, 2000; Newcomer, Zeh, & Zeh,
1999). For instance, by accepting sperm from multiple males, females
increase the probability that the genotypes in their eggs will be matched
with particular paternal genotypes that are more compatible (Kempen-
aers, Congdon, Boag, & Robertson, 1999; Newcomer et al., 1999;
Tregenza & Wedell, 2002), or females might be trying to reduce the
risk of male infertility (Krokene, Rigstad, Dale, & Lifjeld, 1998; Sheldon,
1994). Another possibility starts with the acknowledgment that some
males are more attractive but only arbitrarily so. Nonetheless, a female
who mates with such males will have sons who look like their fathers,
thus producing what are known as ‘Fisherian sexy sons,’ after the popu-
lation geneticist Ronald Fisher, and such sons will also enjoy heightened
attractiveness in a self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating way (Jones, Quin-
nell, & Balmford, 1998).
A different class of criticism suggests that apparent good-genes effects
might result instead from biased female investment. For example, female
zebra finches and mallards have been found to provision eggs fathered
by attractive males with, respectively, more testosterone (Gil, Graves,
Hazon, & Wells, 1999) and more food (Cunningham & Russell, 2000;
but see Petrie, Schwable, Brande-Lavridsen, & Burke, 2001; Cunningham
& Russell, 2001). The offspring of such extra-pair males should enjoy
heightened fitness, but because of the confounding effect of female
investment, it is not possible to conclude that the genotype of the male
has contributed to that increase.
Experiments with birds have also shown that even basic assumptions
of the masculinity/immunocompetence theory do not always hold.
Experimentally increasing testosterone does not reduce immunocom-
petence in red-winged blackbirds or greenfinches (Hasselquist, Marsh,
Sherman, & Wingfield, 1999; Lindstrom, Krakower, Lundstrom, &
Silverin, 2001; but see Duffy, Bentley, Drazen, & Ball, 2000, for a positive
result in starlings), and in one population of house sparrows, Cordero,

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90 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

Wetton, and Parkin (1999) have found that males with smaller badges
are not cuckolded more frequently (but see Møller & Ninni, 1998).
More generally, female preference for more masculine males might
simply reflect selection pressure on the female to reduce total matings,
since mating is a costly activity. Under this interpretation, the evolution
of masculinity is the result of male–male competition for those matings
(reviewed in Kokko et al., 2006). Also, mathematical models have found

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that selection for female choice to select males offering indirect benefits
is in fact weak. There can even be selection against the evolution of
female choice if the costs of expressing choice are high (see Kokko et al.,
2006; Milinski, 2006).
Most fundamentally, because it is usually assumed that females prefer
the costliest and showiest marker phenotypes (e.g., the largest horns),
females impose what is known as ‘directional selection’ on a trait to
increase (or decrease) in some value. Evolutionary biology tells us that
directional selection acts by removing gene variants (‘alleles’) from
the population, so the genes coding for sexually selected traits should
become less and less variable over time. As a result, all males will become
similarly showy, and selection on females to express choosiness over
genetic differences in males will itself be relaxed, leading ultimately to
the trait of female choice selecting itself out of existence.
This dynamic is called the Paradox of the Lek (Borgia, 1979; Kirk-
patrick & Ryan, 1991; Taylor & Williams, 1982), where a lek is a term
from ornithology describing an aggregation of males competing for
female attention. Resolving the Paradox of the Lek is a not-so-minor
industry in evolutionary biology, and whole careers have been spent
on the challenge. Currently, the leading explanation for how variation
in sexually selected traits is preserved (and consequently, how female
choice is preserved) suggests that sexually selected traits, such as the
brightness of feathers, are especially sensitive to overall physiological
condition. If physiological condition happens to depend in part on
underlying genetic variation, which is reasonable, then sexually selected
traits can be said to reflect or ‘capture’ part of the overall genetic vari-
ation in an organism, and as there are a lot of genes in an organism,
genetic variation in sexually selected traits can be maintained by the
low, background mutation rate that exists over the whole genome
(Rowe & Houle, 1996). Empirical tests have provided support for the
‘genic capture’ model (David, Bjorksten, Fowler, & Pomiankowski, 2000;
Kotiaho, Simmons, & Tomkins, 2001; Wilkinson & Taper, 1999).
Any theory of human mate choice that invokes indirect benefits must
confront the many theoretical challenges that attend this model and

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 Douglas W. Yu et al. 91

must especially deal with the Paradox of the Lek. Even though there is
much to like about the ‘genic capture’ model, it must be remembered
that masculinity in humans has not yet been shown to be condition-
dependent. Thus, the first research priority for evolutionary psychology
should be to test the genic capture model. Is variation in phenotypic
condition expressed as variation in masculinity, and more so than in
non-sexually selected traits? And if so, is variance in condition itself

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dependent on genetic variation?.
So far, there is some evidence for the first requirement. Penton-Voak,
Jackson and Trivers (2004) found that Jamaican women preferred more
masculine faces than did Japanese or British women, as predicted by the
higher parasite load in Jamaica. Also, Thornhill and Gangestad (2006)
found that increased facial masculinity in males correlates with a lower
incidence of respiratory (but not stomach) illness and a lower usage of
antibiotics, even after controlling for body size (see Cotton, Fowler, &
Pomiankowski, 2004, for a review of the empirical challenges of determ-
ining condition dependence).
A second way to approach the lek paradox is to define a complete set
of conditions under which female preferences might maintain genetic
variation in masculinity. For this purpose, let us take at face value the
findings from Penton-Voak et al. (2000) and others that suggest that
female preference is (at least) bi-directional in that the desired degree of
masculinity in a mate appears to vary depending on whether the male is
chosen for marriage or for extra-pair matings. Because they act in oppos-
ition, we will show here that preferences for different kinds of partners
by the same female could maintain genetic variance in masculinity.
However, to do this, we must formalise Penton-Voak et al.’s (2000)
mixed-mating strategy hypothesis in order to lay out all the assumptions
and conditions and to devise tests. When we do this with a simple
mathematical model, we will see that the mixed-mating strategy, as
described, is implausibly applied to Western societies, even though the
choice tests have been conducted with Westernised females. That is,
the mixed mating hypothesis appears incomplete, which leads us to the
other part of our chapter.
A theory of mate choice in humans must also delimit the choices
that a female has available to her. For example, by interpreting within-
individual variation in preferences as indicators of long-term versus
short-term mate choice, Penton-Voak et al. (2000) and others have impli-
citly assumed women are free to choose their long-term partners, which
largely reflects a recent and Western conception of marriage. In contrast,
in almost all traditional societies (and in many industrialised countries),

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92 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

parents have varying degrees of influence over the daughter’s choice of

spouse (Beckerman, 2000). Thus, any study of variation in female pref-
erences for long-term versus short-term partners must take into account
kinship and marriage systems, inheritance rules, social class, gender rela-
tions, and other sociocultural factors influencing mate choice (McGraw,
2002).
Following a previous study (Yu & Shepard, 1998, 1999) of how cultural

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change can affect men’s perceptions of female bodily attractiveness
among the Matsigenka, an Amerindian population of southeastern,
Amazonian Peru, we tested the hypothesis that marriage systems and
socioeconomic systems (i.e., ‘culture’) might affect how women choose
mates, for themselves, and, for their daughters. If we find such an effect,
then we can conclude that not just biological but cultural rules can
plausibly produce trade-offs that preserve genetic variation, and more
generally, that cultural variation can guide human evolution, as has
been shown convincingly for the evolution of tolerance to cow’s milk
sugar, lactose (Tishkoff et al., 2007).
For the Matsigenka, the preferred marriage partner is the cross-cousin
(or failing that, an individual from outside the village, exogamy), and
residence is matrilocal (or uxorilocal), meaning that a man moves to
the village or hamlet of his wife’s family (Shapiro, 1984). Furthermore,
parents, guided by kinship rules (see below), have a strong influence over
the daughter’s choice of marriage partner. Parents wish to ensure that
a son-in-law will become a reliable food provider, through hunting and
swidden agriculture, for the extended family as the parents age. Glenn
Shepard has observed instances of ‘lazy’ sons-in-law being kicked out by
parents, and many instances of threats to do so. On the other hand, we
have also observed that, though hardly encouraged, extramarital liaisons
are not uncommon, are not typically met with harsh punishment or
ostracism for either men or women, and we have no reason to believe
that parents influence the choice of these extra-marital partners.
Thus, we test the a priori hypothesis that in traditional Matsigenka
culture, parents will prefer masculine men for sons-in-law, in contrast to
the results of Penton-Voak et al. (2000), where feminine males are given
the marriage advantage. We are suggesting that more masculine men,
on average, are better hunters and garden-makers and, therefore, that
masculine males confer greater direct benefits in the form of increased
food provision, which implies that wives are more likely than girlfriends
to capture those benefits. Therefore, we are not assuming any ‘good
genes’ effects of masculinity. Finally, we judge the plausibility of our
empirical results by formally examining the conditions under which

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 Douglas W. Yu et al. 93

observed Matsigenka female preferences could maintain genetic variance

in masculinity.

Study population

The study was carried out in 1999 with 45 Matsigenka women living in
the department of Madre de Dios, Peru. Three of the women are long-

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term residents of native communities along the Madre de Dios River
bordering Manu National Park, and the rest of the subjects are residents
of the villages of Tayakome (n = 13), Yomybato (n = 28), and Sotileja
(n = 1), within Manu Park itself, a 1.8 million hectare tropical rainforest
biosphere reserve. The age range was 13 to 50 years (mean ± SE, 26
± 1.3).
Tayakome is located on the Manu River, a day and a half journey by
boat from the park entrance, whereas Yomybato is reached only after a
further 2–6 days’ journey up a small stream, and Sotileja is several days
walk from Yomybato. Sotileja was first visited by a non-Matsigenka in
1995, and the Sotileja women in our sample were visiting Yomybato at
the time of our census. All the communities practice swidden agriculture,
supplemented with fruit, fish, and game (Shepard, 2002).
The Madre de Dios and Tayakome communities are more Westernised
than the Yomybato and Sotileja communities in that the former are
more fluent in Spanish, less dependent upon bow-and-arrow hunting,
more dependent upon hook-and-line fishing, have easier access to
manufactured goods via the cash economy, and, because of their prox-
imity to a major river course, have more frequent contact with outsiders.
Perhaps the simplest index of isolation is that when given a choice,
cultural anthropologists, to a person, have chosen to work in Yomybato
rather than in Tayakome. It is possible that such cultural and economic
differences among villages could influence judgements of the attract-
iveness of prospective sons-in-law. Thus, we analysed the responses first
by pooling across all communities and then by separating the more
Westernised from the more isolated communities.

Interviews

The images used in the study are computer-generated composite photo-

graphs of Japanese faces from Perrett et al. (1998), where examples can
also be seen. We used three of their Japanese images based on the
subjects’ volunteered observations about the similarity between East
Asian and Matsigenka physical features. The face stimuli created by

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94 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

Perrett et al. (1998) included one un-manipulated composite male face

(M), one masculinised by 50 per cent (MM), and one feminised by 50
per cent (MF), using the morphometric difference between composite
male and female photos (M and F) as a gauge of the direction and extent
of masculinity.
All interviews were conducted in the Matsigenka language. We
presented each subject individually with two pairings of faces (MF versus

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M, and M versus MM), and for each pair, the subject was asked to choose
the most attractive (tyapaita) of the two. Following the same procedure,
we also asked each subject to choose the preferred son-in-law (tiñeri). The
order of the questions (attractiveness and son-in-law) and the order of
the picture pairings within questions were randomised across subjects.
That is, half the respondents were asked about sons-in-law first, and
the other half were asked about attractiveness first. In total, therefore,
each subject chose from four pairs of faces, two for each question. For
each pair, we scored whether the subject chose the more masculine or
the more feminine face. This means that M was more masculine when
paired against MF but more feminine when paired against MM. We did
not attempt to control for the subject’s menstrual cycle, except in the
sense that both questions were asked at the same time.

Correcting for pseudo-replication

Using all the responses is a form of pseudo-replication, since each indi-

vidual would be counted twice. We, therefore, corrected for pseudo-
replication by counting only those individuals whose responses reveal
an internally consistent masculine or feminine preference within a given
question. That is, for a given question (attractiveness or son-in-law), we
score an individual as having a ‘he-man’ preference only if she responded
both MM > M and M > MF, and as having a ‘she-man’ preference if she
responded both MF > M and M > MM, thereby counting each individual
respondent, at most, once per question. Individuals with mixed responses
within question are thus dropped. To confirm that our procedure does not
introduce artefacts, we also analysed the data without correction for pseu-
doreplication (i.e., we used the entire dataset).

Results

Despite the rather severe reduction in sample size caused by omitting all
non-internally consistent responses, we find that women’s perceptions
and judgements change significantly with the cultural context of the

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 95

All villages
(a) 20
18
16
14
12
10
8

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6
4
2
0
Attractiveness Son-in-law
Yomybato / Sotileja
(b) 12

10

0
Attractiveness Son-in-law

Tayakome/Madre de Dios
(c) 8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Attractiveness Son-in-law

Masculine Feminine

Figure 6.1 Preference for masculinised or feminised male faces as a func-

tion of question asked. Only internally consistent answers were included in
this analysis (see Results). Thus, the number of responses is not equal across
categories. (a) Pooled over both villages (Fisher’s Exact Test, 1-tailed, p < 005);
(b) Yomybato/Sotileja villages only (p < 005); (c) Tayakome/Alto Madre villages
only (p > 10). Figure 6.1b is significantly different from 1c (Mantel-Haenszel
chi-square = 3.990, p < 005).

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96 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

question. The ‘she-man’ preference predominates for the attractiveness

question, in line with previous results (Perrett et al., 1998), but the ‘he-
man’ preference is stronger in the son-in-law question (see Figure 6.1a).
We separated the results into more and less isolated populations.
The significant difference across questions is seen only in the more
isolated population of Yomybato/Sotileja (see Figure 6.1b). In the
Tayakome/Madre de Dios population, the corresponding preferences are

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not significantly different (see Figure 6.1c), though the preference for
feminine faces does weaken considerably in the son-in-law question.
This difference across villages is significant.
The non-pseudoreplication-corrected data shows the same patterns
(n = 90). For attractiveness, the more feminine face is chosen more often
(62.2 per cent), and, for son-in-law, the more masculine face is chosen
only slightly more often (53.3 per cent). This difference is significant
(G = 441, df = 1, p < 005). Separating populations, we also find that
women of Yomybato and Sotileja (more isolated, n = 58) judge feminine
males as more attractive (62.1 per cent of contrasts) but prefer mascu-
line males as sons-in-law (56.9 per cent, G = 421, df = 1, p < 005). In
contrast, Tayakome and Madre de Dios women (less isolated, n = 32)
also find feminine faces to be more attractive (62.5 per cent), but do not
prefer masculine faces (46.9 per cent) for son-in-law (G = 058, df = 1,
p > 10). This difference between villages is again significant (Mantel-
Haenszel chi-square=4.35, p < 005).

Model

We formalised the Penton-Voak et al. (2000) ‘mixed-mating strategy’

hypothesis with a simple model. Our purpose is to lay out more clearly
the assumptions and consequences of a mixed-mating strategy involving
variation in masculinity, and obviously not to model human mate
choice in its entirety. To begin with, we assume that female mating pref-
erences can be expressed either as a long-term association (marriage) or
as short-term extra-pair matings (EPM). For simplicity, we consider only
two male phenotypes: masculine (m) and feminine (f ). If the two types
only differ in their mating success, and not in their propensity or ability
to care for offspring, then the frequency dynamics can be written as:

pt+1 = Mpt 1 − Cm pt v + 1 − Mpt Cf pt v (1)

where p is the fraction of m males (and 1 − p the fraction of f males) in

the population. Mp is the proportion of marriages to m males, Ci is the

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 Douglas W. Yu et al. 97

probability a type i male is cuckolded, and  is the average proportion

of offspring fathered through EPMs. Thus, the first term represents the
marriage success of m males, multiplied by the expected proportion
of offspring fathered by the m male (i.e., the probability of not being
successfully cuckolded). The second term is the proportion of marriages
to f males multiplied by the expected proportion of offspring fathered
by cuckolding m males (i.e., the probability of successfully mating with

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females married to f males).
In order for the two types of males to co-exist, each must increase in
frequency when rare. Mathematically, this requires that:

dpt+1 
 >1
dpt p =0
 t
dpt+1 
 <1
dpt p =1
t

In order to evaluate these two conditions, some information about the

marriage preference function [Mp] and the cuckoldry functions [Ci p]
is required. While the exact forms would be difficult to measure and are
unknown, the data from Penton-Voak et al. (2000) and from the current
study can be used to make assumptions about the general properties of
these functions.
In the Penton-Voak et al. (2000) study, the masculine male was
considered to be more attractive for EPMs while the feminine male was
more attractive for marriage. Under this scenario, the mating preference
function and the cuckoldry function will act in opposition, creating a
stable polymorphism where both types of male are maintained. So, when
m males suffer a marriage disadvantage, they marry at less than their
own frequency, making Mp < p, for all p. Further, for mating systems in
which females examine a fixed number of males before mating (i.e., the
best of n mating system; Janetos, 1980), the mating success of disfavored
rare males will be approximately 0, so that M  0 = 0. If m males also
have a cuckoldry benefit then the probability of cuckolding an f male
will be greater than the probability of being cuckolded by an f male;
hence Cf p > Cm 1 − p. We expect that Cf 0 > 0 and Cm

1 = 0. Using
these assumptions, the conditions for polymorphism become:

Cf pv > 1

1 − Cf 1vM  1 > 1

In other words, in the Penton-Voak et al. (2000) system, rare m males

must receive more than one female equivalent of offspring through

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98 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

cuckolding in order to spread, and rare f males must on average

marry more than one female and escape being cuckolded. A marriage
advantage could be achieved if feminine males have more wives or, in
a socially monogamous society, if feminine males had higher ‘quality’
wives.
In the Matsigenka study, we found that the more masculine male
was preferred as the son-in-law, which could translate into higher

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marriage success, depending on the degree of parental influence over
the daughter’s choice of a long-term mate. As a result, in the Matsigenka
system, feminine males, who are considered more attractive, would
have to have an EPM advantage to counteract any masculine marriage
advantage.
Even if the assumptions are relaxed to include cuckoldry functions
that do not have zero derivatives, a marriage advantage is required for
polymorphism if one male type has an EPM advantage. For instance,
we can break down the female decision to engage in EPMs into two
components: a decision to engage in cuckoldry, followed by the choice
of a partner. Both of these components may depend on the frequency
of the two types of male in the population. We define Ci p = i p,
where i is the probability that a female married to a type i male chooses
to engage in EPMs, and p is the probability that she does so with
an m male. This necessarily leads to 0 = 0 and 1 = 1. When there
is no marriage advantage [Mp = p], the condition for polymorphism
becomes:

 0f v + 1 − m v > 1 (2)

 1m v + 1 − f v > 1 (3)

If m males have an EPM advantage, then  0 > 1 while  1 < 1 and
f > m . Thus, inequality (2) is met, but inequality (3) is not. So, even
under these more general conditions, a marriage advantage for the male
type less likely to achieve EPMs is necessary for both types to be present
at equilibrium.
The model can be further generalised to allow for differences across the
male types in the degree of offspring care proffered and/or the quality
of the offspring. For example, in the Penton-Voak et al. (2000) system,
f males might care more for offspring, but m males might produce
offspring with higher survivorship. If the benefit of offspring survivor-
ship outweighs the benefit of better offspring care (vm > vf ), then for a

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 Douglas W. Yu et al. 99

polymorphism to be maintained, f males must compensate by having

a larger marriage advantage.
The maintenance of the two male phenotypes can be understood
intuitively by recognising that the male type that has an advantage
in gaining marriage partners also provides a sort of resource for the
other type. For instance, in the Penton-Voak et al. (2000) model, f
males produce marriages that are vulnerable to cuckoldry by m males.

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This means that marriages with f males as partners are a resource
for m males. On the other hand, if there are mostly m males and a
few f males, the f males will outcompete the m males for marriages
so much that the f males’ higher rate of being cuckolded will not
reduce their fitness below the m males. By switching the subscripts,
the same logic holds for the Matsigenka scenario: m males must have
a marriage advantage in order to persist in the face of cuckoldry by f
males.

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first experimental study of human mate

choice to include parental preferences, even though parents in many
cultures have had historically, and continue to have, influence over
the long-term mate choices of their daughters and sons (Beckerman,
2000). We found statistical evidence consistent with the interpretation
that Matsigenka women preferred masculine faces for sons-in-law or
did not show a preference for feminised faces in that role. This result
contrasts with the standard result, in which the preferred long-term
mate is a feminised male. We tentatively attribute this difference to the
different sociocultural roles on offer: husband or son-in-law. The most
straightforward interpretation for these results is that masculine men
are, on average, perceived as better resource providers, as we suggested
earlier. In fact, one woman from Yomybato pointed at the MF image and
stated that she already had a daughter (i.e., she assumed the feminised
face was a female) and needed a son-in-law to marry her.
We should, however, emphasise several limitations of our protocol.
Sample sizes were unavoidably small, given the small population size.
Also, cultural sensibilities meant that we could not ask women to choose
potential partners for themselves but were limited to asking them to
indicate the most attractive male. Moreover, we could not take the
respondents’ menstrual cycles into account. Following Penton-Voak
et al. (2000), it is possible that when fertile, Matsigenka women find
masculine men more attractive. If so, then feminine males would not

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100 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

have an EPM advantage, which our model predicts would lead to fixa-
tion of masculinity in the absence of any other countervailing processes.
Finally, we purposely made our interviews as simple as possible by using
only one face for each degree of masculinity, by asking only two kinds
of questions per respondent.
Thus, we certainly cannot conclude that cultural rules are in fact
trading off a marriage advantage in masculine males against an EPM

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advantage in feminine males, thus maintaining genetic variation in
masculinity amongst the Matsigenka. However, the combination of our
data and our model does allow us to state that this is a plausible and
internally consistent hypothesis that should be considered when trying
to explain the striking within-village variation in male masculinity
that we have observed among the Matsigenka (Yu & Shepard, personal
observation). Our take-home message is that such studies should be
conducted in as many independent cultures as possible. Efforts are in
fact underway to collect relevant data now, and our group has been
collecting hunter success data among the Matsigenka as a partial test of
the masculine equals better resource provider hypothesis (Ohl et al., 2007).
McGraw (2002) used lonely hearts advertisements to show that hetero-
sexual American women living in cities with high costs of living are more
likely to advertise explicitly for wealthier mates. In other words, cultural
variability in female mate preference can be found to exist even within
Western society, and this variability correlates with an environmental
predictor. Additionally, we found that the preference for masculinised
faces in the son-in-law role varied with the village’s degree of Western-
isation, which is perhaps a reflection of cultural change such as that
documented in Yu and Shepard (1998).
More generally, by laying out the conditions under which variation in
masculinity can be maintained, our model gauges the overall plausibility
of the Penton-Voak et al. (2000) hypothesis that human females engage
in a mixed-mating strategy. However, in the Westernised societies where
Penton-Voak et al. (2000) conducted their interviews and where they
suggest that women are choosing masculine men as short-term mates,
feminine males would have to enjoy a marriage advantage in order to
preserve variance in masculinity and, ultimately, female choice itself.
Because the West is socially monogamous, such a marriage advantage
would have to take the form of feminine males marrying higher quality
females, or of divorcing and remarrying as each wife’s fertility drops,
thereby achieving higher lifetime fecundity.
The problem is that for such a mechanism to work in, for example,
the United States, the football quarterback would not marry the head

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 Douglas W. Yu et al. 101

cheerleader, the movie action hero would not wed the fashion model,
and neither would have more lifetime wives than a feminine male.
As this does not accord with our impression of how Western societies
function, one way that Penton-Voak et al.’s (2000) findings can be
reconciled with the maintenance of female choice in a socially mono-
gamous society is for feminine males to produce more viable children
on average, in a married setting. This prediction can be used as a test,

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albeit a limited one, of our model. In fact, Roney et al. (2006) have found
that women are able to use facial portraits alone to detect male interest
in infants (and prefer those men for long-term relationships), and the
same women prefer males with higher testosterone levels for short-term
relationships. However, testosterone levels were not negatively correl-
ated with infant interest in Roney et al.’s (2006) study, suggesting the
existence of a second axis of male variation that might replace our
femininity/masculinity axis.
In traditional Matsigenka societies, a marriage advantage for mascu-
line males was easily achievable until recently because polygamy – typic-
ally a man marrying two sisters – was practiced widely. However, in
order for a mixed-mating strategy to preserve variance in masculinity in
the Matsigenka, masculine males must have a marriage advantage, and
feminine males must be more likely to be chosen as extra-pair mates
(or produce offspring of higher quality). Again, these predictions can be
used as a test of our hypothesis. The latter prediction is consistent with
the finding that feminine males are judged to be more attractive, but we
have only sparse additional support for this assumption. We know one
male in the Yomybato community who has a feminine face (to our eye).
He has fathered at least one out-of-wedlock child, and when we asked
two women about the secret of his romantic success, they responded
that, unlike other men, he smiles at them, listens, and makes nice small
talk. This male, instead of hunting for a living, later chose to study to
be a community health worker.
If a caring or gentle manner is correlated with femininity (as also
suggested by Penton-Voak et al.’s 2000 results), it perhaps is no surprise
that feminine males might have an EPM advantage in Matsigenka
society. Of course, the mother of his child might have been attracted
by his potential to earn cash income, although he had not earned any
cash income at the time, nor had he yet made his career decision. Addi-
tionally, Vickers (1975) noted that in the one case of adultery among
the Amazonian Siona-Secoya for which he had comprehensive hunting
data for both males involved, the cuckolded husband brought home 30
per cent more meat than did the cuckolder. On the other hand, Siskind

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102 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

(1973) has suggested that meat has been used to trade for sex in the
Sharanahua, which would reward better hunters with higher fitness.
Clearly, the idea that feminine men might have an EPM advantage
needs further investigation, but the possibility appears to be more feas-
ible than a marriage advantage for feminine males in a monogamous
Western society.
Our results also suggest that Matsigenka mothers and daughters

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might disagree over the desirability of a particular suitor, a conflict
not unheard of. In practice, however, we note that kinship rules and
small village size limit the range of potential long-term mates, perhaps
mitigating such conflicts. The Matsigenka kinship system is of the
Dravidian type, and the preferred marriage partner is the cross-cousin
(Johnson & Johnson, 1975). Cross-cousins are the offspring of the
mother’s brother or the father’s sister and are potential marriage part-
ners throughout life. When asked to identify individuals on the basis
of kinship terminology, cross-cousins will without hesitation refer to
each other as nohina/nohime (‘spouse’) or nohinatsori/nohimetsori (‘step
spouse’) (Shepard, personal observation). In contrast, parallel cousins
(e.g., father’s brother’s offspring) are considered to be siblings, with
whom marriage would be equivalent to incest. On the other hand,
village exogamy is also practiced, and here, there is more scope for
parents and daughter to express masculinity (or other) preferences.
We stress that our mixed-mating strategy model should be understood
as only one of many potential resolutions for the Paradox of the Lek, albeit
one that applies most directly to humans. Other mechanisms, such as
‘genic capture’ model described above, temporally shifting female pref-
erences, migration between groups with different preferences, balancing
selection for masculinity (Swaddle & Reierson, 2002), and insufficient
time for fixation should be seen as complementary rather than as mutu-
ally exclusive. Formal modelling of these processes in human societies
can provide a framework for testing and measuring the relative import-
ances of these alternative mechanisms, for generating new ideas, and for
finding ways to use human genetic data. Hence, by no means should
we be concluding that the problem of variation in male attractiveness
has been explained in humans (pace Gangestad & Simpson, 2000).
If it is the case that human female mate choice can vary in response
not only to biological factors but also to cultural rules governing
marriage, then we have found a plausible mechanism by which cultural
change can guide evolutionary dynamics. The lesson for evolutionary
psychology is that studies of human mate choice should include the
possible effects of parental preferences. Moreover, cultural variation in

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 Douglas W. Yu et al. 103

the degree of parental influence can potentially provide the raw material
with which to compete alternative theories of human mate choice,
biologically based or not (Beckerman, 2000).
Cultural variation has already been documented in several other
aspects of human psychology, such as body-shape preference (Yu
& Shepard, 1998, 1999), colour classification (Davidoff, Davies, &
Roberson, 1999), mathematical ability (Gordon, 2004), and propensity

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to engage in cooperation (Henrich et al., 2005, 2006). As we have
seen here, cultural rules could potentially contribute to the mainten-
ance of human genetic diversity. Studies carried out among the world’s
remaining indigenous and tribal peoples, stewards of at least half of
humanity’s cultural-linguistic diversity (Harmon, 1995), are especially
important (and given the fast pace of globalisation, urgent) for assessing
the full range of human cultural variability.
To conclude, as outsiders to the field of evolutionary psychology, we
are struck by what appears to be the total absence of formal model-
ling. Evolutionary psychology is psychology, to be sure, but it is also
evolution, and evolutionary theories sometimes require mathematical
expression to reveal hidden assumptions and non-intuitive results.
Verbal models are particularly poor at capturing the complexity of
evolution in mate choice, due to the many simultaneously interacting
players.
We are also surprised at the low frequency of studies that take
advantage of the wealth of genetic data available for humans (with the
clear exception, of course, of immune system genes, e.g., Wedekind,
Seebeck, Bettens, & Paepke, 1995), and it is our impression that failure
to embrace the new techniques that are being adopted in other areas
of behavioural ecology (Owens, 2006) has hindered progress in evolu-
tionary psychology. To judge by the literature we have surveyed for this
chapter and by the other chapters in this book, technological innova-
tion in evolutionary psychology appears to involve primarily the design
of new stimuli and the use of more sophisticated statistics. More can
be done.
On the other side of the disciplinary spectrum, the concentration
of studies amongst Westernised populations (and mostly university
students at that) continues to plague the field. In our case, this
work represents the collaboration of a field biologist, a theoretical
biologist, and a cultural anthropologist. Evolutionary psychologists
working on the subject of human beauty would do well to collab-
orate across disciplines with biologists, behavioural economists, and
anthropologists.

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104 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

Acknowledgements

The authors thank L. V. White for statistical advice, D. Perrett and

I. Penton-Voak for supplying the images, several anonymous reviewers
and Sophie Miller for insightful comments, Peru’s Instituto Nacional de
Recursos Naturales (INRENA) for granting permission to work in Manu
Park, the Asociación Peruana para la Conservación de la Naturaleza

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(APECO) for logistical support, the communities of Tayakome and
Yomybato for their hospitality, and E. O. Wilson and the A. L. Green
Fund for financial support.

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7
Healthy Body Equals Beautiful
Body? Changing Perceptions of
Health and Attractiveness with

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Shifting Socioeconomic Status
Martin J. Tovée, Adrian Furnham, and Viren Swami

There has been considerable debate over the utility of the possible visual
cues used to judge human physical attractiveness and their evolutionary
origins. In theory, of course, the human body can (and should) be
considered as more than just the sum of its various components (see
Johnson & Tassinary, Chapter 9), but for reasons of brevity and simpli-
city, academic debate has tended to centre on one particular body meas-
urement, the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). This almost exclusive focus on
the WHR can be traced back to a series of papers published in the early
1990s by Devendra Singh, in which he argued that the WHR was the key
component to understanding a woman’s physical attractiveness.
The popularity of his hypothesis stems from its simplicity: Singh
(1993) argued that low female WHRs (typically centred around 0.70)
are attractive because they are correlated with better health and fertility
outcomes. In evolutionary terms, Singh argued, men who wanted to
maximise their reproductive potential (in lay terms, siring the most
surviving offspring) should have mated with healthy, fertile women.
But because women do not explicitly advertise their reproductive poten-
tial, men evolved a simple means of overcoming this problem: they
paid close attention to her WHR. So, by mating with women who have
low WHRs, men in evolutionary history presumably enhanced their
reproductive success; and for lack of the self-same advertising, contem-
porary men continue to use this tried-and-tested method for assessing a
woman’s healthiness and fertility.
Singh has continued to defend his hypothesis (e.g., Singh, 2002, 2006),
but others have been somewhat more sceptical (including the authors
of several chapters in this volume). For one thing, a growing body of

108

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 Martin J. Tovée et al. 109

work has raised methodological concerns about the line-drawn stimuli

that Singh used to derive his conclusions (Tassinary & Hansen, 1998;
Wilson, Tripp, & Boland, 2005; see also Bateson, Cornelissen, & Tovée,
Chapter 4). Others have questioned whether secular trends in ideal
WHRs really show the stability that Singh (1993) claimed it does (Freese
& Meland, 2002; Voracek & Fisher, 2002, 2006). For example, Pieter
Pauwel Rubens, the Flemish painter famed for his exuberant Baroque

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style, certainly seemed to prefer as models women with WHRs (and
body weights) that were much higher than the esteemed figure of 0.70
(Swami, Gray, & Furnham, 2007).
It is also possible to question many of the key assumptions underlying
Singh’s evolutionary hypothesis (see Einon, Chapter 8). For instance,
Singh (1993) argued that the ideal mate for our male ancestors would
have had a low WHR. However, those ancestral humans are likely to
have inhabited an environmental context characterised by food short-
ages, and especially a lack of carbohydrates. In such a situation, those
individuals who were able to quickly increase their body mass (including
truncal obesity, or higher WHRs) with increasing supplies of carbo-
hydrates are likely to have had an advantage in terms of health and
possibility fertility (Woods, 2006). Indeed, this tendency towards higher
WHRs with changing dietary patterns is shared by all hunter-gatherer
populations throughout the world, from the Canadian Inuit to South
Pacific Islanders (e.g., Clastres, 1972; Junshi, Campbell, Junyao, & Peto,
1990; Mann, 1981; Milton, 1984; O’Keefe & Cordain, 2004; Salzano &
Callegari-Jacques, 1988). It is also corroborated by the archaeological
record of Venus figurines from the Late Stone Age, that is, small figur-
ines and representations depicting stylised obese women with extreme
WHRs (Swami & Furnham, 2007).
Two other critiques of Singh’s (1993) WHR hypothesis have been
particularly damaging. First, one research team (Bateson et al., Chapter 4;
Smith, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 2007; Tovée & Cornelissen, 2001; Tovée,
Hancock, Mahmoodi, Singleton, & Cornelissen, 2002; Tovée, Maisey,
Emery, & Cornelissen, 1999; Tovée, Reinhardt, Emery, & Cornelissen,
1998) has levelled a stringent critique of the idea that the WHR acts as
a ‘first-pass filter’ of women’s attractiveness. Rather, body mass index
(BMI), or weight scaled for height, appears to be a much more important
determinant of women’s bodily attractiveness than the WHR (in addi-
tion to the body of work produced by Tovée and colleagues, see also
Fan, Liu, Wu, & Dai, 2004; Puhl & Boland, 2001; Wilson et al., 2005).
And this finding remains stable even when different nationalities and
cultures are sampled (e.g., Scott, Bentley, Tovée, Ahamed, & Magid,

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110 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

Chapter 5; Swami & Tovée, 2005, 2007; Swami, Antonakopoulos, Tovée,

& Furnham, 2006; Swami, Caprario, Tovée, & Furnham, 2006; Swami,
Knight, Tovée, Davies, & Furnham, 2007; Swami, Neto, Tovée, &
Furnham, in press; Tovée, Swami, Furnham, & Mangalparsad, 2006). In
short, then, whatever the role of the WHR in defining women’s attract-
iveness, it is certainly not the most important cue.
Second, there is a large and continually growing body of evidence

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documenting cross-cultural, cross-ethnic, and cross-national differences
in what is considered an attractive WHR (for reviews, see Swami, 2006,
2007). While low WHRs are typically judged to be attractive, healthy,
and fertile in contexts of high socioeconomic status (SES) (e.g., Furnham,
Lavancy, & McClelland, 2001; Furnham, Moutafi, & Baguma, 2002;
Furnham, Petrides, & Constantinides, 2005; Furnham, Swami, & Shah,
2006; Henss, 2000; Singh, 1993; Streeter & McBurney, 2003), high WHRs
are judged more positively in contexts of low SES (Marlowe & Wetsman,
2001; Sugiyama, 2004; Swami & Tovée, 2005; Wetsman & Marlowe,
1999; Yu & Shepard, 1998). To put it simply, a heavier, more tubular
female body is considered the height of beauty in contexts of low SES,
and this is even the case when participants in otherwise affluent envir-
onments are made to feel ‘poor’ (Nelson & Morrison, 2005; Swami &
Tovée, 2006; see also Nelson, Pettijohn, & Galak, Chapter 10).
Is it possible to explain these combined findings? We believe it is, but
only once the commitment to exalted measurements, or ‘golden ratios,’
are dropped. Thus, one evolutionary psychological argument suggests
that humans are capable of calibrating their attractiveness preferences to
local conditions (Marlowe, Apicella, & Reed, 2005; Sugiyama, 2004). In
a very general sense, this seems obvious enough: human beings have an
unparalleled ability to adapt to some of the most inhospitable conditions
and climates. But more specifically, they may also be able to ‘tailor’ their
attractiveness ideals in response to changing socioeconomic conditions,
resource availability and so on (Marlowe et al., 2005; Sugiyama, 2004;
Swami & Tovée, 2005, 2006, 2007; Tovée et al., 2006). Cultural norms,
such as gender role stereotypes (Furnham & Nordling, 1998; Swami,
Antonakopoulos, et al., 2006; Swami, Caprario et al., 2006) and dietary
factors (Swami, Neto, et al., in press), may also play a role in influencing
what is considered a locally attractive body shape.
An important aspect of this hypothesis is based on the idea that
different environments will favour different optimal values for a partic-
ular feature dimension (Anderson, Crawford, Nadeau, & Lindberg, 1992;
Brown & Konner, 1989; Ember, Ember, Korotayev, & de Munck, 2005).
For example, in a recent study, we reported attractiveness ideals for

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 Martin J. Tovée et al. 111

Caucasian and British-African observers in Britain, Zulu observers in

rural South Africa and Zulus who had migrated to Britain (Tovée
et al., 2006). Our results showed that the Caucasian observers preferred a
comparatively slim body size, whereas the Zulu observers in South Africa
preferred a heavier body mass (i.e., clinically overweight women). Zulu
migrants, on the other hand, showed preferences that were intermediate
between those of the Caucasian and rural Zulu participants. Finally, the

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British-African observers, who were born and raised in Britain, showed
the same preferences as their Caucasian counterparts.
These results suggest, first, a cross-cultural difference in what is
considered an attractive body size, and secondly, that those differences
are malleable and subject to change. But why should there be this differ-
ence? And why should there be this change? We hypothesised that the
difference was based largely on variations in what was a healthy body
mass for the particular environment in question. That is, a heavier body
weight may have been perceived as more attractive in rural South Africa
because of the combined effects of a heavier body weight being healthier
in that context, as well as the social connotations associated with a thin
figure (e.g., HIV/AIDS infection). However, we previously published no
data on whether perceived health mirrored the perception of attract-
iveness for any of these observer groups; that is, we provided no direct
evidence in support of our explanation. In this chapter, we expand on
the earlier data set to include data on the perceptions of health for the
British Caucasian and two Zulu observer groups, and compare their rela-
tionship with attractiveness judgements to determine whether a healthy
body really is an attractive body.

A summary of the methods and participants

As previously discussed (Tovée et al., 2006), we recruited three groups

of participants from Britain and South Africa. The first group comprised
100 British Caucasians, equally divided between the sexes, who were
recruited from the relatively affluent environment of Greater London.
The second group consisted of 35 South Africans (19 male, 16 female)
from Mshwati-Mpolweni, in KwaZulu-Natal (Eastern Seaboard of South
Africa). This group were made up of ethnic Zulus with little command of
any other language, intermittent education, and were employed either
as subsistence farmers or as temporary labourers and domestic workers
in nearby towns like Howick. The third group were comprised of 52
Zulu migrants into Britain (25 male, 27 female), all of whom were born
in South Africa and moved to Britain in the 18 months before taking

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112 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

part in the study. There were no significant differences in the age ranges
of the three groups (British Caucasians, M = 2476, SD = 696; South
African Zulus, M = 2560, SD = 447; South African migrants, M = 2656,
SD = 687) [F2 186 = 131, p > 005].
Participants in each of the three groups were asked to rate grey
scale images of 50 real women in front view. To generate the images,
consenting women were videoed standing in a set pose at a standard

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distance, wearing tight grey leotards and leggings in front view. Images
were then frame-grabbed and stored as 24-bit images (see, e.g., Swami
& Furnham, 2007; Tovée et al., 2002). The heads of the women in
the images were obscured, so that they could not be identified and so
that facial attractiveness would not be a factor in the subject’s ratings.
Although previous studies have manipulated the relative ranges of BMI
and WHR to explore the relative contributions of these features to
attractiveness judgements (e.g., Tovée et al., 1999, 2002), in this study
the ranges of BMI and WHR used were not constrained, and represented
the widest range in the available image library. The ranges seem not
inconsistent with population data reported by epidemiological studies,
such as the Health Survey for England 2003 (United Kingdom Department
of Health, 2003).
The images of the women were printed on sheets of paper meas-
uring 210 × 297mm, so that each image covered the entire page. Parti-
cipants were presented with booklets to record their ratings, where the
first page consisted of brief instructions and a worked example of a
rating, and where the final page requested participants’ demographic
details (age, gender, ethnicity, weight, and height). Other pages in the
booklet provided a 9-point Likert scale, which appeared below a ques-
tion of either ‘How beautiful is the person in the photograph?’ or ‘How
healthy is the person in the photograph?’ and on which participants
were asked to record their ratings. The order in which the observers rated
the images for health or attractiveness was randomised between parti-
cipants. All participants were tested individually, with the only differ-
ence in procedure between the different settings being the language
used (English for all groups except the rural South African sample, for
whom the questionnaire was translated into Zulu). Within the image
set, individual images were presented in a randomised order.

Sex differences between participants

To explore whether there were differences between the two sexes in our
observer groups, we carried out Spearman Rank correlations. For the
attractiveness ratings, we found high correlations between the women

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 Martin J. Tovée et al. 113

and men in each group, suggesting they were ranking the images in
a highly similar manner (British Caucasians, r = 094, p < 0001; South
African Zulus, r = 078, p < 0001; Zulu migrants, r = 066, p < 0001).
This result is consistent with the correlations between attractiveness
ratings by women and men found in previous studies (e.g., Tovée &
Cornelissen, 2001; Tovée et al., 2002). For the health ratings, we also
found high correlations between the ratings by women and men (British

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Caucasians, r = 097, p < 0001; South African Zulus, r = 093, p < 0001;
Zulu migrants to Britain, r = 094, p < 0001).

The relationship between perceptions of health and

attractiveness

As can be seen from Figure 7.1, there is a strong linear relationship between
attractiveness and health ratings for all of three of the observer groups.
We quantified this relationship as the correlations between attractiveness
and health ratings for each group. The ratings are very highly correlated
in each group: for the Caucasian observers, the correlation was r = 098,
p < 0001; for the South African Zulus, it was r = 084, p < 0001, and; for
the Zulu migrants, it was r = 095, p < 0001. This implies a very strong
relationship between perceptions of attractiveness and health. Moreover,
as can be seen in Figures 7.2 and 7.3, the relationship between these ratings
and either BMI or WHR were also very similar.

Multiple regression results

Multiple polynomial regressions were used to model the contributions of

BMI and WHR to the ratings of attractiveness and health. As in previous
studies (e.g., Tovée et al., 1998, 1999, 2002), we modelled the data using
a multiple regression model, to estimate the variance of attractiveness
and health ratings explained by BMI and WHR. The model, run separ-
ately for the different groups, was:

y = a + b1 x1 + b2 x2 + b3 x3 + b4 x4 + e

where y is the attractiveness or health rating, a is the intercept, x1 is

the WHR, x2 is the BMI, x3 is the BMI2 , x4 is the BMI3 and e is random
error. Figure 7.2 shows plots of the attractiveness and health ratings as
a function of BMI, with all sets being significantly explained by BMI
(p < 0001 in all cases). Figure 7.3 shows the corresponding relation-
ship between attractiveness and WHR. None of the observer groups
showed a significant relationship between attractiveness ratings and

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114

(a)
6

Attractiveness ratings
5

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2

1
1 2 3 4 5 6
Health ratings

(b)
7
Attractiveness ratings

1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Health ratings
(c) 7
Attractiveness ratings

2
2 3 4 5 6 7
Health ratings

Figure 7.1 Comparison plots of the attractiveness ratings against the health
ratings by the three observer groups. Each point represents the average rating for
a particular body by all the observers in one of the observer groups. (a) illustrates
the correlation between attractiveness and health ratings for the British Caucasian
observers; (b) illustrates the correlation between attractiveness and health ratings
for the Zulu observers in South Africa, and; (c) illustrates the correlation between
attractiveness and health ratings for the Zulu migrants in Britain.

10.1057/9780230596887 - The Body Beautiful, Edited by Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham
 115

(a)
6

Ratings
4

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2

1
10 15 20 25 30 35
Body mass index
(b) 7

5
Ratings

1
10 15 20 25 30 35
Body mass index
(c)
6

5
Ratings

2
10 15 20 25 30 35
Body mass index

Figure 7.2 Comparison plots of the attractiveness and health ratings by the
three observer groups as functions of BMI. Each point represents the average
attractiveness rating for a particular body by all the observers in one of the
observer groups. (a) illustrates a comparison of the British Caucasian ratings
on attractiveness (filled squares and continuous line) and attractiveness (open
squares and dotted line); (b) illustrates a comparison of the South African Zulu
ratings of attractiveness (filled circles and continuous line) and health (open
circles and dotted line), and; (c) illustrates a comparison of the Zulu migrant
ratings of attractiveness (filled stars and continuous line) and health (open stars
and dotted line).

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116

(a)
6

Ratings 4

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2

1
0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90
Waist-to-hip ratio
(b) 7

5
Ratings

1
0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90
Waist-to-hip ratio
(c) 7

5
Ratings

2
0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90
Waist-to-hip ratio

Figure 7.3 Comparison plots of the attractiveness and health ratings by the
three observer groups as functions of WHR. Each point represents the average
attractiveness rating for a particular body by all the observers in one of the
observer groups. (a) illustrates a comparison of the British Caucasian ratings
on attractiveness (filled squares and continuous line) and attractiveness (open
squares and dotted line); (b) illustrates a comparison of the South African Zulu
ratings of attractiveness (filled circles and continuous line) and health (open
circles and dotted line), and; (c) illustrates a comparison of the Zulu migrant
ratings of attractiveness (filled stars and continuous line) and health (open stars
and dotted line).

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 Martin J. Tovée et al. 117

Table 7.1 Summary of the proportion of variance accounted for by BMI and WHR
in the regression analyses of attractiveness and health judgements, plus the peak
BMI for each group and the gradient of the relationship between attractiveness
and WHR.

Group Rating task BMI WHR Peak WHR

variance variance BMI gradient

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British Attractiveness 84.1 74 20.85 −6.54
Caucasians Health 81.7 64 21.11 −5.78
South African Attractiveness 82.5 75 26.52 +6.18
Zulus Health 82.5 113 30.07 +9.86
Zulu migrants Attractiveness 86.2 17 23.99 −2.38
to Britain Health 76.9 01 25.56 +0.46

WHR (p > 005), suggesting that, for this image set, WHR has only a weak
effect on attractiveness ratings. Similarly, only the South African Zulu
data showed a significant relationship between WHR and health ratings
(p < 005), with both the Caucasian and migrant data returning asso-
ciations that were not significant. The variance explained by BMI and
WHR in the best subsets analysis from this model is shown in Table 7.1.

Between-group differences

There is a striking difference in the shape of the relationship between

the sets of ratings and BMI between the three groups (see Figure 7.2).
The British Caucasian group shows a roughly inverted-U shape: attract-
iveness and health ratings are lower for the low and high BMI values,
and higher for the middle BMI values. In contrast, the attractiveness and
health functions for the South African Zulu group has shifted towards
higher BMI values, and does not show the fall-off in attractiveness with
higher BMI values (see Figure 7.2). Instead, attractiveness and health
ratings remain high, and the functions are largely flat over the middle
and high BMI values. Finally, the Zulu migrants show a function inter-
mediate between these two patterns; that is, the ratings decline for
the higher BMI values, but not to the same extent as that seen in the
Caucasian group (see Figure 7.2).
To determine the statistical significance of these differences, we fitted
a third-order polynomial to each of the BMI functions for each observer,
allowing the BMI at peak attractiveness to be calculated for each parti-
cipant. There were significant differences between the different groups
for attractiveness [F2 186 = 4550, p < 0001]. A post hoc Tukey HSD

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118 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

showed that the South African Zulus had the preference for the highest
BMI, followed by the Zulu migrants and finally the British Caucasians; all
three groups were significantly different from each other (see Table 7.1).
The same pattern was found for the health ratings. First, there were
highly significant differences between the three groups [F2 186 =
10758, p < 0001], and a post hoc Tukey HSD showed the same pattern
of results as the attractiveness ratings (see Table 7.1).

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Discussion: What is healthy is beautiful   

The present results highlight two important contributions to the

scientific study of human beauty. First, it would appear that perceptions
of what constitutes healthy and unhealthy bodies are largely determined
by overall body size. That is, for the set of photographic stimuli that was
used in this study, the primary predictor of ratings of health was BMI,
with WHR having a very small or negligible effect on those judgements.
To the extent that these findings mirror those found when participants
are asked to judge the same set of stimuli for attractiveness (e.g., Smith
et al., 2007; Swami & Tovée, 2005, 2006, 2007; Tovée & Cornelissen,
2001; Tovée et al., 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006), our results strongly suggest
that the WHR is not the ‘first-pass filter’ of women’s attractiveness that
Singh argues it to be. Rather, judgements of both health and attractive-
ness, at least for women, appear to be determined in large part by BMI,
with WHR playing a much smaller role.
Second, the ratings of health and attractiveness were very highly
correlated for all three observer groups (see Figure 7.1). Moreover, the
relationship between both sets of ratings and the feature dimensions
examined in this study were very similar within each group, although
there were considerable differences between groups. More specifically,
the peaks for both sets of ratings by the rural South African Zulu group
was shifted to a higher BMI compared to the British observers, and, most
strikingly, the former ratings do not show a dip for bodies with higher
BMI values (see Figure 7.2). That is, rural South Africans appear to judge
overweight and obese women as being just as attractive and healthy as
normal-weight women.
There was also a difference in the pattern of ratings with changing
WHR. The Caucasian group showed a preference, in their ratings of
attractiveness and health, for a more curvaceous figure (a low WHR),
but the opposite appears true of the South African Zulus (see Figure 7.3).
This latter change may be, at least partially, a by-product of their pref-
erence for heavier bodies, which also tend to be less curvaceous (Tovée
et al., 2006). In addition, the health and attractiveness ratings of the

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 Martin J. Tovée et al. 119

Zulu migrants seem to be intermediate between those of their coun-

terparts in Britain and South Africa (see Figures 7.2 and 7.3). In other
words, the migrant group appear to find attractive and healthy women
who have a higher BMI than those preferred by British Caucasians, but
with a lower BMI than those preferred by rural Zulus.
In general, these findings provide preliminary support for the evolu-
tionary psychological hypothesis that judgements of attractiveness are,

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at least in part, based on the perceived health of an individual. We previ-
ously suggested that the difference in what is considered an attractive
body weight in Britain and rural South Africa may be explained in
terms of an ‘adaptation’ (in the loose sense of the word) to the different
environmental pressures (Tovée et al., 2006). Specifically, we proposed
that the optimal BMI for health is different in Britain and rural South
Africa, and to the extent that judgements of attractiveness are based
on perceived health, those health differences may be the basis of the
attractiveness shift.
This hypothesis is consistent with the ratings of health for our images,
which suggest that ‘what is healthy is also attractive.’ These findings
take on added importance because they suggest a link between what is
perceived as healthy and judgements of attractiveness, and not simply
what clinical and epidemiological records suggest are healthy body sizes.
Of course, individuals appear to be highly adept at perceiving the health
status of the self and others (e.g., Hunt, McEwen, & McKenna, 1984;
Hunt et al., 1980; Martikainen et al., 1999), which suggests that the
perceptions of healthy body sizes in the present study may be grounded
in the lived experiences of women and men.
Consider, for example, the case of rural South Africa, where there are
long-standing problems with infectious diseases, including meningitis,
diarrhoea, septicaemia, and tuberculosis. When combined with the
reported low levels of immunisation, this makes potentially serious
infections a significant possibility (South African Department of Health,
1998). More pertinently, the health consequences linked to these serious
diseases include weight loss, and so a lower body mass may signal infec-
tion. However, the association between weight loss resulting in thin-
ness and serious infections will only likely have an influence on related
perceptions (e.g., those of attractiveness) if they are acknowledged and
assimilated by particular cultural groups. To date, the best evidence of
such cultural assimilation comes from studies on the perceived effects
of HIV/AIDS infection in South Africa.
HIV/AID is a common infection in South Africa (Blacker, 2004;
Caldwell, 1997) and is now the single largest killer of women and

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120 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

men in the country (Bradshaw et al., 2003; Hosegood et al., 2004). In

2005, for example, it was estimated that 16.5 per cent of the popula-
tion of KwaZulu-Natal, the area of sampling the present study, were
HIV-positive, the highest level of any province in South Africa (Shisana
et al., 2005). The potential effect of HIV/AIDS on the perception of
health and its role in mate choice is increased when one considers that
other important causes of illness and death (such as pulmonary or respir-

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atory diseases) are associated with older adults, whereas the prevalence
of HIV infection and the rate of AIDS deaths are highest in young and
middle-aged adults (i.e., those who are most likely to be actively seeking
partners; Bradshaw et al., 2003; Shisana et al., 2005).
A growing body of work highlights the fact that HIV/AIDS is recog-
nised as a significant risk in partner choice by young people in rural
South Africa (Bernardi, 2002; Varga, 1997). One potential cue to HIV-
infection is low body weight: HIV/AIDS infection causes a characteristic
loss of body mass, called wasting syndrome (Cohan, 1994; Kotler &
Grunfeld, 1995). This moderate-to-severe weight loss can occur before
the onset of other symptoms (Polsky, Kotler, & Steinhart, 2004), and so
a lower body weight may signal HIV-infection (either on its own or in
conjunction with other symptoms), and could support a mate strategy
that favours heavier bodies (Tovée et al., 2006). Indeed, there is evid-
ence that, in South Africa, some communities – especially rural groups –
associated thinness with HIV/AIDS infection (Kruger, Puoane, Senekal,
& van der Merwe, 2005; Puoane et al., 2002).
In short, then, a mate choice strategy in South Africa that favours
heavier body weights may arise because low BMIs are associated with
perceived illness and infection. To the extent that such perceptions are
grounded in cultural understandings of infection, obesity, and thin-
ness (Kruger et al., 2005), they may also give rise to better reproductive
outcomes. That is, by finding attractive (and hence, mating with – theor-
etically, speaking at least) women with higher BMIs, men in rural South
Africa may increase their chances of mating with healthy women, and
thus increase the survival probabilities of their children. In contrast
to the conditions in rural South Africa, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS
is comparatively low in Britain (European Centre for Epidemiological
Monitoring of AIDS, 2003), and the general mortality rate in young
women is very low. Rather, in Britain, a low BMI is associated with lower
levels of cancer (Calle et al., 2003; Garfinkel, 1985), as well as better long-
term health for women (Manson et al., 1995; Willet et al., 1995). Taken
together, then, a mate choice strategy that favours a lower female BMI in
Britain would appear to enhance an individual’s reproductive potential.

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 Martin J. Tovée et al. 121

Of course, we are not suggesting a straightforward link between

perceptions of health and judgements of attractiveness. A whole host of
cultural and sociological factors may serve to enhance or weaken any
possible relationship. For example, in contexts of low socioeconomic
status, including rural South Africa, a heavier body weight may be asso-
ciated with cultural perceptions of femininity, wealth, prosperity, and
sexual capacity (for a review, see Swami & Furnham, 2007). In such

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environments, access to resources – particularly stable supplies of food –
may be indexed by a heavier body weight (Furnham & Alibhai, 1983;
Furnham & Baguma, 1994; Marlowe & Wetsman, 2001), which may
help explain why women with higher BMIs are considered attractive in
contexts of low socioeconomic status. By contrast, a high BMI is a strong
indicator of poor socioeconomic status in Britain (Darmon, Ferguson,
& Briend, 2002; James, Nelson, Ralph, & Leather, 1997), which helps
explain the idealisation of thinness there.
However, there may also exist cultural factors that mitigate these
cultural associations. In both urban and rural South Africa, for example,
fear of fatness, dieting, and body image concerns have become increas-
ingly prevalent, fuelled in part by the glorification of thin media images
and celebrities (e.g., Caradas, Lambert, & Charlton, 2001; le Grange,
Louw, Breen, & Katzman, 2004; le Grange, Telch, & Tibbs, 1998). This
would suggest that the idealisation of thinness may be becoming more
prevalent, especially among younger age groups. Indeed, Charlton,
Brewitt, and Bourne (2004) have shown how South African women
develop their understandings of obesity and thinness in large part by
engaging with sources of mass media, which do not necessarily provide
credible or accurate nutritional and dietary information. Understanding
perceptions of health and attractiveness, then, will require more in-
depth examinations of the way in which various sources of information
about nutrition, status, health and so on are used and assimilated.

   but what is beautiful is healthy

We have interpreted the results in this study as support for a directional

link from perceptions of health to judgements of physical attractive-
ness. This is based on the evolutionary psychological prediction that
cues of attractiveness acts as ‘windows’ to a person’s fitness (Buss, 1994,
1999). However, it should be pointed out that the evidence for this
is somewhat equivocal. Weeden and Sabini (2005), for example, have
reviewed the evidence linking health with attractiveness presented in
studies conducted in relatively developed, Western setting. They report

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122 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

that, in general, the evidence in support of such an association is weak.

This highlights the possibility of an alternative explanation for the
present (and similar) results: that judgements of health are a ‘halo’ of
perceptions of beauty.
A great wealth of evidence emphasises the fact that beauty ideals are
often associated with factors quite unrelated to it. In a now-classic study,
for example, Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972) had participants rate

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facial photographs that had been selected on the basis of judges’ agree-
ment that the pictured individuals differed in physical attractiveness.
Participants’ were found to rate individuals high in physical attractive-
ness more positively on a range of personality traits and probable life
outcomes, such as marital happiness and career success, leading Dion
and her colleagues (1972: 285) to claim that, in people’s perceptions of
others, ‘what is beautiful is good.’
This fundamental finding has been replicated many times over the
years. For instance, attractive individuals are judged as more honest
(Yarmouk, 2000), less maladjusted and disturbed (Cash, Kehr, Polyson, &
Freeman, 1977; Dion, 1972), and happier, more successful and having a
better personality (Dion et al., 1972). Attractive people are also reported
to be afforded more personal space, more likely to win arguments, more
trusted with secrets, more at ease socially, considered more intelligent
and generally considered better at everything in comparison with unat-
tractive individuals (Horai, Naccari, & Fatoullan, 1974; Patzer, 1985).
In this light, it is quite possible that perceptions of health are an
outcome of judgements concerning attractiveness. A heavier body is
judged more positively in terms of health in rural South Africa because,
in that environment, a heavier body is perceived as more attractive. The
underlying association here may be predicated on factors quite unre-
lated with health differentials, such as socioeconomic status (see Swami
& Tovée, 2006). This appears to be an important limitation, not only
of the present study but also of similar studies that populate the liter-
ature: showing an association between health and attractiveness ratings
is not necessarily the same thing as showing a directional link from
health to attractiveness. Given that attractive individuals are imbued
with all kinds of positive qualities, it is possible that ‘what is beautiful is
healthy.’

Conclusion

Pace the limitations above, our findings have two important

implications for the literature. First, it is worth considering that health

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 Martin J. Tovée et al. 123

care strategies aimed at reducing obesity rates in South Africa are unlikely
to achieve any profound success in the absence of an understanding
of the way in which overweight and obese bodies are idealised (Kruger
et al., 2005; Prentice, 2006; Puoane et al., 2002; van der Merwe & Pepper,
2006). Clearly, among rural communities, health care strategies that
prescribe a (clinically defined) normal body weight may come up against
cultural perceptions of obesity as being healthy and fertile. In such a

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situation, health care practitioners will need to devise more careful ways
of reducing obesity rates, initially by challenging cultural assumptions
of what is both healthy and attractive.
Second, our representation of what constitutes an attractive and
healthy body appear to be flexible. When conditions within an envir-
onment change, or when someone moves between environments, their
health preferences appear to reflect this change in the local optima for
survival. Thus, when an individual moves from a rural South African
environment to the relatively affluent environment of urban Britain,
one would expect their health preferences to shift as a reflection of
changing priorities. We believe that eventually, the preferences of the
migrant population will change to become similar or identical to those
of the indigenous population.
This once again highlights the importance of considering both evol-
utionary and sociocultural factors in understanding body weight ideals
(Swami & Furnham, 2007; Tovée et al., 2006). On the one hand,
cultural practices and norms have the potential to influence and define
the way in which evolutionary possibilities are played out (Swami,
2006; Swami, Antonakopoulos, et al., 2006; Swami, Caprario, et al.,
2006; Swami, Neto, et al., in press; Tovée et al., 2006). On the other
hand, an evolutionary psychological model that accepts flexibility and
malleability of preferences has the potential to unify the science of
physical attraction. In short, our results suggest that health and attract-
iveness preferences are part of a flexible behavioural repertoire, acquired
through social learning, which allow humans to adapt and respond to
changing conditions within an environment or when moving between
environments.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Wellcome Trust award through the

JIF initiative to Martin Tovée and an Overseas Research Student award
from Universities UK to Viren Swami. We are greatful for the assistance
of Roshila Mangalparsad with data collection in South Africa.

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124 Attractiveness Research Across Cultures

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Part IV
Theory Development:
Evolutionary Perspectives

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8
The Shaping of Women’s Bodies:
Men’s Choice of Fertility or Heat
Stress Avoidance?

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Dorothy Einon

Beauty matters (Buss, 2004; Miller, 2001). We know from what men tell
us, from the images they use when masturbating and from investiga-
tions of what men find attractive (Barber, 1995; Buss, 1994; Johnson
& Franklin, 1993; Jones, 1995; Singh & Young, 1995; van den Berghe
& Frost, 1986) that certain parts of women’s bodies both aesthetically
please, and sexually arouse, men. Men like beautiful, young women
and, given a choice (Gladue & Delany, 1990), or when engaging in
fantasy (Barclay, 1973), men prefer a pretty, young woman. They like
to fall in love (Fisher, 1992; Jankowiak, 1995; Sprecher et al., 1994)
and would order up humour, intelligence, good work habits, shared
values, loyalty, and fidelity (Buss, 1989), but given an option, prefer
such things (or a goodly share of them) in a pretty package. Not only are
pretty women more likely to arouse men sexually, they are considered
more competent, employable, generous, helpful, and intelligent (Eagly,
Ashmore, Makhijani & Longo, 1991). Men gain status by the beauty of
their partner (Sigall & Landy, 1973) in much the same way they do from
the clothes they wear and the cars they drive.
Men the world over prefer youthful women with child-like, symmet-
rical faces (Johnson & Franklin, 1993). They like women with low waist-
to-hip ratios (Singh, 1993), conspicuous breasts (Morris, 1967; Singh &
Young, 1995), lighter skin tones (van den Berghe & Frost, 1986), and
smaller feet (Barber, 1995). They prefer rounded bottoms (and in some
cultures like them big; Morris, 1967) and long, slim legs (Swami, Einon,
& Furnham, 2006). The ways women dress, move, and ornament them-
selves exaggerate these features (Miller, 2001). Men also like slim women
(Tovée & Cornelisson, 1999), but just how slim is a bit of a moveable
concept (Furnham & Alibhai, 1983; Swami, 2005). Grossly asymmetric
bodies and faces with obvious disfigurements are disliked (Gangestad

131

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132 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

& Thornhill, 1997), as is pockmarked, blotched, or spotty skin (Ford &

Beach, 1951). While there is little doubt about men’s choices (Ford &
Beach, 1951), showing that men like young and pretty women does no
more than state the obvious: the question is why.

Two classes of explanation

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One class of explanation is that the things men find beautiful are
themselves the product of evolution (Barber, 1995; Buss, 2004; Singh,
1993), or as Symons (1995) put it, ‘Beauty is in the adaptations of the
beholder.’ In most mammals, the availability of a female for mating
is a reliable guide to the availability of ova for fertilizing. This is not
the case in humans. The theory of sexual selection suggests men who
select women more likely to be ovulating and/or able to raise viable chil-
dren had a selective advantage over those unable to make this choice
(Symons, 1995), and that the aspects that men find beautiful were in
the past (and remain) the best predictors of women’s fertility (Singh,
1993; Symons, 1995). In choosing beauty, men also choose women
who are potentially fertile, neither pregnant nor lactating, have no
current health problems (nor a history of such problems) or disorders
that lower fertility (Buss, 2004; Singh, 1993; Symons, 1995). If men
invested more (or sooner) in women exhibiting the preferred traits,
women possessing those traits would raise more children like them-
selves. In consequence, the desired traits would occur more frequently
(and/or more extremely) in subsequent generations of women, and (if
sons followed in their father’s footsteps) the preference for such traits
would increase in subsequent generations of men. In short, women have
breasts because men have invested more often in women with breasts, and
thus women with breasts have had greater reproductive success (RS).
A second class of explanation posits that the favoured attribute exists
because of functional reasons quite unconnected with mate choice,
and the aesthetic preference for gender-specific versions of an attribute
reflect the observation that there are differences between men and
women (Jabonski & Chaplin, 2000; van den Berghe & Frost, 1986). Men
like how women look because this is the way women are and/or these are
the characteristics men use to detect and verify the person before them
is a woman, much as courtship rituals in birds act to verify the sex and
species of potential partners. As in birds, stimuli that provide verification
for men also induce sexual arousal. If a dimorphic characteristic directly
enhances women’s RS by improving metabolism (van den Berghe &
Frost, 1986), or increasing the viability of pregnancy (Wolfenson, Roth,

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 Dorothy Einon 133

& Meidan, 2000) or lactation (Lublin & Wolfenson, 1996), men will, in
choosing ‘characteristic women,’ choose more fertile women; but sexual
selection is not the basis for the development of the dimorphism. So,
women have breasts because breasts directly enhance women’s RS (e.g., by
increasing surface area and reducing the harmful effects of heat stress to
ova and embryos). Men like breasts because they help verify that this is
a woman.

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Visual stimuli play a major role in men’s sexual arousal (Przbyla &
Byrne, 1984). Areas of the brain associated with reward and the anticip-
ation of reward are activated when men watch erotica (Karama et al.,
2002). Hollis and colleagues (1997) have shown that if a visual stim-
ulus predicts the presentation of a sexually receptive female, it becomes
a conditioned stimulus (CS) for a set of responses that prepare male
fish for mating. When such a CS is presented, conditioned males court
sooner and in consequence father more offspring (Hollis, Pharr, Dumas,
Britton, & Field, 1997). Similarly if a slide showing something neutral
(such as a pile of pennies) predicts the onset of a sexually arousing
film, both men and women become aroused at the sight of the pennies
(Plaud & Martini, 1999), even when the neutral stimulus is presented
subliminally (Hoffman, Janssen, & Turner, 2004). Both men and women
show more arousal when the neutral stimuli have biological significance
(Hoffman et al., 2004). By such means the arousal potential of attributes
that are most characteristic of women (however selected) could prepare
a man for sexual activity and, by that preparation, enhance RS.

Sexual selection

According to Miller (2000: 228), ‘The manifest sexual appeal of female

breasts and buttocks    seems subjectively obvious to all heterosexual
male humans, and obviously is good evidence for these traits having
arisen through male mate choice.’ In species after species (and espe-
cially amongst birds and insects), the female is unadorned while the
male is adorned in flamboyant hues that serve no apparent purpose: a
comparison between the tails of peacock and peahen is but one (albeit
extreme) example. Darwin (1871) distinguished between the competi-
tion between males for access to females (intrasexual competition) and
intersexual selection or preferential mate choice. Two stags locked in
combat are the classic example of the former; the peahen’s purported
preference for the peacock’s fancy tail the latter. When Symons (1995)
claims that ‘Beauty is in the adaptations of the beholder,’ it is inter-
sexual selection that is assumed.

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134 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

The evidence that males compete is well-supported (Clutton-Brock &

Parker, 1995), but evidence that females systematically choose the ‘best
available male’ is less reliable (Cronin, 1991; Small, 1993). Although
women are more likely to consider ‘good financial prospects’ an
important aspect of a potential mate (Buss, 1989), none of the societies
studied considered this attribute indispensable (Buss, 1994), and in soci-
eties which allow polygamy the correlation between a man’s wealth and

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the number of his wives is usually less than 0.4 (Strassmann, 2003).
The presence of a dimorphism is not of itself evidence that a trait has
arisen as a consequence of mate choice. Dimorphisms may reflect selec-
tion pressures that have nothing to do with either male competition
or female choice. For example, although it is generally assumed that
size dimorphism in mammals arose as a consequence of mate choice
(Alexander, Hoodland, & Howard, 1979), a viable functional altern-
ative exists (Martin, Willner, & Dettling, 1994). Small females not only
breed at an earlier age, they are less susceptible to heat stress which
impairs oocyte development (Edwards & Hansen, 1997), conception (al-
Katanani, Paula-Lopes, & Hansen, 2002; Edwards & Hansen, 1997; Short,
1984) and the viability of pregnancy. Heat gain is a function of volume,
heat loss a function of surface area, so larger bodies retain more heat
than smaller ones and larger bodies are thus more susceptible to heat
stress (Aiello, 1992; Lewin, 1998). In species exposed to high ambient
temperatures smaller females are likely to have more viable pregnan-
cies: for males it is the larger animals with more fighting prowess that
are likely to have reproductive success. There are perfectly adequate
functional explanations for size dimorphism that do not rely on
female choice. The correlation between body dimorphism and polygamy
(Alexander et al., 1979) occurs because animals living in the open tend
(for reasons that have nothing to do with mate choice) to be physically
larger.
While simultaneous choice is a viable means of selecting a partner,
sequential choice is unreliable. Where males display together (as grouse
in a lek do), it is conceivable that females select on the basis of a
male’s display (although the evidence they do is not entirely convin-
cing; Cronin, 1991). But it is very unlikely that most animals have the
cognitive capacity to pick the best male by moving from territory to
territory comparing the fine detail of one male with the memory of
those seen previously. Logically, if the healthiest males win battles for
access to, or protection of, the best territory, choosing a good territory
and mating with the holder is likely to be a better way of ensuring a
healthy and genetically superior mate than remembering the precise

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 Dorothy Einon 135

length of tail feathers or the size of a horn. Most passerine birds are
territorial, notionally monogamous, and sexually dimorphic, suggesting
their dimorphisms arise as a consequence of male competition for
territory rather than mate choice (Partridge & Halliday, 1984). Simil-
arly, the selection pressure that produced elaborate ornamentation in
peacocks have more to do with the role of the tail in male competition
(Cronin, 1991; Partridge & Halliday, 1984; Searcy, 1982) than female

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choice.
The ornamentations and dimorphisms of mammals tend to be char-
acteristics such as large teeth and horns that give obvious advantages
during fighting. While there is no question that male mammals compete
(Clutton-Brock & Parker, 1995; Trivers, 1981), the evidence that female
mammals systematically choose superior males is weak. When observed
at feeding stations, female primates mate with dominant males, but
away from feeding stations they mate with all the males they meet,
especially males new to an area (Small, 1993). Studies of female promis-
cuity in monogamous birds (Birkhead, 2000), primates (Fietz, 2003;
Stacey, 1982) and in those primates that form short-term consort rela-
tionships (Gagneux, Woodruff, & Boesch, 1997), reinforce suggestions
that females rarely mate with a single male.
Although there is direct evidence of female choice in birds (Andersson,
1982; Burley, 1988), the choices made (widow birds choose the longest
tails, zebra finches red plastic leg-rings) involve colours and char-
acteristics females use to identify males during courtship displays
(Cronin, 1991). The best examples of ‘female choice’ involve birds
and insects that have elaborate courtship rituals, reinforcing sugges-
tions that females are choosing the correct display for their species
rather than a superior male (Cronin, 1991). As Partridge and Halliday
(1984) conclude, evidence that females choose their mates is ‘slight or
non-existent.’
With few exceptions, females invest more in raising offspring than
males and one would expect them to be more selective about their
mates. Given that evidence of systematic female choice is weak, we must
treat with caution claims that male preferences have shaped women’s
bodies (Miller, 2001). Before accepting that beauty is in the adaptations
of the beholder (Symons, 1995), we must first establish that:

1. A particular claim has a basis in logic;

2. There is a viable route for its evolution, and;
3. There is no viable functional explanation for the characteristic ‘of
choice.’

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136 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

The logic of choice for men

The need to invest
Once pregnant, a female primate is unlikely to conceive again for
a number of years, while the father of her baby can father another
offspring within days. Men are not exceptions to this rule. Why should
men who are reported to often ‘waste’ sperm in nocturnal emissions and

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masturbation (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948; Ellison Rodgers, 2002;
Wellings et al., 1994) be choosier about women’s youth and looks than
women are about men’s (Buss, 1989)? A man’s rate of ejaculation (by
whatever means) is related to the amount of sperm he produces; when
he has more sperm, he masturbates and copulates more often (Baker
& Bellis, 1995). If he does not masturbate or copulate, he is likely to
expel sperm through spontaneous emissions during sleep (Baker & Bellis,
1995). This regular pattern of sperm emission ensures males inseminate
females with fresh and more viable sperm (Birkhead, 2000). So the first
question of logic is: why, if males need to ‘clear the system’ every few
days, are they averse to clearing it with less than optimal females? The
probability of viable fatherhood may be miniscule: but it is higher than
it is for masturbation or nocturnal emission.
The usual answer is that men invest in children over a number of
years and selection pressures have worked in favour of long- rather
than short-term commitments. That is, in history, men who made long-
term commitments raised more offspring, and if those commitments
were made to young and healthy women, they had even greater RS.
The underlying assumption here is that, like birds (Burley & Johnson,
2002; Møller, 2003), women cannot rear children successfully without
the direct help of men (Marlowe, 2000). But is this necessarily true?
Male mammals rarely provide a measurable amount of paternal care,
even in socially monogamous lineages (Clutton-Brock, 1991; Komers &
Brotherton, 1997). Whitten (1987) classifies human fathers as affiliation
rather than intensive carers. Even the most solicitous human fathers
spend less than 14 per cent of their time in contact with their chil-
dren. In hunter-gatherer societies, men provide less than half of all food
consumed (Hawkes, 1990, 1991; Knight, 1995).
Unlike other mammals, humans divide their labours. In hunter-gather
societies, men hunt big game and women gather food. Because hunting
is less reliable than gathering (men do not hunt everyday and over
90 per cent of hunts are unsuccessful), women provide about 60 per
cent of the calorific needs of the family (Hawkes, 1991; Hawkes et al.,
1998). Table 8.1 is based on Murdock’s (1967) Ethnographic atlas, which

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 Dorothy Einon 137

Table 8.1 The number of societies in which jobs are assigned solely to men
or women, or carried out by both, based on the Ethnographic Atlas of Murcock
(1967).

Men’s Women’s Joint % work

work work worka carried
out by
men

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Childcareb 0–4 %

Daily/weekly food procurement

Hunting large game 200 0 14 966
Hunting small game 128 2 18 986
Fishing 98 4 56 797
Tending animals/dairying 76 57 33 664
Planting, tending and harvesting 41 126 120 3519
Gathering foodstuffs 29 162 69 282
Daily food preparation
Cooking/preparing food 15 298 134 188
Gather water or fuel 29 208 42 179
Tending fire 18 62 53 180

Duties associated with food procurementc

Clearing and preparing land 73 13 44 731
Burden bearing 12 57 59 328

Household duties (day-to-day)

Mining and lumbering 139 9 8 917
House and shelter building 100 36 73 675
Making household objects 54 220 47 243
Making clothing 68 267 64 251
Making leather goods 60 71 25 468
Status and ceremony
Body decoration 16 20 80 483
Making ornament 24 18 49 287
Weapon-making 121 0 1 997
Carving and ceremonial 285 24 24 926
Metal work 78 0 0 100
Making musical instruments 45 1 1 957

a
Assumes that men carry out 50 per cent of all joint work
b
Based on Whitten (1987)
c
Not daily

collates the rules and norms of human societies including the work
roles of men and women. As Table 8.1 shows, apart from hunting and
herding, in most societies women carry out most of the daily food collec-
tion, production, and preparation. Similarly, although land clearing and

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138 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

house building are often men’s work, tending crops, making house-
hold objects, and clothing are women’s work, as is child care, water
and fuel collection, and the tending of fires. While women carry out
most of the tasks needed for daily survival, men engage in tasks asso-
ciated with status and showing off: big-game hunting, weapon-making,
making musical instruments, and carving (Hawkes, 1991). There is little
evidence here that men’s contribution is vital to the raising of children.

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A woman exclusively breast-feeding a 1-year-old child needs about
800 extra calories per day, an active 2-year-old roughly 1100 calories a
day. In brief, each year of age adds another 100 calories (Pollard, 1994).
In modern Western societies, parents provision children into young
adulthood, but this is (in evolutionary terms) a recent phenomenon.
By 5 years of age, children in hunter-gather societies provide around 50
per cent of their own calorific needs (Howell, 1979) and girls help care
for younger siblings. An active woman requires around 2700 calories,
an active man around 3100 calories. Table 8.2 shows the consequences,
for women and children living as hunter-gathers, of pooling resource
with a man. As the table shows, far from helping women feed their
children, men are often a net drain of family resources. Even when they

Table 8.2 The calories that men and women provide for their families: The disad-
vantages of male investment to women. The table shows the number of calories
a woman must collect to provide food for herself and her children (single) or 60
per cent of the food for her family (married). For calorific needs of individuals,
see text.

Single Married Daily loss/gain

by marriage

Woman 2700 3480 Loss 780 calories

Man 3100 2320 Gain 780 calories
Woman + breast-fed 1-year-old 3500 3960 Loss 460 calories
Woman + weaned 2-year-old 2800 4140 Loss 340 calories
Woman + weaned 3-year-old 3900 4200 Loss 300 calories
Woman + 4-year-old 4000 4260 Loss 260 calories
Woman + 5-year-old 3400 3900 Loss 500 calories
Woman + children 5- and 4200 4380 Gain 180 calories
1-year(s)-old
Woman + children 6- and 4550 4590 Gain 40 calories
2-years-old
Woman + children, 11-, 7- and 4900 4740 Loss 160 caloris
3-years-olda

a
Assumes 11-year-old provides 90 per cent of their own food, and 7-year-old 60 per cent

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 Dorothy Einon 139

contribute, their input is small. In practice, the game men bring home
is invariably shared with all members of the society (Knight, 1995), and
young unmarried men hunt more than older married men do (Hawkes,
1990, 1991).
Until recently, it was extremely difficult for women in agricultural and
industrial societies to raise children without male help (Geary, 2000;
Laslett, 1980; Levine & Wrighton, 1980; Rose, 1986), as it sometimes is in

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hunter-gatherer societies (Hill & Hurtado, 1996). But this has more to do
with the laws and customs of the society, women’s access to resources,
the availability of work, and the level of women’s wages, than the ability
of women to provide for children. Women need men to help them
raise children because society is constructed to ensure this. Economic
surveys in Guatemala, Ghana and India show that the nutritional level of
families does not rise in line with the father’s income; rather, it increases
in line with the mother’s (Bruce, 1989). In many societies, women turn
to grandmothers and other female relatives, rather than fathers, for help
(Lerner & Mikula, 1994; Sear, Mace, & McGregor, 2000), as perhaps they
always have (Euler & Weizel, 1996; Hawkes et al., 1998).
By marrying, a man can engage in the luxury of jobs that bring status
(big-game hunting, carving and making weapons; see Table 8.1), which
in turn attract women (Hawkes, 1990, 1991). If men make commitments
in order to have the leisure to carry out tasks that impress other men
(Sigall & Landy, 1973) and thus gain access to women (Chagnon, 1992;
Hawkes, 1990, 1991; Kaplan & Hill, 1985), why choose young women?
Do they perhaps gain status (Hawkes, 1991; Sigall & Landy, 1973)?
In many societies, illegitimate children and those without fathers are
neglected, abandoned or killed (Blurton Jones, 1989; Hill & Kaplan,
1988; Hill & Hurtado, 1996; Laslett, 1980), as in some societies are
the women who bear such children (Baker, Gregware, & Cassidy, 1999;
Gilmore, 1987; Schneider, 1971; United Nations, 2002). Church records
suggest that, for many years, less that 2 per cent of British illegitimate
children survived (Levine & Wrighton, 1980). Apart from his legitimate
children, a man’s offspring by a married (and thus older) lover are the
most viable. It is difficult to see, in this context, how a preference for
youth and beauty evolved. If women did not gain from male investment,
and few children illegitimate survived to breed, what drove the changes?

The absence of oestrus signals

The average woman takes just over six menstrual cycles to conceive
(Bongaarts & Potter, 1983), is infertile during the 9 months of preg-
nancy and would not, traditionally, have been fertile while lactating

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140 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

(Strassmann, 2003). While other primates indicate upcoming ovula-

tion with specific signals (including olfactory signals and swellings of
the vulva), sexual receptivity (accepting males) and sexual proceptivity
(seeking males and sexually presenting to them), women fail to signal
that they are about to ovulate, show no increase in sexual interest, nor
make more frequent or persistent sexual invitations at this time. The
pattern of sexual swellings in primates and the precise tissue involved

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vary enormously. For the majority, sexual swellings arise in the days
before the onset of ovulation and rapidly subside once ovulation has
occurred. In these species, signals rarely amount to more than a slight
swelling and pinking of the vulva, but in many social Old World1 prim-
ates (including chimpanzees and baboons) swellings are large, deep red,
and highly conspicuous. Early in the menstrual cycle, the skin around
the vulva (and sometimes the anus) begins to swell reaching a maxima
in the days (or in the chimpanzee, weeks) before ovulation. Females
are typically sexually receptive and proactive whenever swellings are
present and many have hourly rates of copulation while their swell-
ings are maximal (Hrdy & Whitten, 1987; Sillen-Tulberg, & Møller,
1993).
There are other primates that do not mark ovulation (Hrdy & Whitten,
1987; Sillen-Tulberg, & Møller, 1993), although most show changes
in receptivity and proceptivity (Hrdy & Whitten, 1987). Other prim-
ates produce deceptive signals. Although only fertile for 7 per cent
of the menstrual cycle, Bonobo chimpanzees have sexual swellings
for between 25–40 per cent of the menstrual cycle, the common
chimpanzee slightly less. While they have swellings, chimpanzees (of
both kinds) mate almost once an hour (Takahata, Ihobe, & Idani,
1996). They also have sexual swellings during pregnancy and lacta-
tion (i.e., when infertile) and are sexually active (albeit less active)
when swellings are small or absent (Hrdy & Whitten, 1987). Takahata
et al. (1996) calculate that over the entire 5-year inter-birth interval,
females copulate once ever 0.4 hours, which suggests that for a male
chimpanzee, the odds of impregnating a female at any given copu-
lation are rather lower than a man’s. Unlike men, chimpanzees are
not selective about how their mates look, nor do they make long-term
investments.
Women may not signal the day of fertility, but they signal the month
by menstruation (Strassmann, 1996, 1997, 2003). Menstruation indic-
ates that a woman is in the fertile phase of her reproductive cycle
(which typically lasts for about 6 months; Bongaarts & Potter, 1983).
Many societies have myths and rituals that serve to draw attention to

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 Dorothy Einon 141

those women who are currently menstruating (Knight, 1995; Shuttle &
Redgrove, 1978; Strassmann, 1996, 1997). As the Roman Historian Pliny
the Elder (in Beagon, 2005) wrote:

   crops touched by it [menstruating women] become barren, grafts

die, seeds in gardens are dried up, the fruits of trees fall off, the
bright surface of mirrors in which it is merely reflected are dimmed,

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the edges of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees
die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust and a horrible
smell fills the air.

In Italy, the belief that menstrual blood caused fruit trees to wither
persisted until recent times, as did the French belief that menstruating
women would sour the wine (Knight, 1995; Shuttle & Redgrove, 1978).
Nor are such myths confined to those without education: in 1878, the
British Medical Journal published letters from doctors suggesting women
should not cure hams if it was their ‘time of the month.’ Such prac-
tices serve to draw men’s attention to those women in society who
are menstruating (Knight, 1995; Shuttle & Redgrove, 1978, Strassmann,
1996) and who will be fertile within a few days of the offset of menstru-
ation. Thus, menstruation – as Strassmann (1996) suggests – provide
honest signals of fertility to the entire society.
During menstruation, women lose blood together with the two
superficial layers of the womb lining known as the zona funcionalis
of the endometrium. In the first half of the menstrual cycle, the
hormone ostrodial stimulates the growth of the zona funcionalis and
this continues to grow until ovulation. After ovulation, progesterone
prepares the endrometrium for pregnancy. If conception does not occur,
the endrometrium sloughs 14 days after ovulation, causing the familiar
menstrual bleed and the release of a third hormone, prostoglandin. It
is this last hormone (or, more correctly, hormones) that dictates the
degree and duration of the menstrual bleed and also inhibits the clot-
ting of menstrual blood. A simple adjustment to prostoglandins causes
periods to be slight or heavy (Heap & Flint, 1972; Short, 1984). Most
primates do not menstruate externally: the waste products produced by
the breakdown of their endrometrium are reabsorbed.
Sexually active females risk infection from seminal fluid-born patho-
gens. Profet (1993) suggests that external menstruation serves to flush
out the system. She suggests that if females mate relatively infrequently
and with very few different males, the balance between the cost of
losing blood and the cost of getting rid of pathogens is tipped towards
conserving blood, and these species do not menstruate. If females mate

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142 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

more often (and with more males), the scales are tipped towards cleaning
out the system. Of the 23 species of Old World primate in which external
menstruation has been observed, 22 live in multi-male promiscuous
mating groups (Hrdy & Whitten, 1987). Women are the exception to this
rule: while on a primate scale they are neither promiscuous nor sexually
very active (Hrdy & Whitten, 1987), their menstruation is heavier than
that of any other primate.

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If women were to mark ovulation with sexual swellings (swellings are
incompatible with bipedal locomotion), they would need a signal which
attracted males. Menstrual blood is the right colour and appears in the
right place. The increase in the volume of menstrual bleeding suggests it
serves as a signal to women’s fertility, not at the time of fertility (for this
was impossible) but a couple of weeks before ovulation. If men miss the
signal, society ensures the information is broadcast (Strassmann, 2003);
which begs the question of why, if menstruation provided a reliable
signal of women’s upcoming fertility, men use such unreliable signals
for the selection of potentially fertile women, as smaller feet (Barber,
1995), certain body mass indices (Tovée & Cornelisson, 1999) or waist-
hip ratios of less than 0.80 (Singh, 1993)?

A viable route for evolution

Men’s attraction to breasts
Men like breasts, and from the point of view of fertility, this is a puzzle.
For most mammals (including all other primates) breasts have one func-
tion: to feed babies. They develop as lactation is required and disappear
after weaning. Since many primates (including all the great apes) are
infertile while lactating, breasts are a perfect signal of infertility. It is
difficult (if not impossible) to construct an evolutionary story of how
breasts evolved from the perfect infertility signals they are in other prim-
ates to become predictors of fertility in humans. Males choosing females
with flat chests would always have had greater RS than those choosing
breasts. A preference for large breasts is equally puzzling. Breasts increase
in size at the onset of pregnancy and again when they fill with milk. By
selecting big-breasted women, a man biases his choice towards infertile
women. Women’s breasts store fat, but breast fat is not used to fuel
pregnancy or lactation (Pond, Mattacks, Calder, & Evans, 1993). As in
other primates, ‘fertility fuel’ is stored on the thighs, hips, and buttocks.
In spite of the predictive value of fat stored on the thighs, there is no
indication in the literature (or men’s ‘top-shelf’ magazines) that men
prefer fat thighs to big breasts. If selecting fertile women, clearly they
should.

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 Dorothy Einon 143

Men’s attraction to youth

In recent decades, families and society in the West have had less control
over the sexual behaviour of young people then they had in previous
centuries. In consequence, the majority of women lose their virginity
at (or very close to) the completion of puberty (Wellings et al., 1994).
It is hard to imagine that, without the constraints imposed by their

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elders (Schneider, 1971), most young people would ever have voluntarily
delayed the onset of sexual activity for several years. If the age gap
between husbands and wives is more than 2 years, men must retain
their virginity (or drastically curb their sexual activity) for longer than
women; logically, there is little point in men waiting to do at 30 what
they could have done at 17.
Although surveys suggest that women prefer older men and men
prefer younger women (Buss, 1989), when women are free to choose
their husbands (as they have been in Northern Europe for many genera-
tions (Goody, 1983), relationships are formed between couples of similar
post-pubertal age. British marriage statistics for 1992 (Office of Popula-
tion Census and Statistics, 1992) set the scene: the mean age difference
between all brides and grooms in 1991 was just 2.49 years. From 1837,
when British records began, until 1992, there is not a single year in
which the average age gap between marriage partners is more than 3
years. In 1992, there was a difference of 1.99 years on first marriage.
Only 3.8 per cent of women under 30 marry men more than 10 years
older, only 0.7 per cent of men more than 15 years older. Goody (1983)
suggests such age gaps have been typical of Northern Europe over many
generations. If marriage is arranged by families, age gaps are often larger
(Goody, 1983).
The adaptive significance of late marriage for men is unclear: labouring
like fighting and hunting are young men’s games and women’s fertility
declines very little until she reaches her early 40s (Baker & Bellis, 1995).
Survival patterns for extinct and modern hunter-gatherers (Meindl,
1992) suggest that less than half of all 20-year-olds lived to 40, less
than a quarter to 50. Women live longer than men. Unless older men
control access to wealth and work, a father’s youth is likely to have
more influence on RS than a wife’s age. It was only with the advent
of agriculture that a man’s age became indicative of wealth – and even
here it is only predictive for property-owners and skilled and profes-
sional workers who require years of training. For the majority – as for
hunter-gathers – when provisioning children, youth is an advantage
in a man. Given the historically low life expectancy of men and

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144 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

women (Meindl, 1992), the low viability of illegitimate children, and

the low level of provisioning of children by men, a married woman
with children old enough to help provision his baby might be the better
choice.

Men’s attraction to youthful faces and feet

It is most unlikely that the ‘baby’ aspect of women’s faces (Jones,

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1995) or feet (Barber, 1995) gives an accurate guide to either youth
or fertility. The ratio between brow-nose and nose-chin is fixed at
puberty, and although it changes at the extremes of the age distri-
bution, those changes are in the wrong direction for fertility. Those
with the most ‘child-like’ faces are obviously children, closely followed
by women old enough to have lost their back teeth, plump lips
and/or the density of their jaw bones. Both Fessler and associ-
ates (Fessler et al., 2005) and Barber (1995) suggests women have
smaller feet because of a history of inter-sexual selection by men for
youthful feet. Although foot size both increases very slightly with
age (Chantelau & Gede, 2002) and parity (Block, Hess, Timpano,
& Serlo, 1985), choosing small feet is unlikely to be advantageous
because women with small feet are more likely to have Caesarean
sections (Frame, Moore, Peters, & Hall, 1985; van Bogaert, 1999). In
as much as a Caesarean section is indicative of birth complications
(Mackenzie, Cooke, and Annan, 2003), small feet are likely to have
been associated with higher rates of mortality for both child and
mother.

Viable alternatives to explanations based on mate choice

Skin colour
Women have lighter skin tones than men (van den Berghe & Frost,
1986), and in many cultures men prefer women with paler skin. The
lighter the skin the more vitamin D is produced and the more heat
is reflected; the darker the more melanin and the greater the protec-
tion from ultraviolet light. Vitamin D is needed during pregnancy and
lactation; overheating causes miscarriage and birth defects (Lublin &
Wolfenson, 1996; Upfold et al., 1989; Wolfenson, Roth, & Meidan,
2000). There is thus a perfectly viable explanation of why women have
lighter skin than men: light-skinned women had more viable pregnan-
cies. Just as male birds choose females exhibiting characteristics of the
species (Burley, 1988), men like women with lighter skin because lighter
skin enhances recognition that ‘this is a woman.’

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 Dorothy Einon 145

Breasts
Breast growth is one of the first signs of puberty, and an increase in the
size of the breasts one of the first signs of pregnancy. Many animals
living in hot dry climates (as evolving humans did) have humps, trunks,
big ears, long legs, and necks to help heat dissipation: camels, elephants,
and giraffes are obvious examples. The generation of heat is a function

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of the body volume, its dissipation a function of the surface area.
Any increase in body size decreases the ratio between the surface area
and body mass, and makes heat dissipation more difficult. Bergman’s
rule, first published in 1847, states that if a species is geographically
widespread, those that live in the warmer parts of the range have smaller
bodies. Allen’s rule, first published in 1877, states that those in the
warmest areas have the largest extremities (Lewin, 1998). Ruff (1994)
suggests that if a large surface area relative to body mass facilitates heat
loss, those in cold climates will tend to have a low ratio – a small surface
area in relation to body mass – allowing for heat retention, while the
opposite is true for those in hot climates. Thus, he predicts that peoples
living in low latitudes will have narrow bodies with long limbs, and
those in high latitudes wider bodies with shorter limbs. His prediction
is supported by surveys of body proportions in 71 populations from
different areas of the world. East African humans are tall, with relatively
long limbs and short bodies; those in cold northern climates – Northern
Europeans and American Plains Indians – have relatively massive bodies
and short limbs (Aiello, 1992; Holliday & Fallesetti, 1995). Ruff (1994)
further suggests that selection for effectiveness in carrying light loads on
the back in hot climates (as women with babies frequently do) is likely
to have been implicated in the evolution of human body proportions.
Maximising curves, like limb-lengthening and body-narrowing,
presents a larger surface for heat loss. Consistent with this, African
women have more curves than those whose ancestors lived in colder
climates: East Africans have rounded buttocks, the women of the Kala-
hari Desert massive steatopygic buttocks (Coon, 1971) and Europeans
and Orientals flatter buttocks. Breast size varies along similar lines.
Table 8.3 shows the median bra cup sizes (an indication of breast size)
of 100 students attending lectures at a North London university. The
first 25 students from each racial group were approached as they left
lectures and asked the size and cup of their bra. For each racial group bra
size ranged from 30–36, with a median of 34. Women of Southeast Asian
origin (whose ancestors spent much of their history in sub-artic regions;
Cavalli-Sforza & Cavalli-Sforza, 1995) had significantly smaller breasts

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146 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

Table 8.3 The cup size of 100 students of different ethnic origin. If the meas-
urement over the breasts is 2 inches more than that the measurement below the
breasts, women take an A cup, if it is 4 inches more a B cup, if six inches more a
C cup, eight inches more a D, cup, ten inches more an E cup, and twelve inches
more a F cup. The median bra size for women in all four groups was 34, with a
range between 30 and 38.

Cup size African South Asian European Southeast

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Asian

A 0 3 2 10
B 5 9 10 9
C 8 3 7 0
D 8 6 6 0
E 2 0 2 0
F 2 0 2 0

than the other three groups; those of African origin had significantly
larger breasts than the other three groups.
It is well established that heat stress impairs oocyte development
(Edwards & Hanson, 1997) and conception (al-Katanani & Hansen,
2002; al-Katanani, Paula-Lopes, & Hansen, 2002; Edwards & Hansen,
1997). It also reduces the viability of pregnancy (al-Katanani et al.,
2002; Clay, Randall, Prather, & Rucker, 2006; Dutt, 1963; Roth et al.,
2001; Wolfenson, Roth, & Meidan, 2000) and impairs lactation (Lublin
& Wolfenson, 1996). In women, a prolonged fever of more than 104
Fahrenheit can produce foetal abnormalities including alterations in
muscle tone, mental retardation, ear, eye, and facial abnormalities
(Pollard, 1994). In Hong Kong (Short, 1984) and in southern areas of the
United States (Huntingdon, 1938), the rate of confirmed pregnancy dips
in the hottest season. Heat stress in early pregnancy causes miscarriage
in sheep (Dutt, 1963) and cattle (Wolfenson et al., 2000), brain damage
in guinea pigs (Upfold et al., 1989), alters the synthesis and secre-
tion of proteins (Putney et al., 1988), has detrimental effects on cardi-
ovascular responses in late pregnancy (Walker, Hale, Fawcett, & Pratt,
1995) and maternal hormones and blood flow to both the reproductive
organs and mammary glands (Lublin & Wolfenson, 1996). It is thus
likely that women exposed to heat stress would have lower reproductive
success.
Humans evolved in the hot dry climate of East Africa at a time when
the rain forests had receded, leaving areas of scrub and savannah in
which dietary resources were less densely distributed (Isbell & Young,

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 Dorothy Einon 147

1996). Because humans are rarely entirely still, they have more heat to
dissipate than most mammals who spend time in the open. Grazing
cattle move their jaws and occasionally take a few steps, humans gath-
ering food in open countryside talk, laugh, dig, pull, stretch, crouch,
carry, run after children, put down objects, and pick them up again.
They then carry food home rather than eat it where they find it as other
mammals do. It is metabolic heat generated by such movements which

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most influences core body temperature. The constant muscle activity of
humans increases their metabolic rate and in principle makes humans
more susceptible to over-heating. In addition to carrying food hunter-
gathers also carry water and firewood back to their home base (Murdock,
1967). They are thus unlikely to remain in the shade throughout the
day. Much of this carrying is women’s work (see Table 8.1) and women
also carry small children and babies. While men’s testes move outside
the body cavity shortly before birth (so sperm develop in the relative
cool) women’s ovaries and womb must remain within the body cavity.
Not only is women’s reproduction effort more likely to be undermined
by heat stress, their role within society ensures they are more likely to
be exposed to heat than men. None the less, humans are amongst the
few mammals able to remain fairly active in the midday sun (Aiello,
1992; Hanna & Brown, 1979). They achieve this by efficient cooling
mechanisms that stop the core of the body from overheating, and adapt-
ations, which enhance heat loss from the body surface and reduce heat
absorption. The upright stance of humans allows more efficient walking
(Rodman & McHenry, 1980) between food sources and more efficient
thermoregulation while exposed to the sun (Wheeler, 1994).
It is suggested here that the curves and bumps of women’s bodies are
mechanisms which enhance heat loss – especially in early pregnancy –
directly influencing women’s reproductive success. All mammals deposit
fat around internal organs and in a dozen or so fat depots. These include
the buttocks and upper leg, the upper back, the chest, and forearm.
The bigger the animal the larger the proportion of fat stores held in
external depots (Pond et al., 1993). Areas of fat (such as the camel’s
hump) increase the body surface more than body volume and this helps
to dissipate heat. The humps of camels develop from the back fat depot,
the breasts of humans from the chest fat depots. Humps or lumps on
the chest are less efficient heat loss mechanisms in quadrupeds since
dissipated heat would be trapped under the body (Wheeler, 1994) –
which is perhaps why it is the fat deposits of the back that have expanded
in other plain living species (Pond et al., 1993). The fat distribution of
women who store fat on the hips, thighs, breast, and bottom (Bailey &

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148 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

Katch, 1981) gives a bigger surface-to-volume ratio than the typical male
pattern of storing fat on the chest and abdomen.
Bipedal locomotion increases the efficiency of heat loss mechanisms
arising from the chest fat depots (Wheeler, 1994). As air flows upwards
from the ground to the cooler atmosphere it passes along the surface
of the human abdomen and chest and across the buttocks and back.
Sweating enhances this heat loss (evaporation of sweat lowers the surface

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temperature of the skin), and the upward flow of air increases the effi-
ciency of sweating (Wheeler, 1994). Adding curved buttocks to one side
of the body and curved breasts to the other increases the skin surface
exposed to this air flow and allows a larger surface for the evaporation
of sweat. Together these enhance heat dissipation in women. Table 8.4
shows the increase in the surface area of the torso of a slim woman
produced by adding breasts of four different sizes. As can be seen in the
table, breasts produced an increase in the surface area of the torso of
between 9 per cent and 15 per cent.

Youthful feet
The obvious reason for women’s smaller feet is that women carry body
mass closer to the ground than men do, which makes them more stable
and less likely to topple under forward locomotion (Pawłowski & Grabar-
czyk, 2003). Birds also need to avoid toppling, which is why they have
relatively larger feet than mammals. Injuries to the foot are a common
source of infection (Trivers, 1981): the smaller the foot the less likely
the injury. Because men carry weight higher in the body and throw
stones and spears when under forward locomotion, they need a longer

Table 8.4 The area beneath the breast (attachment area), the surface area of the
bra cup (cup area) and the percentage increase in skin surface (% increase) that
is produced by adding breasts to the body of a slim woman.a The final column
shows the increase in surface area produced by spreading the same volume of fat
tissue across the front and rear of the torso.

Cup size Attachment Cup area Difference % increase Surface

area

A 1900 4090 2190 91 17

B 2256 5568 3312 100 21
C 2668 6995 4327 131 33
D 3112 8583 5471 165 37

a
The body size used here was the mean surface area of the torso of five different women of
slim build (English size 10–12)

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 Dorothy Einon 149

foot. Women carry their weight below the waist, and so their feet can be
smaller. Men like small feet because they are characteristic of women.

Youth
In most societies, gender defines friendships, work, those who share

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gossip, and acceptable relationships. It defines the places people can
go, the clothes to be worn, the rooms to be entered, and acceptable
behaviour. The aspects of women’s faces that men find beautiful are
almost invariably the same as those that are used to classify them by
gender. Apparent age is such a cue. Women store more fat beneath the
skin surface than men do (Pond et al., 1993)2 and these fat stores include
the face. The fat beneath the surface of women’s faces makes the skin
appear smooth and the face looks younger. Dress a 39-year-old woman
as a man and she looks like a boy, dress a 30-year-old man as a woman
and he looks middle aged. Youthful childlike faces are characteristic of
women. In choosing a ‘young’ face, a man is more likely to choose a
woman.
This chapter has critically examined the claim that women’s beauty
is ‘in the adaptations of the beholder’ (Symons, 1995): that their bodies
have been shaped by male mate choice. It has examined the logic of
such claims, the viability of their evolution, and the possibility that
there are functional explanations for the characteristic ‘of choice’. It is
concluded that claims that women’s bodies have been shaped by men’s
choices are logically flawed, that there is not always a viable path for
the evolution of a characteristic, and that functional explanations exist
for many of women’s dimorphic characteristics. In particular, I have
examined the possibility that the development of permanent breasts at
puberty is one of a number of physical changes humans have undergone
that reduces the dangers of heat stress (Aiello, 1992). Ruff (1994) has
argued that a large surface area relative to body mass increases heat loss,
while a small surface area relative to body mass reduces heat loss. In hot,
dry climates (such as East and Central Africa) women are potentially
vulnerable to heat stress because their gonads remain within the body
cavity. For men, the overheating of sperm is circumvented by the descent
of the testes into the scrotum. The necessity for the ova (and foetus)
to remain within the body provides a selection pressures for women
to remain smaller (Bergman’s rule) and maximise the body surface in
relation to body volume (Allen’s rule), especially during the maturation
of ova and the early stages of foetal development. Consistent with this
increased breast volume and the visibility of blood vessels close to the

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150 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

surface of the breasts are amongst the earliest signs of human pregnancy
and could serve this purpose.
Everything about a woman’s shape – from her relatively long limbs
to her rounded bottom, narrow waist, and breasts (Bailey & Katch,
1981) – serves to maximise the skin surface to body mass ratio. The
relatively square figures of northern women with their flatter bottoms
and broader bodies reflect a historic need to conserve heat. The curves of

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African women reflect their origin in hotter, dryer regions. The peoples
of Southeast Asia arrived in Southeast Asia via the northern artic route
(Cavalli-Sforza & Cavalli-Sforza, 1995) and their body shape reflects this.
They have fewer curves than African women (see Table 8.3). They coped
with the hot humid climate of Southeast Asia by remaining small (Ruff,
1994).
Beautiful women have curvier bodies, more obvious breasts, narrower
waists, broader hips, rounded bottoms, and relatively longer limbs.
Sometimes (but rarely), their beauty is a clue to fertility; invariably, it is
an indication of gender. The characteristics that men find most beautiful
about women are those aspects of their bodies that place them on the
female side of every sexually dimorphic characteristic. He never knows
exactly which women are fertile; he always knows they are women.

Why are men aroused by female characteristics?

Male mammals are attracted to females by a combination of circulating

testosterone and the sexual signals and invitations that characterise
oestrus in most species. Testosterone provides the potential for sexual
activity; oestrus smells and/or swellings and the sexual invitations of
the female rouse him to copulate. Like all other mammals, men have
the potential for sexual activity (circulating testosterone), but they do
not have the oestrus smells or sexual swellings that draw the male to
the female. Nor do women seek out men when about to ovulate. A
man is thus like the dog with testosterone in his bloodstream and no
oestrus smells on the air. In principle, he ought not to be interested
in sex; in practice he thinks about sex all the time. He does not need
to wait for a whiff of a certain chemical before feeling arousal, because
what arouses men is women. Not just the smell of aliphatic acids or
the flash of an enlarged vulva but everything that differentiates women
from men: youthful faces, breasts, small waist, shapely hips, longer legs,
higher pitched voices, and small feet.
Men’s arousal is more subdued than that produced by the oestrus
smells that draw the tomcat to the queen, so men can turn down

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 Dorothy Einon 151

women’s advances and keep arousal under control. This does not stop
most men from watching the girls. What men lack in ‘signal strength’
they gain in pervasiveness. The signals that arouse men are around the
next corner, across every street, jogging in the park, at work and at
home. Women’s breasts jiggle as they pass him on the stairs, their hips
sway, and a little more leg is revealed. Women are everywhere he looks
and if he wants to see a little more he can buy a magazine, click on the

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Internet or pay to watch women wiggling their naked bottoms on little
tables: and men do these things on an industrial scale. The titillation of
male arousal is big business. Yet on a primate scale of things, the average
man has fewer sexual partners in a lifetime than a chimpanzee does in
a month (Wellings et al., 1994; Takahata et al., 1996).
The characteristics men find attractive give little insight into men’s
sexual behaviour. When we look beyond the pleasures of sexual titillation
it becomes abundantly clear that sexual engagement has little to do
with ‘what’ men like and everything to do with ‘who’ they love. For
most men, most of the time the characteristics of a potential partner
(however superior) come a very poor second to ongoing relationships –
as the poetry, literature, and songs men write make abundantly clear.
On the surface, nature dealt humans a difficult hand. Women lost
oestrus, men the signals that lure them into sexual activity. The down-
side of this is that men and women are not driven to have sex at
appropriate times and must find the time and place to safely engage
in their rather drawn out encounters. In principle, they could fail to
initiate sex. In practice, society ensures this rarely happens. It titillates
with sexy gossip, sexy images, stories, and jokes. It hands down ribald
songs and sexy myths, and songs, and stories of romantic love. It allows
and forbids sex, making rules we obey or disobey but never fail to notice.
It says when and where and with whom we should indulge our desires.
It even tells us what we can and cannot do and advises us on variations.
Societies do not always make the same rules or tell the same stories,
what they share is the telling of stories and the making of rules. One
way or another, every society ensures their members spend more time
thinking about sex than any other living creature. Such thoughts create
the slow-burn sexual desire that is characteristically human and allows
us to control our sexuality and that of others; we make sexual choices
away from the heat of sexual passion, and create rules that allow us
to invest wisely, not only for ourselves but also for our children and
grandchildren.
Because desire is created by couples and arousal slow and controlled,
we are able to form exclusive sexual commitments even though living in

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152 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

social groups. We can sit next to another man’s ovulating wife without
trying to lure her into sex, and trust that others will act as we do when
sitting beside our partner. People can cooperate and share tasks in ways
that would be impossible if women awoke some mornings with an
uncontrollable and untamed desire for sex, or men awoke with the
irresistible lure of ‘woman’ wafting on the air, if the first whiff of sex
drove all thought of co-operation from our minds.

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Notes
1. Primates native to Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as apposed to New World
primates that are native to Central and Southern America.
2. Fat stores are necessary to maintain pregnancy and lactation. If the stores
drop too low women stop ovulating.

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Strassmann, B. I. (2003). Social monogamy in a human society: Marriage and
reproductive success among the Drogon. In U. H. Reichard, & C. Boesch (Eds.),
Monogamy: Mating strategies and partnerships in birds, humans and other mammals
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Swami, V. (2005). Evolutionary psychology and the study of human physical attractive-
ness: The influence of body weight and shape across cultures. PhD Thesis, University
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Swami, V., Einon, D., & Furnham, A. (2006). An investigation of the leg-to-body
ratio as a human aesthetic criterion. Body Image, 3, 317–323.
Symons, D. (1995). Beauty is in the adaptations of the beholder: The evolutionary
psychology of human female sexual attractiveness. In P. R. Abrahamson, & S. D.

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Pinkerton (Eds.), Sexual nature, sexual culture (pp. 80–118). Chicago: University
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W. McGrew, L. F. Marchant, & T. Nishida (Eds.), Great ape societies. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Tovée, M. J., & Cornelisson, P. L. (1999). The mystery of human beauty. Nature,
399, 215–216.

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Trivers, R. L. (1981). Social evolution. Merlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings.
United Nations (2002). Working towards the elimination of crimes against women
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Upfold, J. B., Smith, M. S., & Edwards, M. J. (1989). Quantitative study of the
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pig brain on day 21 of pregnancy. Teratology, 39, 173–179.
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9
Interpersonal Metaperception:
The Importance of Compatibility
in the Aesthetic Appreciation of

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Bodily Cues
Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary

Beauty is the proper conformity of the parts to one another and

to the whole.
∼ Heisenberg (1974: 183)

Psychology enjoys a rich history of theorising that is rooted in Gestalt

psychology (Koffka, 1935; Köhler, 1929, 1947). Gestalt psychology has
informed not only our understanding of how simple geometric objects
are perceptually parsed, but also how global attitudes toward objects
and individuals are formed. In both cases, one’s ultimate perception
is multiply determined, integrating the basic perception of a range of
cues that, collectively, yield an overarching percept or attitude. In other
words, each simple cue is perceived directly but contextualised by other
cues that together affect a more global perception, or Gestalt.
This principle has been applied to a variety of domains including the
perception of physical objects, personality traits, and interpersonal inter-
actions. Three overlapping lines in one configuration can yield a percept
of discontinuity, yet the same lines in a slightly different arrangement
can yield the percept of a single unit – a triangle (Köhler, 1929, 1947);
a colleague who is challenging, assertive, and warm may be viewed as
astute, whereas a colleague who is challenging, assertive, but cold may
be viewed as pompous (Asch, 1946); and a favourable attitude toward
John may tarnish when one learns that John befriended a detested
individual (Heider, 1946, 1958). These examples can be described as
metaperception – the first physical, the second intrapersonal, and the last
interpersonal. In each instance, the contextualised relation between two

159

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160 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

or more elemental percepts and/or attitudes ultimately yielded a Gestalt

impression.
In spite of these valuable insights, the application of Gestalt theory
to person construal has focused primarily on the perception of intraper-
sonal personality traits and on attitudes toward individual members of
triads. Surprisingly, these Gestalt principles have rarely been applied to
investigations of how physical cues affect basic interpersonal percep-

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tion, in spite of the fact that prominent theorists have highlighted
the value of such inquiry (see Neisser, 1994). Instead, the study of
person perception traditionally isolated and manipulated a single phys-
ical cue to measure how it affected social perception (but cf. Sheldon,
Stevens, & Tucker, 1942). Several researchers, for example, have tried to
better understand the physical determinants of perceived attractiveness
(e.g., bilateral symmetry, facial composites, and body shape) using this
approach (e.g., Gangestad, Thornhill, & Yeo, 1994; Langlois & Roggman,
1990; Singh, 1993). Critically, this approach affords precision at the
expense of breadth, and has met increasing criticism (e.g., Buller, 2005a,
2005b). Consequently, there remains no comprehensive account of how
the basic perceptions of various cues ultimately coalesce to yield an
evaluative social Gestalt.
Here, we adopt a broad approach to investigate how a subset of phys-
ical cues – those originating in the body – affect interpersonal metaper-
ception. We posit that conspicuous bodily cues, such as body shape and
motion, affect basic social perceptions in reliable ways that correspond
to social judgements of biological sex and gender (i.e., masculinity and
femininity; Unger, 1979).1 Collectively, these basic social perceptions
affect interpersonal metaperception – evaluative social judgements such
as perceived attractiveness. We propose a cue compatibility model that
accounts for these effects.

Bodily cues and evaluative social judgements

To explore how body shape affects evaluative social judgements,

researchers have created line-drawn stimuli that depict men and
women’s bodies in various shapes and sizes (e.g., Lippa, 1983; Fallon
& Rozin, 1985; Singh, 1993). Such stimuli have been used routinely
to determine the particular somatotypes that people find attractive. To
date, the most systematic investigations of this kind focused on a single
physical cue, the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).
Singh (1993) presented participants with a set of line-drawn women
that varied both the WHR and weight. Across all weight categories,

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 161

women with small WHRs were judged to be more attractive than women
with larger WHRs, although body weight was a stronger inverse predictor
of attractiveness (see also Tassinary & Hansen, 1998; Tovée & Corne-
lissen, 2001). Buttressed by biomedical research relating the WHR to
health and fertility (e.g., Björntorp, 1988; Lanska, Lanska, Hartz, &
Rimm, 1985; Laws, King, Haskell, & Reaven, 1993; Ostlund, Staten,
Kohrt, Schultz, & Malley, 1990; Zaadstra et al., 1993), these findings

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were initially interpreted from a particular evolutionary perspective: the
WHR, it was argued, is a biological marker of health and fecundity, and
male preferences for small WHRs are adaptive (Singh, 1993). Specific-
ally, such preferences were characterised as adaptations for mate choice
(cf. Rhodes, 2006).
The WHR hypothesis became well-known by scientists and lay-people
alike due in part to its widespread and continued coverage in the popular
media (e.g., Chen, 2005; Cowley, 1996; Heiman, 1999; Newman, 2000;
Stanish, 1996). Moreover, predictions drawn from the WHR hypothesis
spawned an abundance of research to further investigate the adaptive
significance of men’s preferences for small WHRs (Furnham, Tan, &
McManus, 1997; Furnham, Dias, & McClelland, 1998; Henss, 1995). In
fact, replications and extensions of the findings abound (see Swami &
Furnham, 2006 for a review).
This popular and empirical attention is not surprising. The WHR
hypothesis articulated an uncomplicated supposition that was tested by
manipulating a simple physical cue. This strength, however, proved ulti-
mately to be a weakness as well. The absence of context, while affording
precision, prohibited a broad understanding of how body cues in situ
affect perceived attractiveness. Similarly, the specificity of the theory,
while elegant, failed to anticipate and could not account for the contra-
dictory data that subsequently emerged. Indeed, recent research has
documented methodological shortcomings and theoretical flaws that
undermine the viability of the WHR hypothesis, generally, at least in
the strong form that it was originally articulated.2
Thus, although prior research has revealed a clear relation between
body shape and perceived attractiveness, a mechanism to account for these
observations has yet to be identified. Because these prior studies focused
narrowly on a distal evolutionary mechanism and explored only a single
physical cue, we believe a more proximal psychological mechanism may
have been overlooked. From our perspective, adopting a more compre-
hensive approach that approaches this question from a different level
of analysis – a cognitive one – is necessary to clarify how body cues affect
basic social perception and interpersonal metaperception.

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162 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

Bodies in balance

Characterising perceived attractiveness as interpersonal metapercep-

tion invites two critical changes to previous methodologies. First, the
perspective of interpersonal metaperception highlights the fact that
multiple social judgements are made during person perception. Second,
this perspective acknowledges that additional bodily cues also affect

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social perception. These two changes may potentially uncover the
evolutionary-based cognitive mechanisms that guide evaluative social
judgements.

Multiple social judgements

In the vast majority of the prior research, the stimuli were readily iden-
tified as women. Thus, the judgements made by participants – whether
they were ranking the stimuli by attractiveness or rating the stimuli
for fecundity – were contextualised by the known biological sex of
the target. Indeed, the key manipulations of the target were altera-
tions of the body’s shape and size, the individual was held constant
across the stimuli, and the majority of the studies used a common
stimulus set. In contrast, isolated judgements of attractiveness in real
life rarely occur for different renderings of an individual in succession.
Instead, we simultaneously make several judgements about others with
great facility. Unlike the majority of laboratory studies, the category
membership of each individual is judged from the available information
(Allport, 1954). Among the most likely social categories to be noted,
biological sex tops the list (e.g., Stangor, Lynch, Duan, & Glass, 1992;
Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff, & Ruderman, 1978). In life, the perceived sex of
a conspecific is a decision not a given. Subsequent social judgements
are likely to be perceived in the context of this fundamental social
category (Bem, 1993). Consequently, other cues that tend to covary
with biological sex are likely to affect perceived gender (i.e., masculinity
and femininity), and they may be deemed compatible or incompat-
ible with the judged sex of an individual. If correct, these perceptions
of sex and gender may ultimately determine the level of perceived
attractiveness.

Additional bodily cues

The majority of prior research isolated a single physical cue, the WHR,
while neglecting other cues that are potentially meaningful for the
basic perception of sex and gender. One cue, in particular, enjoys a
rich background in the arts and sciences. Artists and philosophers,

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 163

for example, have written extensively about the beauty of the body’s
motion. Frumkin (1954) referred to body motion as a ‘visual aphro-
disiac’; on their 1969 album Abby Road and in his 1968 self-titled album,
both The Beatles and James Taylor independently noted that that there
is ‘something in the way she moves    ’; and in his Leaves of Grass,
Whitman (1900) pointed out that, ‘the expression of a well-made man
appears not only in his face    it is in his walk.’ Fortuitously, scientists

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have also noted that bodily motion in general, and gait in particular,
convey important social information (see Allport & Vernon, 1933, for
an early foray into this area).
A substantial scientific literature corroborates the importance of body
motion for social perception. Body motion is sexually dimorphic, and
these differences are evident perceptually, kinematically, and stylistic-
ally. For example, observers can accurately distinguish men from women
from minimal information (e.g., point-light displays; Cutting, 1978). In
addition, more shoulder twist than hip translation characterises a ‘male’
gait, the opposite combination characterises a ‘female’ gait (Cutting,
1978; Murry, Kory, & Sepic, 1970), and these motion parameters have
been well-specified (Barclay, Cutting, & Kozlowski, 1978; Cutting, 1981;
Cutting, Moore, & Morrison, 1988; Cutting, Proffit, & Kozlowski, 1978,
Troje, 2002). Perceived differences between male and female gaits are
seen in studies of kinematics, as well. Women, for example, walk at
greater cadences, with greater hip flexion and pelvic motion, and with
less knee extension than do men (Kerrigan, Todd, & Della Croce, 1998;
Smith, Lelas, & Kerrigan, 2002). Finally, anthropologists have noted
sex differences in expressive movement (e.g., dancing style, Brown et
al., 2005; Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1988; Frable, 1987). Given this abundance
of evidence for the aesthetic appreciation and sex-specific nature of
body motion, it is likely to contribute substantially to metaperceptual
judgements.

A broad approach and cue compatibility model of

interpersonal metaperception

We applied this basic principle of interpersonal metaperception to

explore a range of social judgements that arise from body cues. Our
stimuli varied along two dimensions – shape and motion, and our parti-
cipants provided several social judgements for each target. We predicted
that each physical cue would effect a basic social judgement, and that
the compatibility of these cues would affect a more evaluative social
judgement.

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164 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

Perceived sex and gender as the foundation for interpersonal

metaperception
As noted above, the body’s shape and motion are, in reality, both
sexually dimorphic and visually conspicuous. They are, therefore, also
likely to be perceived to be gendered, and are prime candidates to
affect metaperceptual judgements. In a recent series of experiments, we

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explored the relative importance of body shape and motion for gendered
judgements that are categorical and continuous. In one set of studies
(Johnson & Tassinary, 2007a), participants judged the sex and gender
of humanoid animations that depicted a person walking in place. These
‘walkers’ varied in body shape (i.e., five WHRs from 0.5 to 0.9, see
Figure 9.1) and in walk motion (i.e., five gaits from a masculine shoulder
‘swagger’ to a feminine hip ‘sway,’ see Figure 9.2).3 As seen in Figure 9.3,
sex judgements were tightly coupled to body shape, but only moder-
ately coupled to body motion; gender judgements, in contrast, were
strongly related to body motion, but were also moderately related to

Figure 9.1 WHR from 0.5 to 0.9. Wireframe models were exported to Maya™ for
accurate circumference measurements.

Figure 9.2 Each walker completed approximately 10 steps over 10s. Figure depicts
key frames of an animation sequence. Exact motion parameters are specified
in Johnson and Tassinary (2005, 2007a) and, Johnson, Gill, Reichman, and
Tassinary (2007).

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 165

body shape. Thus, although related both to sex and gender judgements,
the body’s shape appeared to be the primary cue used to make sex
category judgements.
We corroborated this finding in a set of experiments that utilised a
decidedly different methodology – eye tracking (Johnson & Tassinary,
2005). In these experiments, participants viewed each of our walkers
as we recorded their precise point of gaze using corneal reflection eye

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tracking. When we then examined the distribution of their visual scan-
ning within four critical areas of the body – the head, the chest, the
waist/hips, and the legs. We reasoned that participants would direct
their visual attention toward the body regions that provided critical

(a) 100

80
providing ‘female’ response
Per cent of participants

60

40

20

Extreme Sway Neutral Swagger Extreme

sway swagger
Walk motion

.5 .6 .7 .8 .9

Figure 9.3 Judgements of sex (a) and gender (b) for animated walkers. One-sided
error bars represent 95 per cent confidence intervals. Data from Johnson and
Tassinary (2007a) were replotted using WHR and Walk Motion.

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 166 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

(b) 90

80
(High: Feminine, Low: Masculine)

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70
Perceived gender

60

50

40

30

Extreme Sway Neutral Swagger Extreme

sway swagger
Walk motion

.5 .6 .7 .8 .9

Figure 9.3 (Continued).

information for social judgements. We hypothesised that participants

would concentrate their scanning within the waist and hip region, an
area that was related to both sex and gender judgements in our previous
studies. Indeed, participants looked longer and with a higher frequency
at the waist and hip region of the walkers, data consistent with the
notion that this sexually dimorphic region of the body conveyed critical
information for social judgements. Yet the specificity of the informa-
tion gleaned from that region remained uncertain because participants
judged both sex and gender for each target.
Consequently, we next examined why participants concentrated their
scanning within the waist and hip region of the body. We reasoned
that if body shape is the primary cue to a target’s sex, then preempting

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 167

sex category judgements should weaken the importance of scanning the

waist and hips. Said differently, when scanning the waist and hip regions
no longer served a functional end (i.e., to determine a target’s sex),
concentrating one’s scanning within the waist and hip region should
no longer be necessary. As predicted, when the sex of a walker was
prespecified, visual scanning of the waist and hip region dropped to
chance levels, and was significantly lower than scanning of that region

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among a group of participants for whom the sex remained unspecified
(see Figure 9.4). Thus, participants looked at the waist and hip region
only when doing so was necessary to learn the targets’ sex.
Based on these findings, we concluded that the body’s shape is a crit-
ical visual cue to a target’s sex – and for good reason. The body’s shape is
indeed sexually dimorphic, in both absolute and relative terms (Johnson
& Tassinary, 2007b). In yet another series of experiments, we examined,
among other things, whether the body shapes of men and women is,

Figure 9.4 Distribution of visual scanning when the sex of a walker had been
specified (a) or remained unspecified (b).

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168 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

in reality, diagnostic of biological sex. First we established that the

bodies of men and women varied in both absolute and relative terms.
We analysed a widely used anthropometric database that contained
the physical measurements of over 4,800 men and women (Clauser,
Tebbetts, Bradtmiller, McConville, & Gordon, 1987–1988; Donelson &
Gordon, 1988). Not surprisingly, men and women differed in their abso-
lute body size, and classifying the sex of a target based on measures of

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height and weight alone would lead to accuracy nearing 86 per cent.
When the relative measures of the waist and hips were included in the
analyses, both independently and interactively, accuracy in classifica-
tion jumped to nearly 98 per cent. Consequently, observers who use
the WHR as a cue to a target’s sex have a solid empirical foundation
for doing so. Men’s and women’s bodies are dimorphic both in absolute
and relative measurements.

Perceived attractiveness as interpersonal metaperception

Having found two cues that specify sex and gender, we next examined
whether these cues (and indeed the very social percepts they give rise to)
contextualise one another, ultimately leading to evaluative judgements
such as perceived attractiveness. Because sex category judgements have
been found to be obligatory, even automatic, they are also likely to be
the first social percepts to emerge (Stangor et al., 1992). In our own
studies, we have found a tight coupling between the body’s shape and
perceived sex. Therefore, sex category judgements that rely on the body’s
shape will likely provide a lens through which other embodied cues are
perceived and evaluated (Bem, 1993).
Once a sex categorisation has occurred, other body cues are likely to be
perceived as either masculine or feminine. Indeed, in our own research
we have found the body’s motion to relate to perceived gender. In the
context of perceived sex, this gendered motion is likely to seem either
typical or atypical, a contextualised perception that should affect eval-
uative social judgements such as perceived attractiveness. Thus, from
the perspective of interpersonal metaperception, particular bodies may
be deemed attractive, at least in part, because available cues specify
accordant percepts (e.g., a feminine woman or a masculine man). In
a series of studies we have examined this possibility with stimuli that
include computer-generated animations, real human walkers, and static
line drawings (Johnson & Tassinary, 2007a).
In two studies, we examined this model of interpersonal metaperception
using our computer-generated animations that varied in WHR and Walk

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 169

Motion. For each walker, participants judged sex, gender, and attractive-
ness. As before, we found sex category judgements to be strongly related to
WHR, and gender judgements to be related to both WHR and Walk Motion.
Because sex categorisation is thought to be a fundamental judgement,
we predicted that this would constrain the aesthetic appeal of gendered
gait – ultimately determining the level of perceived attractiveness.
Indeed, the predicted interaction between WHR and Walk Motion was

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strong and significant, and this obtained for walkers facing forward and
backward (see Figure 9.5). The cues that differentially signalled sex and
gender combined to determine perceived attractiveness.

(a) 70
High

60
Perceived attractiveness

50

40

30

20
Low

10
Extreme Sway Neutral Swagger Extreme
sway swagger
Walk motion

.5 .6 .7 .8 .9

Figure 9.5 Judgements of attractiveness for walkers facing forward (a) and back-
ward (b). One-sided error bars represent 95 per cent confidence intervals. Data
from Johnson and Tassinary (2007a) were replotted using WHR and Walk Motion.

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170 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

(b) 70
High

60

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Perceived attractiveness

50

40

30
Low

20
Extreme Sway Neutral Swagger Extreme
sway swagger
Walk motion

.5 .6 .7 .8 .9

Figure 9.5 (Continued).

We interpret these effects to be consistent with our theoretical

perspective of interpersonal metaperception. Though the particular cues
that specify sex and gender may vary across studies, the cue that specifies
perceived sex will predominate the perception of other gendered cues –
and ultimately determine which bodies will be deemed attractive. This
implies that it is not the physical cues, per se, but contextualised social
perceptions that emerge from those cues that lead bodies to be deemed
attractive. In our animated walkers, the WHR was most tightly coupled
to sex category judgements, and it contextualised the perception and
interpretation of the body’s motion, bringing about an aesthetic Gestalt.
In other stimuli that have been widely used, however, different phys-
ical parameters guide these judgements. In studies that have used the

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 171

original stimuli from Singh (1993), for example, the sex of each target
was not judged, but was both pre-specified and held constant. Because
the sex was given, the WHR – a cue related to both sex category
and gendered judgements in our own research – was perceived to be
congruent or incongruent with the given category, and therefore guided
judgements of attractiveness. It is in this manner that the cognitive
processes described above could account for the aesthetic appeal of small

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WHRs for female targets.
Indeed, elsewhere we have examined these metaperceptual aspects
of our approach (i.e., how the compatibility of perceived sex and
gender affect perceived attractiveness). In this treatment of the data,
we analysed the perceived attractiveness of our walkers as a function
of perceived sex and gender (as opposed to WHR and Walk Motion as
we have done here; Johnson & Tassinary, 2007a). When analysed in
that way, the interaction between perceived sex and gender for judge-
ments of attractiveness was strong and significant, just as the interaction
between WHR and Walk Motion was significant.
We have replicated these findings for a range of stimuli including:
(a) computer-generated animations in which we experimentally manip-
ulated the purported sex of the target; (b) video recordings of actual
men and women who were trained to move in characteristically mascu-
line or feminine ways, and; (c) static line drawn images that depict a
woman with various WHRs (i.e., the stimuli from Singh, 1993). In some
cases, the sex of the target was implicit, and judged by the target (e.g.,
specified by WHR in some of our studies, or experimentally manipulated
in others), and the gendered cue that was either compatible or incom-
patible was the body’s motion. In other cases, the sex of the target was
held constant, and the gendered cue that varied was body shape (i.e.,
Singh stimuli). Finally, in other cases, the sex of the target was apparent
from multiple cues (e.g., videos of real people), and the gendered cue
that varied across stimuli was the body’s motion.
Across all of these variations, one cue (or manipulation) specified the
sex of the target, and another sexually dimorphic cue varied across the
range of stimuli. In spite of these variations in the stimuli, perceived
attractiveness was predicted by the interaction of sex and gender in
all cases. Female targets were judged to be more attractive when they
were also perceived to be feminine, but the opposite was true for male
targets. These findings clearly support our general proposition that body
cues invoked a range of basic social percepts that coalesced to either a
pleasing or unpleasant Gestalt, a global evaluation that was reflected in
our participants’ judgements of attractiveness.

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172 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

Social categories as interpersonal metaperception

Because the cues involved in interpersonal metaperception affect
multiple gendered perceptions, they may be perceived to be either
typical or atypical given the perceived sex of a target. The resulting
metaperceptual judgements that subsequently arise may extend beyond
evaluative social judgements, also affecting other social categorisations.

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Specifically, gender-atypical expressive body motion and even shape has
been shown to reliably predict both actual and perceived sexual orienta-
tion (Ambady, Hallahan, & Conner, 1999; Bailey & Zucker, 1995; Rieger,
2006; Rieger, Linsenmeier, Gygax, & Bailey, 2006; Sirin, McCreary, &
Mahalik, 2004). Consequently, in addition to affecting perceived attract-
iveness (or lack thereof), perceiving sex and gender from body cues may
affect presumed sexual orientation, either implicitly or explicitly. And
this may or may not be related to the perceived attractiveness of the
target. We addressed this possibility in a separate set of studies in which
participants judged the sexual orientation of our computer-animated
walkers (Johnson, Gill, Reichman, & Tassinary, 2007). Not surprisingly,
perceived sexual orientation was determined by the interaction of WHR
and Walk Motion. From these data we concluded that metapercep-
tual judgements that arise from body cues need not be restricted to
evaluative judgements, but that they may also extend to other social
categorisations.
Given the similarity between the findings for perceived sexual orient-
ation and perceived attractiveness described above, we were concerned
that our effects of compatibility on perceived attractiveness were
somehow mediated by perceived sexual orientation. If correct, this
implies that the evaluation of particular combinations of body cues were
low specifically because they implied a stigmatised social category –
homosexuality (Aberson, Swan, & Emerson, 1999; Herek, 1984; Sirin et
al., 2004; Storm, 2001). We examined this possibility, and we reported
the results in Johnson et al. (2007a). In sum, we found that the attract-
iveness effect remained significant after controlling for the perceived
sexual orientation of each target. Thus, gender typicality’s importance
for judgements of attractiveness appears distinct from its importance for
judgements of sexual orientation.

Practical implications
Collectively, our findings have numerous practical implications. First,
our research has implications in terms of its basic approach to why/how
the WHR affects judgements. Prior research has been criticised due to its
repeated reliance on somewhat impoverished line drawn stimuli. Henss

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 173

(2000), for example, pointed out that because research on face recogni-
tion utilising line drawn or photographic stimuli has yielded discrepant
results, one might expect the same to occur when investigating the
human body. This is difficult to confirm, however, because few studies
have used photographic stimuli to investigate the role of bodily cues
in social judgements. The studies that have used photographs in such
studies have altered the WHR by changing the relative width of the

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waist and/or the hips (Henss, 2000; Singh, 1994; Rozmus-Wrzesinska
& Pawlowski, 2005; Streeter & McBurney, 2003; but for a different use
of photographic stimuli, see Bateson, Cornelissen, & Tovée, Chapter 4;
Tovée & Cornelissen, 2001; Tovée, Maisey, Emery, & Cornelissen, 1999).
Critically, the WHR as it has been related to actual health and fecundity
is a measure of circumference, not one of width (e.g., Björntorp, 1988).
Because the overarching goal of previous research was to relate a social
judgement (i.e., attractiveness) to a visible feature that corresponds to
health and fecundity (WHR), this shortcoming is a potential lynchpin.
Our research has overcome this limitation, albeit without using photo-
graphs, by using animations of human walkers. Each of the walkers
was rendered in three-dimensional space, in which the circumference
of both the waist and the hips were measured (Higa, 1999). Thus, the
WHR in our walkers is a more precise portrayal of the human body than
can be achieved using two-dimensional width manipulations. Further-
more, the walkers were dynamic. Animation enriched the stimuli such
that judgements correspond more closely to what participants experi-
ence in real life; that is, people in motion. Moreover, the androgyny
of the walker pinpointed the heretofore-neglected effects of both the
WHR and Walk Motion in judgements of sex. To our knowledge, only
one other study has obtained sex judgements for androgynous figures
(Lippa, 1983), but that study used line-drawn stimuli.
Our general approach to the study of how the WHR affects social
judgements also has practical implications. Prior research investigating
judgements of the human body has isolated a single physical cue and
manipulated (or measured) its relation to a single dependent variable.
Thus, the precise relation between the physical cue and the social judge-
ment can be described, yet contextualising forces have been almost
entirely ignored. This approach, therefore, has favoured precision over
breadth. Other research investigating the accuracy of social perceptions
has typically presented static or dynamic recordings of actual people
to determine the accuracy of social perception. Thus, the surprising
accuracy of social judgements has been demonstrated, yet the cues that
inform those judgements have been intractable. In contrast to the first,

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174 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

this second approach has favoured breadth over precision. Our approach
strikes a balance between precision and breadth that we believe will
provide a foundation for future research in a variety of domains.
Finally, our approach is highly integrative. Until recently, research
investigating the social perception of the body’s motion and shape has
occurred in isolation, uniformed by the other field’s current findings
and theories. Our perspective of interpersonal metaperception has, quite

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literally, borrowed the best of both programmes of research. By applying
the gaits described in the cognitive literature to the body shapes invest-
igated in the social literature, we have achieved a new level of descriptive
specificity. Both shape and motion are important in basic social percep-
tions, and the current research explicates how the relation of those
perceptions affects interpersonal metaperception.

Theoretical implications
The conceptualisation of perceived attractiveness as interpersonal meta-
perception has important theoretical implications that are both specific
and general. Specifically, our model can account for the contradictory
findings with respect to the WHR hypothesis. Heretofore, the psycho-
logical mechanisms that triggered these discrepant results remained
elusive. Our model and results fill this theoretical gap by positing a single
metaperceptual mechanism, cue compatibility, which accounts for the
previous effects. Moreover, our model can explain these previous find-
ings in parsimonious and proximal terms without positing the presence
of unique and special-purpose adaptations.
The stimulus set employed by previous researchers (e.g., Singh, 1993)
permitted the emergence of the effect of WHR on judgements of attract-
iveness for functional reasons unrelated to evolved signals of fecundity.
As noted previously, the line-drawn Singh stimuli suffer confounds that
make interpreting the results difficult. Moreover, and more important
from our perspective, the sex of the targets in the Singh stimuli (and
the few studies that used other stimuli) was always unambiguous. For
the female targets, attractiveness was found to have an inverse rela-
tionship with WHR. In the sole study of the implications of the WHR
for male targets, larger WHRs that corresponded to the normal male
rage were deemed more attractive (Singh, 1995). This precise pattern is
predicted by the cue compatibility model. More broadly, prior studies
have precontextualised attractiveness judgements by holding constant
(and indeed highlighting) the targets’ sex.
This basic fact has implications for the psychological processes that
undergird interpersonal metaperception. When presented with a clearly

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 175

female stimulus and given the task of judging her attractiveness, each
participant faced a congruence problem, not a decision of reproductive
potential. Those figures that were deemed to have a more gynoid shape
(smaller WHRs), congruent with the unambiguous female sex, were
judged to be more attractive than were those that had more android
shapes (higher WHRs), and the opposite is true for clearly male targets.
That is, women are judged to be attractive when they are feminine in

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shape and motion, and men are judged to be attractive when they are
masculine in shape and motion (Johnson & Tassinary, 2007a).
This interpretation also has clear implications for cross-cultural
research. Indeed, the cue compatibility model supplies a common mech-
anism that accounts for cross-cultural differences in preferences. When
viewing line-drawn women, men from the Hadza tribe of Tanzania did
not exhibit a systematic preference for any particular WHR (Wetsman
& Marlowe, 1999; Marlowe & Wetsman, 2000) and the Matsigenka men
from southeast Peru preferred larger WHRs (Yu & Shepard, 1998). From
our perspective, it seems likely that the cultural definitions of femininity
differ in these remote tribes. Based on our model, we predict that partic-
ular bodily cues have little influence over perceived gender in the Hadza
and that the Matsigenka perceived large WHRs to be more feminine.
The nearest examination of differences in perceived gender in remote
cultures is found in anthropological descriptions of sex differences.4
Although some research has examined cultural differences in perceived
attractiveness (e.g., Swami, Antonakopoulos, Tovée, & Furnham, 2006;
Swami, Caprario, Tovée, & Furnham, 2006), no systematic study has
directly assessed the features perceived to be masculine and feminine
in remote cultures. Instead, aesthetic preferences have been recorded
for stimuli that were previously judged to be masculine or feminine by
Western respondents. Matsigenka women, for example, prefer mascu-
line (as judged by Western participants) male faces for a son-in-law, but
the same women choose feminine male faces as more attractive (Yu,
Proulx, & Shepard, Chapter 6). These results suggest a critical role for
perceived gender in interpersonal judgements rendered by participants
in remote cultures, but they are mute with respect to precisely what is
perceived to be masculine or feminine by those participants.
Importantly, this highlights the primary strength of our model, but
it also points to its limitation. Our model is agnostic with respect to
whether preferences for specific body shapes are the result of specific
mate choice adaptations, exaptations, by-products of how humans
process information generally, or the product of sociocultural influence
(see Rhodes, 2006). Instead, the cue compatibility model specifies a

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176 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

common cognitive mechanism that can result in culture-specific prefer-

ences – the model is thus flexible enough to incorporate cultural vari-
ability, yet specific enough to predict what will be deemed attractive.
Previous research that explained WHR preferences as due to specific
mate choice adaptations used line-drawn stimuli with a lower bound
of 0.70, and the sex of the target was unambiguous. Our current and
prior research, in contrast, employed stimuli with WHRs as low as

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0.50, and the sex of the target was ambiguous. The inclusion of more
extreme stimuli has proven to be descriptively interesting and theoretic-
ally meaningful for our own and our reinterpretation of others’ research.
Descriptively, the inclusion of these stimuli has permitted a better
understanding of the boundaries and distributions of social perceptions
beyond attractiveness. Theoretically, the inclusion of these stimuli has
illuminated some critical asymmetries that further limit the viability of
the WHR hypothesis. Specifically, previous research identified a WHR
of 0.70 to be the ‘ideal’ female body shape, and these authors posited an
adaptive model to explain their findings. Unfortunately, their limited
range of WHRs obfuscated the important fact that attractiveness ratings
can be even higher for smaller WHRs (see Tassinary & Hansen, 1998).
Furthermore, we found that a substantial portion of our participants
perceived walkers with a WHR of 0.70 to be men, rendering dubious
the probability that this WHR is indeed the ideal female shape and the
related tenability of a distal evolutionary mechanism.
Although these findings appear to contradict a prominent evolu-
tionary theory, they are actually consistent with an entire class of cognitive
theories on categorisation. Categorical prototypes are frequently more
extreme than the exemplars experienced previously, and this has been
shown to facilitate recognition of faces (e.g., Lee, Byatt, & Rhodes, 2000;
Lee & Perrett, 2000; Lewis & Johnston, 1999; Mauro & Kubovy, 1992;
Tversky & Baratz, 1985; cf. Rhodes & Moody, 1990, for recently presented
faces), the identification of emotions (Benson, Campbell, Harris, Frank,
& Tovée, 1999; Calder et al., 2000; Pollick, Hill, Calder, & Paterson,
2003), and the individuation of point-light movements (Hill & Pollick,
2000; Pollick, Fidopiastis, & Braden, 2001). Moreover, experience-based
theories have described how the most appealing category members are
those that are both rare and infrequent (Parducci, 1965). In other words,
the ‘best’ exemplars for a category are extreme. Thus, both cognitive
phenomenological perspectives underscore the value of including
extreme stimuli in the assessment of preferences.
In addition, these findings augment recent reports that have also ques-
tioned the validity of the WHR hypothesis. Specifically, Fan (Chapter 3)

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 177

and Bateson et al. (Chapter 4; see also Tovée et al., 1999) have claimed
that the body mass index (BMI), relative to the WHR, is a more
potent cue to perceived attractiveness. We believe that our theoretical
perspective shares a common foundation with the literature comparing
the importance of BMI and WHR. Indeed, in both the BMI perspective
and ours, judgements of both men and women arise from a common
psychological mechanism, rather than a psychological adaptation that

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is unique to the male psychology. That said, the two perspectives do
differ in their origins. In our cue compatibility model, we assume that
the preference for compatibility in body cues (and social perceptions) is
co-opted for evaluative judgements from other fundamental cognitive
strategies, a mechanism that may have had evolutionary implications
but requires no evolutionary theorising. The underpinnings of BMI pref-
erences, in contrast, have been described almost exclusively in terms of
their adaptive advantage. Thus, our perspective shares one aspect with
the BMI hypothesis – an emphasis on a common mechanism, but differs
in another aspect – the presumed origin of the preferences.
Like other research concerned with how the body is perceived and
evaluated, the research we have described in this chapter has focused
exclusively on how two body cues – its shape and motion – affect judge-
ments of perceived attractiveness. We recognise, however, that these
cues may not be the primary cues to attractiveness. In real interac-
tions, social judgements are likely to incorporate an array of physical
cues; quite possibly relying heavily on facial characteristics (see Rhodes,
2006). Thus, as researchers investigating the importance of body cues
for social judgements, we must remain mindful that, at least in some
circumstances, the body may come in second (or even third!).

Final thoughts
Lord Byron entitled one of his most well known poems, She Walks in
Beauty. Like Byron, scientists have long been interested in the precise
mechanisms that underlie the appreciation of beauty. A more specific
understanding of this process, however, has heretofore remained elusive.
By adopting a perspective of interpersonal metaperception, we have
taken a first step toward a theoretical and empirical understanding for
why (and how) she (or he) walks in beauty.

Author notes

This programme of research was supported in part by an NSF Presidential

Faculty Fellowship to the second author. QuickTime movie files of the

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178 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

stimuli used in this research may be obtained from either author upon
request.

Notes
1. Following the recommendations of Unger (1979), we will refer to sex judge-
ments to indicate categorical judgements of biological sex (i.e., man or

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woman); we will refer to gender judgements to indicate the perceived
masculinity and femininity.
2. The majority of the prior studies, for example, used an identical stimulus set
(i.e., from Singh, 1993), thus raising the possibility of an artifactual interpreta-
tion. Additionally, several confounds in those stimuli limit the generalisability
of previous studies. The Singh line drawings, for example, confound WHR
with waist size and body weight with hip size (Tassinary & Hansen, 1998).
To overcome these limitations, Tassinary and Hansen (1998) generated a new
set of two-dimensional stimuli based upon anthropometric data (see Hansen,
1996). When more accurately depicted, the putative invariant relationship
between the WHR and perceived attractiveness disappeared, and the authors
interpreted this as ‘a clear and unambiguous disconfirmation of the WHR
hypothesis’ (Tassinary & Hansen, 1998: 155).
The assumption of cultural invariance, a cornerstone of the WHR hypo-
thesis, has been discredited. Singh (1993: 305, italics added) noted the import-
ance of cross-cultural consistency:

[C]ross-cultural studies should find diverse notions of what constitutes

attractiveness in bodily (stature and breast size) and facial features (i.e.,
complexion, shape and color of teeth, shape of lips, etc.) and associated
personality factors    WHR, as the first filter, should be culturally invariant in
its significance and its relationship to female attractiveness. The fact that WHR
conveys such significant information about the mate value of a woman suggests
that men in all societies should favor women with a lower WHR over women
with a higher WHR for mate selection or at least find such women sexually
attractive.

Yet this assumption has been disconfirmed. Tribal Hadza men of Tanzania prefer
heavier women and show no systematic WHR preference (Wetsman & Marlowe,
1999; Marlowe & Wetsman, 2000). Similarly, Matsigenka men from southeast
Peru also prefer heavier women and higher WHRs (Yu & Shepard, 1998). As
the populations studied become less isolated, however, judgements begin to
resemble those collected from American participants (i.e., reveal a preference
for a small WHR; see Swami & Furnham, 2006, for a review). Such culturally
mediated findings are strikingly consistent with what is observed even for judge-
ments of facial expressions of emotion (Sorenson, 1975; see Russell, 1994, for a
review).
3. Similar silhouetted stimuli have been judged previously to be more realistic than
line-drawn stimuli (Salusso-Deonier, Markee, & Pedersen, 1993). Our walkers
have the added realism afforded by motion and depth cues (such as shading).
Nonetheless, our walkers are not fully representative of human appearance.
Notably, some of our walkers fall outside the range of human variation. But we

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 Kerri L. Johnson and Louis G. Tassinary 179

currently inhabit a world that validates the inclusion of such stimuli within our
set of walkers. We are bombarded with images that stretch reality in a way that
makes the perception of extreme images not only interesting, but also socially
relevant. Little girls, for example, play with Barbie, and she is not perceived as
unnatural. Instead, some have argued that she is idealised. Additionally, movies
such as Shrek make relevant precisely what proportions are deemed by observers
to be male/female. Indeed, the ‘suspension of disbelief’ when watching Princess
Fiona (in her pre-ogre form) may have been thwarted if her WHR (approximately

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0.52) had been within the normal range of human variation (see Higa, 1999, for
a discussion of this issue).
That said, because our walkers depict novel combinations of WHR and
walk, we assessed directly how realistic the walkers appeared relative to other
stimuli that have been used in research. Participants judged one of three sets
of stimuli (all walkers in our stimulus set, all Singh stimuli, or a set of five
point-light displays) and made two judgements about them. The first rating
assessed where the images fell on a continuum from artificial (1) to lifelike (11).
The second scale assessed how well the stimuli represented humans from not
at all (1) to perfectly (11). These judgements were averaged to yield an index of
realism. The realism scores between the three sets of stimuli were comparable:
walkers (M = 665, SD = 16, n = 20), Singh (M = 643, SD = 20, n = 20), and
point-light displays (M = 691, SD = 18, n = 13). (We thank Randolph Blake
for providing us with a set of point-light displays for this test.)
4. Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1988: 57), for example, characterised the motion of male
dancers – abrupt movements oriented toward the audience – as an expression
of power, and he argued that the specific poses of men served to ‘enlarge the
frontal appearance.’ The motion of female dancers, in contrast, was described
as ‘coquetry,’ an expression of approach and withdrawal, and he argued that
the graceful motions presented the body from various angles. Others have
described the ‘male’ and ‘female’ qualities of all individuals (and objects). Arve
Sørum (1993) described the gendered nature of all things in the Bedamini
from Papua New Guinea. Those aspects of an individual that are hard and
unyielding, such as bones, are thought to be male characteristics, and are
believed to be inherited from the father. In contrast, those aspects of an indi-
vidual which are soft and yielding, such as flesh, are thought to be female
characteristics, and are believed to be inherited from the mother. This distinc-
tion carries over into more general gender descriptions, as well. Sørum (1993:
114) notes, ‘Strength and endurance are generally talked of as masculine qual-
ities, and softness and weakness are talked of as feminine qualities. To express
that a man is strong and courageous, they say that “he has got bones”    A
weak man is like cooked meant, he might easily be consumed (destroyed).’
These descriptions of how motion and form are perceived intimate a critical
role for motion and morphology in perceived gender, although they do not
explicate with precision what guides such percepts.

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10
Mate Preferences in Social
Cognitive Context: When
Environmental and Personal

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Change Leads to Predictable
Cross-Cultural Variation
Leif D. Nelson, Terry F. Pettijohn II, and Jeff Galak

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
∼ Shakespeare, 1564–1616

As is common for many men, Shakespeare was idealising a woman. The

search for an ideal partner was not only critical for Shakespeare – it is,
by evolutionary standards, the central goal for all male and female life
forms (Buss, 1985; Darwin, 1859; Vandenberg, 1972). Anthropological
and psychological evidence continues to document the features women
seek in a male partner (Symons, 1979), but for the purposes of this
chapter we primarily focus on the features men seek in a female partner.
The ideal feminine form has been characterised by painters and sculptors
for as long as paintings and sculptures have existed (e.g., see Zollner &
Nathan, 2003) and Shakespeare is, of course, hardly the first writer to
try a verbal description.
For all of this artistic endeavor, it remains unknown whether beauty
has a truly universal ideal or whether it is idiosyncratically in the eye of
the beholder. Anthropologists have documented both sides of the argu-
ment, identifying those features idealised in all cultures as well as those
uniquely pursued within specific cultures (e.g., Ford & Beach, 1951). Evol-
utionary psychologists have seized upon the former concept, and have
detailed evidence supporting the universality hypothesis. Among other
features, men seek youthfulness (Buss, 1989), facial averageness (Rhodes
et al., 2001), a low waist-to-hip ratio (Singh, 1993; Singh & Young, 1995),
and generally healthy body weights (Tovée & Cornelissen, 1999).

185

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186 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

Many of these preferences are rooted in human evolutionary past.

Darwin, after realising that various body parts on animals (e.g., the
feathers on a peacock) served no survival purpose, concluded that there
is a form of sexual selection (later this concept was subsumed back
into natural selection) designed to elicit sexual responses in potential
mates (Darwin, 1859, 1871). In other words, animals develop charac-
teristics to attract the opposite sex. These traits often signal health and

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reproductive promise (Buss, 1994; Singh, 1993). For example, neotenous
facial features (Cunningham, Roberts, Barbee, Druen, & Wu, 1995; Jones,
1995), a waist-to-hip ratio of about 0.70 (Singh, 1993), and a body mass
index (BMI) of 20 kg/m2 (for Caucasians) (Tovée & Cornelissen, 2001)
are all positively viewed in women. The evolutionary claim essentially
requires that these ideals are held by all male members of the species – a
claim of universal attractiveness ideals grounded in the biological facts
of natural selection. Indeed, many of the findings above have been
found to be quite cross-culturally universal (for an alternative view, see
Tovée, Swami, Furnham, & Mangalparsad, 2006).
The apparent exceptions then become intriguing. A variety of research
has shown that variation in resource scarcity seems to reliably affect male
preferences (Anderson, Crawford, Nadeau, & Lindberg, 1992; Furnham
& Baguma, 1994; Symons, 1979), seemingly refuting the claims of
universality. Pettijohn and Tesser (1999) have further shown that this
variance persists as individual cultures change over time, such that when
times are good, similar mate preferences surface as compared to a culture
with plentiful resources. While the root of these two dimensions –
cultural/geographic and temporal – appears to be context dependent,
Nelson and Morrison (2005: 168) have shown that there is an ‘implicit
psychological mechanism based on the situational influence of environ-
mental conditions’ that dictates this variability. Essentially, when men
feel poor or hungry, they prefer heavier women.
Why is there such variability and where does it come from? In this
chapter we attempt to review the existing literature with an eye towards
an integrated answer to such questions. In doing so we emphasise theory
predicting variation (namely the Environmental Security Hypothesis;
Pettijohn & Tesser, 1999), and consider possible psychological structure
that could give rise to it (e.g., Nelson & Morrison, 2005).

Characteristics of the ideal mate

Let us return to the question of preference universality. It was long

believed that standards from one culture do not generalise to others.

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 187

Even today, there are some traits that cannot be unconfounded from
a given culture. For example, even the extent to which cultures value
physical appearance has some meaningful between-culture variation.
Male preferences emphasise physical appearance universally, but this is
particularly true for cultures with high levels of pathogens (Gangestad
& Buss, 1993). Even after controlling for a variety of obvious potential
confounds, such as ethnicity and ___location, pathogen levels account for

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approximately 52 per cent of cross-cultural variability. Because attract-
iveness indicates good health, when pathogens are a serious concern,
beauty indicates a healthy partner. Ford and Beach (1951: 89) showed
that absence of sores and lesions are universally regarded as attractive,
while poor complexion is always considered unattractive: ‘Pimples, ring-
worm, or other disfigurements of the face or body’ are universally
repugnant. This suggests that cleanliness and freedom from disease are
universally attractive. Aside from general notions of health, other forms
of variation in physical appearance are quite predictable.
If, as aforementioned, beauty lies only partially in the eye of the
beholder, it also literally lies in the eyes of the beholden. When choosing
a mate, men pay particular attention to the shape and composition
of women’s faces. Cunningham (1986) identified a variety of measures
for classifying a woman’s face; most notably he identified two major
categories of faces that affect mate preferences: neonate and mature.
Neonate features span species and generally share features such as large
eyes and forehead, smaller, rounded nose and chin, larger lips, and softer
skin (Guthrie, 1976; Keating, Mazur, & Segall, 1981). Mature faces, by
contrast, generally are represented by higher, wider cheekbones, and
narrower eyes (Smith, 1982). For example, people believe that eyes posi-
tioned higher on a person’s face, a neonate feature, indicated that the
person was brighter, more sociable, and more assertive than someone
with eyes positioned lower (Lorenz, 1943). Most interesting, however,
is the analysis of which facial characteristic best predicted each trait
attribute. With the exception of perceived fertility, which is equally
predicted by a neonate and mature trait, all of the positive traits tested
were more common with people who had neonate features. People with
neonate features tend to be healthier and tend to be judged as more
attractive (Korthase & Trenholme, 1982). What is the source of this
apparently implicit preference?
Neonate features are positive indicators for infant health, and indeed
parents perceive babies to be cuter if their features are more classic-
ally neonatal (Hildebrandt & Fitzgerald, 1978). Given that people prefer
younger-looking adults (Enlow, 1982; Korthase & Trenholme, 1982),

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188 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

these findings suggest that the positive health of a baby-faced look may
be guiding judgements of physical attractiveness. Alternatively, certain
characteristics of a mature face, small forehead and eyes, and a large
nose, prominent cheekbones and jaw, and a large chin may also be
considered attractive (Symons, 1979), as they tend to represent status,
power, and dominance.
Moving to a more holistic view of the body, one of the most

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researched traits, body weight, has been linked to a virtually universal
non-appearance related attribute, perceived abundance of resources
(Anderson et al., 1992; Buss & Kenrick, 1998; Furnham & Baguma, 1994;
Symons, 1979). In cultures with limited resources, men prefer heavier
women. As was argued about pathogen presence, body weight prefer-
ences can be grounded in an evolutionary necessity for healthy and virile
mating partners. When resources are scarce, body weight may signal
health and status in a potential mate (Anderson et al., 1992; Brown &
Konner, 1987; Frisch, 1990). Because fat acts as a store for calories, an
insulator for the body, and affects the onset and maintenance of ovula-
tion, fatness can be a critical signal for reproductive health in a woman
(Buss & Kenrick, 1998). From an evolutionary perspective, body fat is
important in finding the best partner.
The relationship between body weight and resource abundance exists
within cultures as well. In wealthy cultures, female status and obesity
are negatively related, whereas in poorer cultures, female status and
obesity are positively related (Sobal & Stunkard, 1989). It is interesting
to note that the same stream of research showed no association between
resource availability and male obesity rates, perhaps indicating that
weight is less important in females’ preferences for the ideal male,
consistent with evolutionary theories (Buss & Kenrick, 1998).
Although body weight is a powerful predictor of female attractiveness,
it is hardly the only one. For example, consider the waist-to-hip ratio
(WHR), which reflects the relative circumference of a person’s waist to
the circumference of his or her hips. One potential reason that this
metric is so important is that it helps distinguish male and female body
types. At birth, males and females have identical WHRs, but at puberty
increased estrogen deposits fat in the hips and the upper thighs, resulting
in approximately 40 per cent of all body weight residing in this region
for women (Björntorp, 1991, 1997).
This distinction suggests that female reproductive ability can be
partially assessed with the WHR. Healthy women generally have a WHR
between 0.67 and 0.80, whereas healthy men have a WHR closer to 1.0
(Lanska, Lanska, Hartz, & Rimm, 1985; Jones, Hunt, Brown, & Norgan,

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 189

1986). Women with a relatively high WHRs have more difficulty

becoming pregnant, whereas women with a relatively low WHR have
less difficulty becoming pregnant (see Singh, 1993). Furthermore, other
health-related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and stroke
have been linked to the distribution of fat in women above and beyond
the absolute amount of fat (Singh, 1993). ‘Good’ WHRs are healthy, but
are they also attractive?

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A series of studies conducted by Singh (1993) revealed an inverted
U-shaped relationship between body fat and attractiveness and a linear
negative relationship between WHR and attractiveness. Extremes of
overall body weight were judged as unattractive, but extremely low
WHRs were judged as very attractive, relationships which held for judge-
ments of images of real women, line drawings, and computer-generated
illustrations (Singh, 1993). There also appears to be an optimum WHR.
An analysis of Playboy centerfolds and beauty pageant winners within
the United States found that, independent of body fat content (which
was low but variable), the WHR remained constant at 0.70 (Singh, 1993).
Though there are many universals in judgements of physical attract-
iveness, it is equally clear that there is some meaningful cross-cultural
variation. To explain this variation, be it ideals of facial features or ideals
of body weight, we need a larger theoretical framework which provides
a more proximal explanation for how environmental factors operate
on mate preferences. One such influential theory is the Environmental
Security Hypothesis (ESH; Pettijohn & Tesser, 1999), which suggests how
cultural pressures might operate on evolutionarily derived preferences.
Furthermore, the nature of this variability can be also attributed to an
implicit contextual preference independent of culture.

Environmental security hypothesis

To explain our social preferences in environmental context, Pettijohn

and Tesser (1999) developed the ESH (see Table 10.1 for a summary
of study findings). Blending evolutionary and social ecological theories
(Buss, 1994; Cunningham, 1986), the ESH provides a context-dependent
theory of social preferences such that our perceptions of environmental
security influence what we find most attractive and most desirable at
different times. Since perceptions of our safety and security in our envir-
onment can vary, so too can our social preferences in order to aid in
making adaptive decisions. Threatening and uncertain times elicit the
desire for more fundamental, meaningful, and mature themes and items
to assist with handling threat and uncertainty. In less threatening and

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190

Table 10.1 Summaries of studies testing the Environmental Security Hypothesis.

Study Summary

Pettijohn & Archival investigation of popular American movie

Tesser (1999) actresses from 1932–1995. When social and economic
conditions were poor, actresses with small eyes and large
chins were popular.

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Pettijohn & Archival investigation of popular American movie actors
Tesser (2003) from 1932–1995. Actor facial features were more variable
and not systematically related to social and economic
conditions across time.
Pettijohn & Archival investigation of Playboy Playmate of the Year
Jungeberg (2004) from 1960–2000. When social and economic conditions
were difficult, relatively older, heavier, taller Playmates
with larger waists, smaller eyes, larger waist-to-hip ratios,
and smaller body mass index values were selected.
Pettijohn & Archival investigation of Miss America from 1933–2002
Yerkes (2004) yielding mixed results. In hard times, Miss America
tended to have a lower body mass index and weigh less
than in good times.
Pettijohn & Archival investigation of Miss Hong Kong from
Yerkes (2005) 1973–2003 producing mixed results. In difficult social
and economic conditions, Miss Hong Kong winners were
relatively older with lower BMIs, smaller chins, larger
eyes, narrower faces, and larger noses.
Pettijohn & Study of popular U.S. Billboard songs from 1955–2001. In
Sacco (2005) hard times, popular songs were longer, and rated as
slower, more meaningful, romantic, and comforting.
Since 1980, popular performers were more likely to have
smaller eyes in hard times.
Pettijohn & A set of experimental studies manipulating individual
Tesser (2005) threat and measuring partner eye-size preference.
Participants preferred a decreased eye-size partner to a
relatively greater extent in a high threat condition
compared to a low threat condition.
Pettijohn, Sacco, A field test of the ESH investigating ideal mate
& Yerkes (2005) preferences. Hungry males preferred females who were
relatively older, taller, heavier, and with more mature
facial features and personality traits compared to males
who were satiated. Female preferences were not
significantly altered by hunger state.
Pettijohn, Sacco, A set of experimental studies manipulated future social
Yerkes, & Walzer and economic success in college students. Participants
(2007) showed a preference for male and female models with
decreased eye-size, darker male hair colour, and larger
female WHR in the uncertain condition compared to the
certain condition.

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 191

more certain conditions, the need for meaningful, mature themes and
items to contend with threat and uncertainty is less necessary.
Therefore, less meaningful, less mature, and more carefree and fun
themes and items are preferred in environmental conditions of less
threat. In less threatening times, there is a different motivational state
experienced where social decision-making is not as reliant on being
functional as it is during threatening, uncertain times. As a result, there

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are less social consequences of decisions in less threatening conditions
compared to conditions of threat and uncertainty. Having fun, enjoying
the pleasures of life, and not worrying about serious threats are generally
more reflective goals of these certain, less-threatening conditions, which
produces different relative preferences.
The ESH further adapts evolutionary predictions within specific histor-
ical and cultural contexts. Evolutionary theories of mate selection
suggest that males focus on female physical appearance and repro-
ductive ability when selecting mates and females focus on male status
and resources. The ESH predicts that these evolutionary main effects
are moderated by individual feelings of environmental security. These
moderators allow us to predict some of the cross-cultural variation we
documented above. Facial features, height, weight, age, and person-
ality preferences may vary with social and economic conditions. Males
may always prefer young, thin females with large eyes, but the degree
of youthfulness, thinness, and eye size may vary with environmental
conditions within these evolutionary prediction ranges.
Pettijohn and Tesser (1999) first developed the ESH to explain the
variability in American motion picture actress popularity. In certain
years, mature-looking actresses with smaller eyes and thinner faces
were popular, whereas in other years, less mature-looking actresses
with larger eyes and rounder faces were popular. Could these fluc-
tuations be predicted with the ESH? Specifically, are mature faces
more popular during social and economic hard times and neotenous
faces more popular during social and economic good times? As we
detailed earlier, mature facial features are associated with the attrib-
utes of dominance and independence, whereas neotenous faces are
associated with the attributes of submissiveness and agreeableness.
Previous studies had found that men preferred women with larger eyes
(see Cunningham, 1986; Cunningham et al., 1995); the ESH predicted
that large-eye preferences would change as environmental conditions
changed.
These hypotheses were tested using common United States social and
economic statistics (unemployment rate, death rate, consumer price

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192 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

index, etc.) from 1932 to 1995 to create a General Hard Times Measure
(variations of this measure were also used in other archival investig-
ations). The statistics were standardised for each year and combined
to create a global measure of social and economic hard times where
higher values would designate more difficult social and economic times.
We also utilised a consistent measure of actor popularity (the Annual
Quigley Publications Poll) from 1932 to 1995 and a standardised method

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of facial measurement (see Cunningham, 1986; Cunningham, Roberts,
Barbee, Druen, & Wu, 1995). Cunningham’s method allows investig-
ators to perform measurements to quantify eye size, facial narrowness,
chin size, and a host of other facial dimensions as ratios to facial length
and width so results can be compared between faces. As hypothesised,
actresses with mature facial features were preferred in hard times (e.g.,
Marie Dressler and Janet Gaynor in the early 1930s) and actresses with
neotenous facial features were preferred in good times (Ann Sheridan,
Bette Davis, Judy Garland, and Rita Hayworth during the 1940s) (Petti-
john & Tesser, 1999). Although intriguing, these results raised additional
questions about the influence of social and economic conditions on
male facial feature preferences, the necessity for analysis of threat on
an individual, experimental level, and how environmental conditions
influence preferences for other types of social stimuli.
Accordingly, subsequent research showed that there was no similar
relationship for male actors over the same time period (Pettijohn &
Tesser, 2003) and male actors were more variable in their facial feature
compositions within years. In poor social and economic times, male
actors had large eyes and small eyes, large chins and small chins, thin
faces and round faces. There was no consistency in preferences for male
actors across the changing social and economic environments. The lack
of facial feature preferences for male actors over time is largely consistent
with some of the sex asymmetries in the importance placed by physical
attractiveness, which we described earlier. In American society, as in
other socioeconomically developed societies, much greater importance
is placed on female appearance (Berscheid & Reis, 1998; Feingold, 1990),
and the actor popularity likely follows suit. Therefore, female facial
feature preferences are influenced by social and economic situations,
but male facial features preferences are not as malleable. Other research
has found that male actors were preferred to a relatively greater extent
over female actors during social and economic hard times (Pettijohn,
2003). Males may naturally display greater attributes of independence,
maturity, and strength compared to females by virtue of their sex, not
their facial features, and these qualities are preferred during hard times.

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 193

However, this difference may only exist for male actors. Pettijohn, Sacco,
Yerkes, and Walzer (2007) found support for decreased eye-size prefer-
ences in male models in uncertain conditions and increased eye-size
preferences in male models in certain conditions. Further research into
the complexities of this sex difference is warranted.
Looking beyond these archival findings, could the same preferences
be modified at the individual level? Pettijohn and Tesser (2005) designed

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a set of experimental manipulations to extend the utility of the ESH.
When people experienced high threat they should show a relatively
greater preference for females with smaller eyes. Participants were
threatened with the possibility of receiving either mild or strong elec-
tric shocks in the context of a learning exercise and chose a partner
to work with from a set of female facial photographs. Male and female
participants were more likely to choose a partner with small eyes
under high threat than under low threat. When personality information
was included with the photographs, the eye size preference effect was
reduced, suggesting that individuals rely less on physical appearance
when more information is available. Furthermore, when the upcoming
interaction was described as being more independent, the effect was
larger than when it was described as being less independent.
Pettijohn and Tesser (2005) also considered individual differences
and found mixed results. Chronic perceptions of stress, anxiety, and
optimism had little influence on preferences for partners in the
first study, but stress and anxiety individual differences had a signi-
ficant influence on partner eye-size choice in the second study. Parti-
cipants who scored high on an undergraduate stress measure or high
on a trait anxiety measure showed a systematic preference for the
decreased eye-size partner compared to participants low in stress or
low in trait anxiety. There were no differences in partner eye-size
choice in relation to optimism scores. Those participants who are
regularly stressed or anxious responded to our choice stimuli simil-
arly to those in the experimental threat condition. These individual
difference states may mirror experimental conditions or amplify pref-
erences during certain and uncertain threat states. Further research is
needed in this area to understand the complexity of how these and
other individual differences related to threat and uncertainty fit within
the ESH.
These studies found support for the ESH with respect to female facial
feature preferences, but Pettijohn and Jungeberg (2004) extended the
ESH to encompass female body feature and age preferences. As described
above, body features and age offer additional dimensions which can

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194 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

provide signals of maturity and character. Tall individuals are believed

to be stronger, more independent, and more dominant than shorter
individuals (Adams, 1980); older individuals are believed to be more
responsible and mature than younger individuals. Anderson et al. (1992)
found that female body fat is considered attractive and negatively correl-
ated with women’s political power and economic resources in cultures
where women have limited economic opportunities and wealth. Singh

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(1993) has found a preferred WHR preference of around 0.70 and other
researchers report the attractiveness of curvaceousness in females to
males (Barber, 1998a, 1998b). Depending on social and economic condi-
tions, these body shape preferences and personality characteristics may
become more or less important in selecting a mate or determining what
makes someone desirable. When times are threatening, reproductive
fitness may be less important while the ability to acquire resources and be
productive may become more important (Pettijohn & Jungeberg, 2004).
In difficult times men should prefer more mature female character-
istics (Pettijohn & Jungeberg, 2004). To test this hypothesis, Pettijohn
and Jungeberg (2004) analysed the features of Playboy Playmates of the
Year for the years 1960 to 2000. Similar to the previous archival investig-
ations, United States social and economic statistics were collected, facial
measurements of the models were compiled, and body measurements
were taken from reported data sheets published in Playboy magazine.
As predicted, the models were relatively older, heavier, and taller with
larger waists, smaller eyes, larger WHRs, smaller bust-to-waist ratios,
and lower BMIs when social and economic conditions were difficult.
Mature features and body shapes were relatively more preferred in hard
times.
Pettijohn and colleagues (Pettijohn, Sacco, Yerkes, & Walzer, 2007)
have conducted additional experimental studies which have supported
ESH predictions. In a set of studies, male and female college students read
essays persuading them to feel either certain or uncertain about employ-
ment opportunities after graduation (Study 1) and participants were
given positive or negative false feedback on a simulated social/economic
future success test (Study 2). In both studies, participants showed a pref-
erence for male and female increased eye-size models in the certain
condition and a preference for decreased male and female eye-size
models in the uncertain condition. Besides eye-size preferences, parti-
cipants preferred a male with black hair more in the uncertain condi-
tion, a female drawing with a 0.7 or 0.8 waist-to-hip ratio was preferred
in the certain condition, and a female drawing with a 0.9 or 1.0
WHR was preferred in the uncertain condition. These studies provide

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 195

additional experimental support for the ESH and extend preferences to

hair colour and WHRs.
Further investigations have analysed beauty pageant contestants with
intriguing (if mixed) results. Pettijohn and Yerkes (2004) considered
Miss America winners between 1933 and 2002, and found that in hard
times, Miss America tended to have a lower BMI and weigh less than
in good times, but there was no similar relationship for other observ-

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able physical features. Over a slightly narrower range of years, however
(1960 to 2002), Miss America’s bust, BMI, and eye width decreased
in hard times, whereas age, height, lip width, and facial narrowness
increased in hard times. Pettijohn and Yerkes (2005) further investig-
ated changes in facial and body features in a non-American sample of
Miss Hong Kong from 1973 to 2003, with social and economic data
from Hong Kong (i.e., unemployment rate, consumer price index, death
rate, birth rate, marriage rate, divorce rate, suicide rate, and homicide
rate). Overall, in difficult social and economic conditions, Miss Hong
Kong winners were relatively older with lower BMIs, smaller chins,
larger eyes, narrower faces, and larger noses. Furthermore, over time,
Miss Hong Kong has adopted a more ‘Western’ ideal of beauty as her
BMI and chin size have decreased and her eye size, narrowness of her
face, and nose size have increased. Other researchers have noted similar
changes in cultural expectations of thinness in Hong Kong (Leung, Lam,
& Sze, 2001). These correlational findings provide further support for
the ESH.
The ESH also makes predictions about other social preferences. For
example, music preferences shift as a function of economic conditions
(Pettijohn & Sacco, 2005). One investigation considered Billboard
number one songs for each year from 1955 to 2003, photographs of
the performers, and social and economic statistics. Raters of various
ages and backgrounds listened to the songs and provided ratings (i.e.,
how meaningful the song was, how romantic, how comforting, etc.),
another group of raters read the song lyrics and provided similar
ratings, and third group of judges rated the perceived personality attrib-
utes of the performers from the photos. The relationships between
social and economic conditions and the ratings of the songs, lyrical
content, performer personality ratings, and the measured performer
facial features were assessed. In hard times, popular songs were longer
and slower, as well as more meaningful, romantic, and comforting.
Furthermore, performers were rated as less agreeable during relatively
poor conditions. Starting in 1980, popular performers were more likely
to have smaller eyes in hard times (a relationship that corresponds to

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196 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

the rise of music television). The ESH may be useful in understanding a

host of social preferences beyond appearance based dimensions.
Nevertheless, to better understand how the ESH contributes to social
preferences will require further research. How we consciously or uncon-
sciously process threat and uncertainty and the functional aspects of
our decision-making is not completely explained in the ESH. Are attri-
butions about stimuli (eye-size, body shape, mature themes) moderating

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social choices? Pettijohn and Tesser (2005) offer mixed findings on this
account of how attributions are used to make social choices within the
context of the ESH. They offer evidence that providing personality char-
acteristic information overrides physical appearance preferences, but in
another study, the preference for a mature partner was not stronger in a
dependent interaction condition compared to an independent interac-
tion condition. Are decisions about social stimuli preferences deliberate
and cognitively intense or are these reactions automatic, quick, and
implicit? Future work should address these limitations.
What types of threat lead to preferences for more mature themes,
characteristics, and items? In the studies cited here, measures of social
and economic well-being, individual threat of electrical shock, and indi-
vidual resource scarcity priming can produce the predicted pattern of
preferences. Perhaps then, any generalisable threat might lead to these
effects. What types of social preferences are influenced by social threat?
We demonstrated that threats changed preferences for facial and body
features. Other archival investigations have shown that American soci-
etal threat increases preferences for powerful and charismatic presid-
ential candidate preferences (Doty, Peterson, & Winter, 1991; Sales,
1972, 1973), attack dogs, strong literary character personalities, violent
sporting events, and affiliation with authoritarian churches (McIntosh,
Schwegler, & Terry-Murray, 2000). Additionally, when times are threat-
ening, audiences prefer television programmes with meaningful content
(McIntosh, Murray, Murray, & Manian, 2006), audiences more negat-
ively evaluate female film characters who joke about sex, and audiences
provide lower ratings of the socioeconomic status of male film char-
acters in comedies. Finally, as described above, preferences for music
artists and music content change with social and economic conditions.
What moderates these effects? As described above, when additional
target information is available, these effects may be reduced (Pettijohn
& Tesser, 2005), whereas when the threat is made particularly salient,
these effects may be enhanced (Pettijohn, Sacco, & Yerkes, 2005). Going
forward it is essential to identify how these variables might operate on
both global and individual levels.

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 197

Judgement-based differences in mate preferences

What are the psychological processes underlying these effects? It seems

unlikely that people are drawing explicit inferences about how environ-
mental threat should guide preferences, so perhaps an implicit mech-
anism can be identified. For example, because people are typically
egocentric in their judgements of others (e.g., Kruger, 1999; Ross,

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Greene, & House, 1977), their judgements of collective resources are
anchored on personal experiences and, therefore, highly variable as is
the case with perceptions of the economy which are more reflective of
personal political affiliation than they are of actual economic conditions
(Mutz, 1998). Furthermore, it is unlikely that people could accurately
report mental processes that are operating out of conscious awareness,
though they often believe that they can (Nisbett & Wilson, 1997).
If people are poor judges of collective resource scarcity, then
why does resource scarcity so reliably change the preferences of the
collective? Nelson and Morrison (2005) hypothesised a relationship
between collective and individual levels of resource scarcity. Since
individual-level resource levels are generally dependent on collective-
level resources, it stands to reason that people with low levels of
resources believe that their status is shared by everyone else. They then
implicitly use the information about themselves to infer what the norms
of their society may be. This metacognitive account corresponds to the
reasoning of the ‘feelings as information’ model, which suggests that
affective state can influence thoughts and beliefs without the operation
of conscious cognitive processes (Schwarz & Clore, 1983). Capitalising
on this relationship, Nelson and Morrison (2005) showed that temporary
affective states can produce a pattern of individual preferences that
mirrors an otherwise unexplained pattern of cultural norms.
Two studies manipulated subjective judgements of personal wealth
and examined changes in preferences for an idealised romantic partner.
Undergraduates reported whether or not they were carrying any money
and what body weight they ‘personally consider ideal in a member of the
opposite sex.’ Experimenters manipulated the order of these two ques-
tions as a salience manipulation. As predicted, when money was salient
and men did not have any money on them, they preferred heavier
women. As predicted these effects were not present with the female
sample (Nelson & Morrison, 2005; Study 1).
A subsequent study sought to remove the potential confound of
money-possession by using a randomly assigned manipulation of finan-
cial satisfaction (Study 2). All participants reported the size of their

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198 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

personal savings account, but some reported this number on an 11-point

scaled divided in $50 increments, from 1 ($0–$50) to 11 (over $500),
whereas the remainder reported it on a similar 11-point scale divided
in much larger increments, from 1 ($0–$500) to 11 (over $400,000).
People infer their personal circumstances from whether they respond
towards the top or bottom of a scale (Schwartz, 1999). Participants that
responded towards the bottom of this scale felt poorer than subjects

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that responded at the top, and because of the nature of the manipu-
lation, those participants in the small sum scale generally responded
towards the top while those participants in the large sum scale generally
responded towards the bottom. Consistent with this reasoning, parti-
cipants were more satisfied with their personal finances after completing
the $500 scale than they were after completing the $400,000 scale.
Finally, participants reported the ideal weight of a potential partner.
Once again, wealthy-feeling men preferred a lighter female than men
who felt poor, and once again, this effect was not present for women.
Furthermore, a subsequent analysis revealed that this effect was medi-
ated by satisfaction with personal finances. However, because financial
satisfaction as a construct is both culturally and temporally specific, two
follow-up studies used a more general feeling of resource scarcity.
Many cultures, especially developing ones, value food as a resource far
more than money, and as such, resource scarcity for them has meant a
lack of food – or rather, it has meant feeling hungry (Diamond, 1997).
Nelson and Morrison (2005) conducted two experiments in which parti-
cipants reported their ideal partner’s body weight either before or after
eating dinner (Studies 3 and 4). A pattern of results emerged similar
to the first two studies: hungry men preferred heavier women. Given
that the construct of hunger is considered more universal than finan-
cial satisfaction as a driver of mate preferences, these two studies lend
strong support to the idea that implicit cues are used when stating pref-
erences for potential partners. These findings were further supported by
a follow-up study in which men were asked to rate a series of greyscale
photographs of women (Swami & Tovée, 2006). As with the Nelson
and Morrison (2005) studies, men were approached either entering or
leaving a campus dining hall. Consistent with those findings, hungry
men preferred heavier women (higher BMI) than did satiated men.
One possibility is that these effects occur because feelings of hunger,
or perhaps even the particular dining hall circumstances, were operating
on a different psychological variable like self-esteem. A separate set of
findings replicated the central findings of Nelson and Morrison (2005),
but showed that there were no changes in self-esteem (Nelson, Sherman,

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 199

& Kim, 2006). A second concern has to do with the specificity of the
effect: do hungry men prefer heavier objects in general or, as hypo-
thesised, are the effects restricted to preferences for women? Research
suggests that this is a very specific effect as hungrier men do not prefer
larger sport utility vehicles (Nelson et al., 2006), milk bottles (empty or
full), or anvils (Swami, Poulogianni, & Furnham, 2006). This evidence
further suggests that the preference for weight is limited to potential

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mates and not all objects.
Lastly, if feelings of resource scarcity increase perceived environmental
threat, then males should prefer mature features more generally. To
test this possibility, Pettijohn, Sacco, and Yerkes (2005) measured fluc-
tuations in preferences for ideal partner age, height, personality, and
facial and body features in hungry and satiated male and female college
students. If hunger was serving as a physiological threat and reminder
of resource scarcity, then the ESH would predict an increased prefer-
ence for more mature ideal partners. Furthermore, when participants
were primed with hunger, these preferences were predicted to become
stronger since the physiological threat of hunger would be more salient.
In one study, experimenters positioned outside a college dining hall
asked males and females to answer questions about ideal partner charac-
teristics either immediately prior to eating dinner or immediately after
eating dinner (Study 1). A subsequent study using the same procedure
was used with the exception that all participants were asked about their
hunger level before answering the preference questions (Study 2).
Overall, hungry males preferred females who were relatively older,
taller, heavier, and with more mature facial features and personality
traits compared to males who were full. Because females place greater
emphasis on personality and resources in mates compared to males,
personality and age attributes preferences were predicted to be influ-
enced by hunger state. Overall, female preferences were not signific-
antly altered by hunger state, but trends in the anticipated directions
were found. In Study 2, hunger salience increased these differences,
and additionally led to greater female preference for older males. WHR
preferences remained stable across all conditions. These results both
strengthen Nelson and Morrison’s (2005) findings, and position their
work within the ESH.

Conclusion

When it comes to the female form, men’s preferences may not be

universal but they certainly are predictable. This observation is grounded,

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200 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

first, in those traits for which there really is a cross-cultural consensus

(e.g., Buss & Barnes, 1986), but it also extends to domains where the
absent consensus is replaced by predictable variation. As we described
in this chapter, there are a number of features that fall in the latter
category, including facial maturity and body weight. These observa-
tions provide simultaneous empirical support for the universalist position
characterised by evolutionary psychology and for a culturally idiosyn-

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cratic viewpoint essential to cultural psychology. From our perspective,
the most interesting question is what makes these patterns possible?
How do environmental changes operate on human preferences?
This chapter reviews some of the recent theorising about the under-
lying psychology of these phenomena. Pettijohn and his colleagues
(e.g., Pettijohn & Tesser, 1999) start with the observation that some
cross-cultural variation in preferences for females can be traced to cross-
cultural variation in environmental stability (e.g., Symons, 1979). They
argue that this must reflect the operation of an underlying psychological
construct linking perceived environmental security to the formation of
romantic preferences. In support of this ESH, they documented archival
and experimental evidence suggesting that within a specific culture,
temporal variation in conditions can have corresponding consequences
for male preferences: in hard times men prefer a more mature looking
female than they do in good times.
Can we look even closer at the underlying psychology? Nelson and
his colleagues (e.g., Nelson & Morrison, 2005) have provided the broad
outlines of a social cognitive mechanism to explain some of this vari-
ation. Drawing on metacognitive models of judgement, they suggest
that people use feelings of deprivation (caloric or financial) to infer their
environmental conditions, and that those inferences guide their prefer-
ences. In conjunction with the ESH, these findings suggest that environ-
mental changes operate directly and unconsciously on male romantic
preferences.
Nevertheless, these findings are only scratching the surface. Envir-
onmental threats operate on metacognitive processes which alter our
preferences, but we have yet to uncover any of the psychology under-
lying the link between metacognition and preference. Peering inside
that black box should offer the deepest insights into the origin of
romantic preferences, in part because the black box is so influential,
but also because it is so opaque. As documented above, environmental
stress can reliably change preferences, but it also seems to change
some underlying physiological processes, for example, making people
less sensitive to pain (DeWall & Baumeister, 2006). Furthermore, we

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 Leif D. Nelson et al. 201

know that metacognitive processes not only operate on summary eval-

uations, but alter how our own judgements operate on our personal
preferences (Simmons & Nelson, 2006). In short, though we are making
efforts to understand the social cognition of romantic preferences, the
processes at work are necessarily complex, influential, and difficult to
identify.
One productive line of thinking in this ___domain might be to try to

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identify processes that readily line-up with the evolutionary theory. How
can the pressures of natural selection lead to the universal preferences
documented by evolutionary psychologists as well as the subtle under-
lying moderators captured in social psychological theory like the ESH?
On the surface at least, it would seem more likely that men might have
adapted a general tendency to, for example, seek youth and health in a
potential mate. It seems less plausible that there is a special adaptation
for the subtle preference changes we have summarised in this chapter.
Though evolutionary theory of course allows for vastly more complic-
ated and idiosyncratic processes (Tooby, Cosmides, & Barrett, 2005), it is
also possible that the behaviours we are documenting are a combination
of both special adaptations for reproduction and general adaptations for
more general psychological life.
For example, men seem to prefer women within a certain range of
body weight but there is also systematic variation regarding preferences
within that range (Anderson et al., 1992; Swami, Caprario, Tovée &
Furnham, 2006). It may be more fruitful to regard those as two inde-
pendent processes, rather than as one single ‘weight preference’ adapt-
ation. In this case then, it is worthwhile to try to further identify the
independence of these processes, both at the level of behaviour, but
also potentially at the level of simple biology. Granting that evolu-
tionary pressures have led to the same general emotional and cognitive
processes which guide so much of human behaviour, it would be nice
if the same methodological rigour and sophistication was applied to
understanding the psychological roots of the intriguing patterns of
behaviour that are routinely identified by evolutionary psychologists. If
natural selection is the distal universal cause, understanding these more
specific processes should be a crucial aspect in identifying more proximal
effects.
Once we have these tools we can start to flesh out the gaps between
cultural and evolutionary psychology. In their influential review of
cultural differences in social cognition, Nisbett and his colleagues argued
that historically researchers have, by choosing to largely study Amer-
icans and Western Europeans, chosen to be ethnographers rather than

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202 Theory Development: Evolutionary Perspectives

psychologists (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001). The founda-

tional notion of this statement resides in recognising that psychologists
should be studying human processes, but by focusing within a specific
culture (typically the college student of North America) the topic of
study ends up being the culture itself. In many respects this is close
to the same argument evolutionary psychologists would make: because
evolutionary history dwarfs modern cultural history, basic psycholo-

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gical processes should not be influenced by the idiosyncrasies of culture
(cf. Buss & Kenrick, 1998). So from two different (and typically oppos-
itional) perspectives, these two groups are after the same thing – an
identification of a human psychology.
Going forward, then, it may be useful to conceive of cross-cultural
variation in terms of what it might mean for evolutionary psychology.
In the very narrow domains we review in this chapter, we report find-
ings that very neatly suggest that some cultural differences may emerge
as the result of individual level responses to environmental change. This
possibility is consistent with some reasoning about the interplay of self
and culture (Kim & Markus, 1999) and suggests a potentially fruitful
method for conceiving human behaviour. Perhaps for some character-
istics it is not the culture which shapes the individual, but instead, as
the environment alters the individual, it is the individual who shapes
the culture.

Author note

This article represents an equal contribution from the three authors. We

would like to thank Ginny Naples, Lauren McDermott, and Amy Walzer
for their assistance with reviewing the manuscript.

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Part V
Theory Development:
Sociocultural Perspectives

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11
The Roles of Stereotypes and
Group Norms on Perceptions of
Bodily Attractiveness

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Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner

Research on social stereotypes has enjoyed a long history in psychology

and related fields. Although many definitions of a stereotype exist,
researchers generally believe that ‘stereotypes are qualities perceived to
be associated with particular groups or categories of people’ (Schneider,
2004: 24). Many have used stereotypes to understand the impact of
attractiveness on social situations or personality (Eagly, Ashmore,
Makhijani, & Longo, 1991; Feingold, 1992). The overwhelming
majority of research on the attractiveness stereotype has focused on
how individuals perceive attractive people or how well attractiveness
correlates with a range of traits or behaviours. However, the social
processes that contribute to attractiveness stereotyping are of equal
theoretical importance.
Social processes as they relate to body image and body satisfaction
have received a fair amount of attention in the body image literature
and are commonly aimed at determining the ways in which indi-
viduals adopt unrealistic bodily attractiveness ideals (Thompson, Hein-
berg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). Group norm development (i.e.,
attractiveness ideal development) is a rather complex phenomenon
with multiple individual and group-level variables of interest. In partic-
ular, the role of peer groups in the development and maintenance of
body image disturbance has provided some insight into how peer group
participation influences adoption of exaggerated attractiveness ideals
(e.g., Jones & Crawford, 2006). Other researchers have focused on the
consequences of unrealistic group norms, in particular the social stigma
associated with excess body weight (Latner, Stunkard, & Wilson, 2005).
Thus, the interplay between individual and group is often cited as a
source of norm development and is an important level of analysis for

209

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210 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

understanding individual perceptions of attractiveness, as well as group

endorsement of attractiveness ideals and its consequences.
The study of groups in social psychology is often complicated by
fragmenting social processes into individual meaning (e.g., individual
perception of attractiveness) while still attempting to understand the
process as a group level phenomenon (i.e., development of attractiveness
norms). Bond and Kenny (2002) suggest that individual phenomena are

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interdependent upon membership in an identified group. When applied
to our understanding of physical attractiveness, this theory suggests that
individual self-reports of attractiveness tell us little about how attract-
iveness is perceived in different social contexts or the effects of attract-
iveness at a group level. Rather, individual perceptions of attractiveness
may be understood as functional contributions to group creation of
idealised attractiveness norms.

Attractiveness stereotypes and attractiveness norms

A considerable amount of research has shown that men and women

tend to ascribe a range of unrelated positive attributes to individuals
who are perceived as attractive. In their classic meta-analysis, Eagly
et al. (1991) found that social competence attributions were the greatest
contributor to the attractiveness stereotype (i.e., the difference between
attractive and unattractive individuals). Other moderate contributors to
the attractiveness stereotype included potency, adjustment and intellec-
tual competence. Such evidence suggests that men and women largely
perceive physically attractive individuals to be more extraverted, able
to manage social situations, and more likely to experience positive
outcomes related to this trait (e.g., popularity). In general, the most
robust aspect of the attractiveness stereotype is the perception that
attractive individuals have the ability to successfully navigate common
social experiences and consequently enjoy these experiences and benefit
from them more often.
Relatively few studies report on the predictive validity of attractive-
ness in social situations, leading some to argue that the data supporting
this link are mixed (Ashmore & Longo, 1995). For example, Anderson,
John, Keltner, and Kring (2001) examined the effects of personality,
physical attractiveness, and gender on social status among college
fraternity, sorority, and mixed-sex dormitory floor members in a series
of studies. They found strong relationships between the Big Five person-
ality factor of Extraversion, physical attractiveness, and social status
in male fraternity members. However, only Extraversion was related

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 211

to social status in female sorority members. When these relationships

were examined longitudinally in mixed-sex groups, physical attractive-
ness was only predictive of social status in men and Extraversion was
predictive of status for both genders. These findings suggest that the rela-
tionship between attractiveness and social outcomes is likely complex
and potentially indirect. For instance, attractiveness may only affect
attractiveness through increased extraversion or social efficiency, and it

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is likely that attractiveness alone is not adequate for the achievement
of high social status. Swami, Greven, and Furnham (2007) have made
a similar argument, finding significant interactions between personality
and body weight, and personality and waist-to-hip ratio, in the predic-
tion of participant-rated female attractiveness.
In addition to social competence, attractive individuals are also
believed to be generally more intelligent and higher achievers than unat-
tractive individuals (Chai, Allred, Grossnickle, & Lee, 1998; Clifford,
1975). The impact of these attributes are found in research indicating
that teachers rate attractive students as more intelligent and are more
likely to attribute achievement to an attractive individual’s actual ability
as opposed to luck (Kanazawa & Kovar, 2004; Rich, 1975). Potency and
adjustment are similarly important aspects of the attractiveness stereo-
type. For example, Feingold (1992) indicated in his meta-analyses that
attractive individuals were perceived to have better mental health (e.g.,
less depressed, anxious, or neurotic), although his findings suggest that
objective attractiveness is weakly correlated with most of these attrib-
utes, with the exception of certain aspects of social competency (e.g.,
popularity). Interestingly, Feingold (1992) found that self-perceived
attractiveness, which is poorly correlated with objective attractiveness,
was significantly related to a wide range of positive attributions.
Attractiveness attributions extend beyond trait-based beliefs about
behaviour or social skills. An important aspect of the attractiveness stereo-
type is the set of attributions about physical status, health, and repro-
ductive potential. Correlational research largely suggests that attractive
individuals are perceived to be healthier, have sex more often, and
have greater reproductive potential (Eagly et al., 1991; Feingold, 1992;
Singh, 1994, 2004). The validity of these associations was examined by
Weeden and Sabini (2005), and they concluded that there was little
support for the predictive validity of many proposed aspects of physical
attractiveness. Generally, they found that weight and waist-to-hip ratio
(WHR) were predictive of health, reproductive outcomes, and attractive-
ness in women, suggesting a health-attractiveness link, but found little
evidence for this relationship in men. Such research suggests that the

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212 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

link between attractiveness and health in men may be less important.

Clearly, more prospective research designs are needed to understand how
well objective indicators of attractiveness predict health and reproductive
outcomes.
Although research on the attractiveness stereotype generally supports
halo effects, or the linking of generally unrelated positive traits through
a stereotype, it would appear that there is mixed support for the validity

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of this attractiveness stereotype. This, however, does not suggest that
there is no link between attractiveness and traits associated with the
attractiveness stereotype. Rather, the current state of research on these
factors generally suggests that there is little evidence for a direct causal
link between attractiveness (and certain aspects of attractiveness such as
body symmetry) and traits associated with attractiveness. More research
is needed to determine whether attractiveness is a good predictor of
social, psychological, health-, or reproductive-related outcomes. Further-
more, the social contexts where attractiveness is important need to be
elucidated with careful attention to understand how attractiveness and
the attractiveness stereotype affect these outcomes.
If there is little support for the validity of the attractiveness stereotype,
questions remain as to where, or in what context, the attractiveness
stereotype is validated. Cultural and group norms are one potential
source of information regarding physical attractiveness. It is generally
accepted that Western cultures idealise exaggerated thinness in females,
and muscularity and leanness in males (Pope, Phillips, & Olivardia, 2000;
Thompson et al., 1999). There are a series of studies that have examined
the anthropometric measurements of culturally idealised figures. For
example, Barbie has often been criticised as possessing an unrealistically
thin body (Brownell & Napolitano, 1995; Norton, Olds, Olive, & Dank,
1995). Similar research exists supporting the exaggerated muscularity
and leanness of male idealised figures, such as G. I. Joe (Pope, Olivardia,
Gruber, & Borowiecki, 1999). Although there is still some debate as to
whether these cultural icons are accurate representations of physical
attractiveness, what is clear is that these idealised figures are associated
with a wide range of positive attributions in media content (Smith,
McIntosh, & Bazzini, 1999), and their bodily dimensions fall outside the
realm of optimal health and reproductive value.

Social mechanisms of stereotype/group norm development

There have been a great number of investigations into the processes

of group and cultural norm development. As discussed above, it is

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 213

not enough to assume that the attractiveness stereotype or idealised

attractiveness norms have evolved out of strong predictive validity.
Surprisingly, very little research has examined the social mechanisms
specific to attractiveness stereotyping or attractiveness norm develop-
ment. However, body image researchers mainly concerned with the
development of body dissatisfaction and its consequences, such as
extreme weight and shape control behaviours (e.g., excessive dieting,

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anabolic steroid use, etc.), have begun to investigate some of these
mechanisms through the study of adolescent peer groups.
While it cannot be assumed that body image and body dissatisfac-
tion are the same as physical attractiveness, many relevant clues to
attractiveness stereotyping and norm development may be gleaned from
our understanding of these features of body image. For example, body
dissatisfaction is often determined by some measure of the distance
between perceived self and perceived body ideal. Thus, measuring
body dissatisfaction takes into account an individual’s perception of
what is ideally attractive. At least for women, the majority of studies
indicates that ideal bodies and attractive bodies represent the same
physical standard (Fingeret, Gleaves, & Pearson, 2004; Hildebrandt,
& Walker, 2006). This may not be true for male bodies, with ideal
bodies representing more muscular and lean body types than are
believed to be optimally attractive by men or women (Hildebrandt, &
Walker, 2006).
Peer groups represent an important social context for the develop-
ment and validation of beliefs regarding attractiveness and appear-
ance. In part, peer groups represent an important context because
of their role in norm development for a variety of behaviours, such
as smoking and alcohol use (Jackson, 1997). Similar mechanisms are
likely at work in developing norms about physical attractiveness. These
attractiveness norms are thought to develop within peer groups in
what is understood as a peer-specific appearance culture (Jones &
Crawford, 2006). For instance, Paxton, Shultz, Wertheim, and Muhr
(1999) found that participation in specific peer groups led to the
development of extreme forms of dieting and weight loss behaviour and
contributed to the internalisation of unrealistically thin ideals among
adolescent girls. Other research has supported this finding, suggesting
that peers’ influence is also important to adolescent boys (Jones, 2004;
McCabe, & Ricciardelli, 2003). As a social context, adolescents tend to
develop their own peer group culture, governed by implicit and explicit
rules, social events and processes, and environmental conditions and
structure.

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214 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

There are several proposed mechanisms by which the adolescent

appearance culture among peer groups leads to body image norms,
including the identification of attractiveness. Perhaps the most
researched mechanism for development of individual body image norms
is social comparison. This mechanism, originally described by Festinger
(1954), has four main tenets: (a) individuals have a drive to evaluate
their opinions, beliefs, and attitudes for purposes of self-evaluation;

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(b) in the absence of defined structure or standards of comparison,
individuals intentionally compare themselves to others; (c) individuals
prefer to compare themselves to others who are perceived as similar,
and; (d) individuals prefer to make upward comparisons in order to
find ways to improve themselves.
Although social comparison theory has been expanded and improved
since Festinger’s (1954) description, it remains an important theoretical
mechanism for understanding how individuals’ perceptions are shaped
by groups. Some important refinements have been made to this theory,
most importantly that social comparisons can be automatic as opposed
to intentional (Morse & Gergen, 1970) and occur with similar as well as
dissimilar people (Gilbert, Giesler, & Morris, 1995). Thus, comparisons
between individuals and peers on aspects of attractiveness are likely
to be automatic as well as intentional, and may occur with peers who
occupy different social groups.
Recent research has also sought to understand the consequences
of social comparison processes. Lyubomirsky and Ross (1997) found
that happy individuals’ moods were not responsive to feedback about
peers who performed better than they did on performance tasks, but
rather their moods were attenuated only by feedback about inferior peer
performance. For unhappy individuals, feedback about both inferior
and superior peer performance attenuated their moods, suggesting
that unhappy individuals are more sensitive to social comparison
processes. Perceived threat also appears to be an important part of
the social comparison process. As Taylor and Lobel (1989) suggested,
individuals under threat tend to make downward comparisons (i.e.,
comparing oneself to unattractive individuals) to improve self-esteem,
but make upward (i.e., comparing oneself to more attractive individuals)
for a source of motivation. Although untested in attractiveness-
based social comparisons, these data suggest that social compar-
ison not only plays a role in group conformity and motivation for
improved performance, but is also moderated by individual differ-
ences in temperament, mood, and perceived threat of a given social
context.

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 215

Social comparison processes and body image: Cross-sectional

and experimental studies

Research on body image generally supports the integral role of peers in

determining the relevant outcomes to the social comparison process.
For example, Heinberg and Thompson (1992b) found that college
women rate comparisons with peers as more important than family,

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general population members, and fashion models. This finding has
been replicated and extended by McCabe and Ricciardelli (2003), who
found that feedback from a participants’ best friend had a significant
impact on body image as well as body changing behaviours in both
adolescent boys and girls. Furthermore, Schultz, Paxton, and Wertheim
(2002) found that the frequency of social comparisons increased with
age of adolescent girls, stressing their importance in the develop-
ment of peer group norms. Finally, Paxton et al. (1999) found that
body image concerns and extreme weight control behaviours were
clustered in specific peer friendship cliques. Thus, the social context
of peer groups appears to be where social comparisons have the
greatest impact on the development of attractiveness stereotypes and
norms.
Experimental studies of social comparison suggest that body dissatis-
faction increases after exposure to excessively thin female figures (e.g.,
Heinberg & Thompson, 1995) and that in vivo comparisons to thin
peers leads to increased body dissatisfaction (Krones, Stice, Batres, &
Orjada, 2005). In a classic experiment by Heinberg and Thompson
(1992a), participants were given feedback about their weight relative
to other peers. Participants were randomised to receive positive or
negative feedback and were compared to same-college peers or an
average person in the United States. Results suggested that regardless
of the feedback, participants reported greater body image disturbance
when compared to peers. This finding indicates that the most salient
factor for body comparison is the comparison target; in this case, peer
comparisons had the greatest impact upon individuals’ self-perceived
attractiveness.
Lin and Kulik (2002) extended these findings in efforts to determine
whether upward or downward comparisons affected college women’s
perception of their own level of attractiveness. Their results suggested
that women who made upward comparisons (i.e., compared to an
extremely thin peer) experienced a decrease in self-perceived attractive-
ness, increased anxiety, and consequently rated a potential male partner
as less attractive. In addition, boyfriend status moderated the effect on

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216 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

anxiety suggesting that women who are not in a relationship experi-

ence more anxiety in response to upward comparisons. Interestingly,
downward comparisons did not produce an increase in self perceived
attractiveness. One potentially important conclusion to be drawn from
the work of Lin and Kulik (2002) is that social comparisons (specifically,
upward comparisons) can influence self-reported attractiveness of the
opposite-sex.

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In addition to appearance-based social comparisons, Stice, Maxfield,
and Wells (2003) presented evidence that hearing a thin confederate
describe concerns with being overweight and disclose intentions to lose
weight led college women to be more dissatisfied with their bodies. These
data indicate that comparisons between self and ideal attractiveness may
be modeled by peers and ultimately affect an individual’s perception
of attractiveness. This type of peer pressure may be an indirect form of
social comparison that similarly helps to increase conformity to group
attractiveness norms.
What remains to be investigated in experimental studies of social
comparison is the effect of social comparison processes on attract-
iveness norm development. While it is clear that social comparison
with peers that have attributes of idealised attractiveness (e.g., very
thin females) leads to body dissatisfaction (i.e., self-perceived attract-
iveness), it is unclear how this process affects individuals’ percep-
tion of same-sex attractiveness ideals (i.e., group attractiveness norms).
Although not explored explicitly in the literature, it is likely that peer-
based social comparison, particularly among those with more negative
affect, leads to perceptions of ideal attractiveness that fall outside the
realm of health. This would not only increase body dissatisfaction, but
also motivate an individual to try extreme forms of weight control
behaviour.

Social comparison processes and body image: Longitudinal

studies

There are few longitudinal investigations of social comparison and body

image; however, those that exist support its role in body image disturb-
ance. As with experimental studies, these investigations do not directly
assess perceptions of physical attractiveness, but the presence of body
image disturbance is likely influenced by the adoption of unrealistic-
ally thin or lean and muscular attractiveness ideals (Thompson et al.,
1999). All of the longitudinal data on body image and social comparison
processes has been conducted on adolescent and collegiate populations,

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 217

thus little is known about whether these processes continue to influence

attractiveness norms into adulthood.
In a prospective study of body image among adolescent boys and girls,
Jones (2004) found that both appearance conversations and appear-
ance based social comparisons predicted changes in body dissatisfac-
tion for adolescent girls but only greater ‘internalization of a muscular
ideal’ predicted body dissatisfaction one year later for adolescent boys.

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These data are consistent with previous longitudinal investigations of
body dissatisfaction which suggest that social comparison processes are
unique contributors to change in body dissatisfaction in female adoles-
cents over time (Stice, 2001; Stice & Whitenton, 2002). In fact, evidence
from Presnell, Bearman, and Stice (2004) found in a longitudinal study
of body dissatisfaction and eating pathology in adolescent girls and boys
that pressure from peers to be thin predicted changes in body dissat-
isfaction whereas thin-ideal internalisation did not. Thus, pressure to
conform to a group norm appeared to be more important to the devel-
opment of body dissatisfaction.
In a study by McCabe and Ricciardelli (2003), only messages about
weight control strategies from same-sex individuals (same-sex parent
and same-sex best friend) predicted extreme weight control beha-
viours in adolescents. Consistent with social comparison theory, those
perceived as most relevant for comparisons provided information
viable to motivate extreme weight control behaviour. As Bearman,
Martinez, and Stice (2006) note in their recent longitudinal study
of adolescent body image, parent and peer support deficits were
better predictors of body dissatisfaction than thin-ideal internalisa-
tion. This finding generally suggests that the social context where
comparisons occur must be supportive in order for comparisons to
be used as healthy motivation. On the other hand, social comparison
processes in environments with poor support are likely to reinforce poor
self-image.
There are limitations to the longitudinal study of social comparison
processes. For example, a majority of studies have used self-report meas-
ures of the frequency of comparisons or the importance of specific types
of comparisons. While these aspects of social comparison are likely to
be related to changes in the perception of self-reported attractiveness
ideals, they may not be measuring the most important aspects of the
social comparison process. It could be hypothesised that upward compar-
isons to similar peers are likely to motivate individuals to behave in
certain ways (e.g., extreme weight control). Furthermore, it could be
hypothesised that downward comparisons generally protect individuals

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218 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

from developing an unrealistically thin or lean and muscular ideal. To our

knowledge, these aspects of the social comparison process have not been
examined in longitudinal designs.
A second important limitation to this research is the unit of analysis.
In all of the prospective designs, individuals’ responses were analysed as
if they were independent. This may not be the case, as evidence from
Paxton et al. (1999) suggested that attitudes about attractiveness ideals

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and weight control clustered in certain peer groups. It would be reas-
onable to assume that the endorsement of certain attractiveness ideals
and the behaviours associated with pursuing these ideals are dependent
upon group membership. Future research would benefit from consid-
ering individual as well as group-level attractiveness ideal outcomes. For
example, do attractiveness norms change within friendship peer cliques
over time?
Finally, social comparison is unlikely to be the only aspect of peer
group participation that affects the development of attractiveness norms.
Individual variables such as participants’ objective attractiveness and
personality are likely to have an impact on how group level attractive-
ness norms are developed. For example, a group of athletically inclined
adolescent boys may develop an attractiveness ideal that is consistent with
the body that functions ideally for their relative sport. In essence, swim-
mers may develop attractiveness ideals based on the body that proves best
suited for swimming (i.e., low weight and lean), whereas football players
may develop an attractiveness ideal that is best suited for football (i.e.,
muscular and lean). Thus, the makeup of the social group may have a
significant impact upon the perception of attractiveness ideals.

Other social processes: Room for expanded understanding of

attractiveness ideals

While social comparison does provide an important social mechanism

related to the development of body dissatisfaction, it has not been
explicitly examined in the development of attractiveness stereotypes
or norms. There are other peer processes that deserve further invest-
igation. Specifically, appearance-related teasing, social contagion, peer
modeling, and social reinforcement have been examined in relation-
ship to body image development (Crandall, 1988; Lieberman, Gauvin,
Bukowski, & White, 2001; Stice & Bearman, 2001; Stromer & Thompson,
1996). The common denominator to these mechanisms is that they
are all potential catalysts to norm development within same-sex peer
groups.

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 219

Jones and Crawford (2006) put these social mechanisms into a larger
context and described three major social contributors: (a) appearance
culture; (b) appearance evaluation, and; (c) peer acceptance concerns.
They considered appearance culture to include the discussion of appear-
ance among friends and body change talk (either dieting or increasing
muscularity). Appearance evaluation consisted of peer appearance pres-
sures, direct appearance teasing, and vicarious appearance teasing.

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Finally, peer acceptance concerns were defined as appearance-based
acceptance and peer appearance comparisons. Overall, Jones and Craw-
ford (2006) found evidence for significant relationships between each
of these aspects of peer group participation and body dissatisfaction.

Social stigma and obesity

One of the more damaging consequences of group attractiveness norms

is the stigma, bias, and discrimination aimed at overweight individuals.
Theoretical accounts suggest that social consensus may be at the root
of weight bias, just as it may be a causal influence for other preju-
dices (Sechrist & Stangor, 2005). Other psychological mechanisms are
also likely to contribute to obesity stigma, such as attribution theory
(Crandall, 1994) and the justification-suppression model (Crandall &
Eshleman, 2003), which suggest that viewing overweight individuals as
responsible for their condition leads to disliking them or to justifying
the expression of prejudice even though it may be socially undesirable.
However, social consensus may be particularly promising as a theory
to explain weight bias because of its ability to change it. Both weight
bias and racial prejudices can be ameliorated by changing participants’
perceptions of the social norms of these biases (Puhl, Schwartz, &
Brownell, 2005; Stangor, Sechrist, & Jost, 2001). Perhaps as a result of the
widespread consensus on physical attractiveness norms, weight bias is
similarly widespread. It also has important consequences for psychoso-
cial functioning and health. The expression and consequences of weight
bias are examined in this section.

Obesity stigma: Sources and settings

Weight bias against adults
Discrimination against overweight and obese adults is evident in
multiple settings. The interpersonal treatment of overweight individuals
in employment and health care settings may be particularly affected by
weight-related prejudices (Puhl & Brownell, 2001; Fikkan & Rothblum,

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220 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

2005; Fabricatore, Wadden, & Foster, 2005; Roehling, 1999). Participants

asked to make hypothetical hiring decisions rate overweight job applic-
ants (identified by photos or with written descriptions of weight) as
having more negative characteristics than non-overweight applicants;
this prejudice can also result in decisions not to hire overweight indi-
viduals (Klesges et al., 1990; Larkin & Pines, 1979; Polinko & Popovich,
2001). For example, despite equal qualifications, overweight applic-

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ants viewed on videotape were labeled as having poorer work habits,
lower self-control, and lower discipline than non-overweight applicants
(Klesges et al., 1990).
Although the above studies of prejudice have relied primarily on
university student samples, disparities in income among overweight
people in the actual workforce, particularly women, may be asso-
ciated with weight bias (Gortmaker, Must, Perrin, Sobol, & Dietz,
1993). Lower income has been found among overweight women in the
United States (Register & Williams, 1990), Finland (Sarlio-Lähteenkorva,
Silventoinen, & Lahelma, 2004), and Britain (Sargent & Blanchflower,
1994). Surprisingly, lower income was present even if women had
been overweight only during adolescence and were no longer heavy in
adulthood.
Weight bias in medical settings has been documented using several
research approaches: assessing negative attributions about obesity
among health care workers, assessing implicit stereotypes among these
professionals, and assessing experiences of stigma among obese patients.
Surveys have found that doctors (Klein, Najman, Kohrman, & Munro,
1982), nurses (Bagley, Conklin, Isherwood, Pechiulis, & Watson, 1989),
nutrition professionals (Maiman, Wang, Becker, Finlay, & Simonson,
1979), and medical students (Blumberg & Mellis, 1980) endorse negative
attitudes about obesity and obese patients. Among primary care phys-
icians, over 50 per cent felt that obese individuals are awkward, ugly,
and non-compliant (Foster et al., 2003). These negative attitudes could
potentially decrease obese patients’ quality of care and, in turn, increase
their risk of comorbid illnesses. It is unfortunate that a population
already prone to increased medical conditions should be subject to this
additional potential health risk.
High rates of weight bias have been shown among health care profes-
sionals, despite a possible reluctance among some to admit prejudices
due to social desirability effects. However, methods of assessing implicit
attitudes are specifically designed to get around this problem. Using
procedures of implicit attitude measurement, even health care profes-
sionals who specialise in working with obese patients were more likely

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 221

to associate being fat with attributes such as ‘bad,’ ‘lazy’ and ‘worth-
less’ (Schwartz, O’Neal, Brownell, Blair, & Billington, 2003; Teachman
& Brownell, 2001). Some research has also shown that obese indi-
viduals feel they have been treated disrespectfully by health care workers,
although the number of patients reporting this has differed across
studies (Anderson & Wadden, 2004; Rand & MacGregor, 1990). Qualit-
ative research has also suggested that some parents of overweight chil-

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dren feel blamed and are held responsible by health care providers for
their child’s weight status (Edmunds, 2005).
Overweight adults are also stigmatised in interpersonal situations.
Overweight adults are least preferred as sexual partners, even less
preferred than mentally ill partners or those with sexually transmitted
diseases (Chen & Brown, 2005). Women were more harshly targeted by
this stigma. Similarly, obese women are judged as less desirable, skilled,
and warm in intimate relationships (Reagan, 1996). On a reliable and
valid measure of anti-fat attitudes, a physical/romantic unattractiveness
subscale yielded somewhat higher scores among both men and women
than the measure’s two other subscales, social/character disparagement
and weight control/blame (Lewis, Cash, Jacobi, & Bubb-Lewis, 1997).

Weight bias against children

Obesity stigma’s effect on children was first investigated in the 1960s,
when overweight children were repeatedly found to be liked the least
among children with various disabilities, by children from different
ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and children who were
disabled (Richardson, Goodman, Hastorf, & Dornbusch, 1961). Adults
showed the same bias, including those who worked with physically
disabled children (Goodman, Dornbusch, Richardson, & Hastorf, 1963),
who were obese, and from diverse ethnic backgrounds (Maddox, Back,
Liederman, 1968). Subsequent studies using various research designs
have found similar prejudices (Latner & Schwartz, 2005). Despite the
rising prevalence rates of childhood obesity (Wang & Lobstein, 2006),
the stigma against overweight children appears to have increased in
the past 40 years (Latner & Stunkard, 2003). Common sources of this
stigma may include peers, family members, and individuals involved in
children’s education.
As early as age three, children are more likely to attribute negative
characteristics to overweight children, such as stupid, ugly, and mean,
loud and lazy, and to prefer thin to overweight peers as playmates
(Cramer & Steinwert, 1998; Brylinsky & Moore, 1994). This trend conti-
nues, and even worsens, over the course of development, when weight

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222 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

bias strengthens. For example, studies have shown increases in negative

stereotyping of overweight peers across grades 2, 4 and 6 (Lawson, 1980),
and across the ages of 5 to 6, 14 to 15, and 19 to 20 years (Lerner &
Korn, 1972). However, weight bias towards peers may level off or decrease
over development into late adolescence and adulthood. Adolescents
and adults view a wider range of body sizes as acceptable compared to
elementary school children (Rand & Wright, 2000), and college students

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show greater liking for overweight peers than 5th and 6th-grade chil-
dren (Latner, Stunkard, & Wilson, 2005). However, studies revealing
implicit bias among adults (e.g., Schwartz, Vartanian, Nosek, & Brownell,
2006) suggest that bias is still strong in adulthood, despite a possible
increased awareness of social desirability over the course of development.
A surprisingly common source of weight bias is from parents and
family members. Among 4,746 adolescents, 47 per cent of very
overweight girls and 34 per cent of very overweight boys reported
weight-based teasing by family members at least a few times a year
(Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2002). Among 2,449 adult overweight women
and 222 men, weight bias was reported to have been perpetrated
by 44 per cent of participants’ mothers and 34 per cent of fathers
(Puhl & Brownell, 2001). Overweight girls have been found to receive
less financial support for college from their parents than average-
weight girls, regardless of parental income, family size or education
(Crandall, 1991).
Educators may be another common source of weight bias in the lives
of children. Among 115 school teachers, nurses, and social workers,
over half believed that obesity is caused primarily by one’s own
behaviours, and 20 to 25 per cent believed that obese persons are
more emotional, less tidy, less likely to succeed at work, and have
different personalities and more family problems (Neumark-Sztainer,
Story, & Harris, 1999). Physical education (PE) teachers have reported
that overweight children have poorer social, reasoning, physical, and
cooperation skills than non-overweight children (Greenleaf & Weiller-
Abels, 2005), and students training to become PE instructors showed
significantly more negative implicit attitudes compared to a matched
sample of non-PE students (O’Brien, Hunter, & Banks, 2007). This
might be damaging to school performance as well as health, given
the importance of physical activity for overweight children. Weight
criticism during physical activities was related to reduced enjoy-
ment of sports and lower self-reported amounts of activity performed
among 5th to 8th grade children (Faith, Leone, Ayers, Moonseong, &
Pietrobelli, 2002). Overweight middle school students have also reported

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 223

that teachers’ negative comments about their physical abilities led

children to avoid physical education classes (Bauer, Yang, & Austin,
2004).

Transmission of weight bias

Less is known about how cultural norms about obesity are transmitted to

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young children, but limited evidence suggests that parents may transmit
the notion that overweight is unacceptable. When asked to tell a story
to their preschool child about an overweight, average-weight, or handi-
capped child, more negative descriptions and less successful outcomes
were applied to the overweight child, and peer reactions to the over-
weight child were presented as deeply disapproving (Adams, Hicken,
& Salehi, 1988). Parents’ encouragement to lose weight, along with
peer interactions focused on body shape and weight, predicted negative
stereotypes about overweight people among 9-year-old girls (Davison &
Birch, 2004).
Weight stereotypes may also be transmitted through the media. On
popular television shows, heavier characters have fewer romantic inter-
actions, positive social interactions, and are more likely to be objects
of humor (Greenberg, Eastin, Hofschire, Lachlan, & Brownell, 2003).
Heavier female characters on situation comedies receive more negative
comments regarding her weight or body from male characters and
stronger audience laughter (both live and ‘laugh-tracked’; Fouts &
Burggraf, 2000). Among 1st to 3rd grade boys, more television viewing
is associated with greater stereotyping of overweight girls (e.g., lower
ratings of nice, smart, clean, tell the truth and have a lot of friends;
Harrison, 2000).

Consequences of weight bias

Interpersonal consequences
During adolescence, the consequences of weight stigma may be partic-
ularly damaging. A sophisticated study of friendship networks among
90,118 adolescents found that overweight adolescents were more
socially isolated, less often selected as friends or best friends, and more
likely to receive zero friendship nominations from peers (Strauss &
Pollack, 2003). Obese adolescent girls experience more relational victim-
isation (exclusionary and hurtful treatment by ‘friends’), and obese boys
experience more overt victimisation than their non-obese peers (Pearce,
Boergers, & Prinstein, 2002). Other research has shown that both over-
weight boys and girls of nearly all preadolescent and adolescent ages

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224 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

were more likely than non-overweight children to experience overt and

relational victimisation (Janssen, Craig, Boyce, & Pickett, 2004).

Psychological consequences
Research has begun to investigate the psychological effects of
experiences of stigmatisation. According to retrospective studies with

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overweight adults, more frequent exposure to obesity stigmatisation
by others is associated with poor body image, low self-esteem, and
greater psychological distress (Annis, Cash, & Hrabosky, 2004; Friedman,
Reichmann, Costanzo, & Musante, 2002; Myers & Rosen, 1999). Body
image may be particularly affected by weight-related stigma, especially
teasing, among youth. Prospective studies of adolescents, as well as
retrospective studies of adults, have found that weight-based teasing
predicted body dissatisfaction (Grilo, Wilfley, Brownell, & Rodin, 1994;
Cattarin & Thompson, 1994). Teasing about weight is also related to
the development of eating disturbances (Thompson, Coovert, Richards,
Johnson, & Cattarin, 1995).
Other prospective research has also shown that self-esteem can be
adversely affected by weight bias. Among girls, experiences of weight-
related peer teasing and parental criticism about weight mediated the
association between higher BMI and lower self-concept (Davison &
Birch, 2002). Obese children who believe that they are responsible for
their weight problem may be the most likely to have low self-esteem
(Pierce & Wardle, 1997), suggesting that self-blame or internalisation of
weight stigma may be an important consequence of societal prejudices.
An unfortunate consequence of the negative psychological repercus-
sions of weight stigma may be increased risk of depression. In a large
sample of adolescents, weight-based teasing was related to increased
likelihood of depression (Eisenberg et al., 2003). Once teasing history
was controlled, weight itself was no longer significantly associated with
depression and most other measures of emotional well-being. These
researchers also found that girls and boys who were teased about their
weight were over twice as likely to experience suicidal ideation as those
who were not teased. Among the girls who experienced weight-based
teasing from peers or family members, 51 per cent had thought about
suicide, compared with 25 per cent among those who had not been teased.

Quality of life and health

Given these findings, it may not be surprising that the quality of life
of obese individuals is impaired, in both psychological and physical

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 225

domains (Kushner & Foster, 2000). Quality of life scores in obese chil-
dren were lower than non-overweight children in the areas of physical
health, psychosocial health, emotional functioning, behaviour, social
functioning, general health, and school functioning, and their scores
were similar to the scores of children with cancer (Friedlander, Larkin,
Rosen, Palermo, & Redline, 2003; Schwimmer, Burwinkle, & Varni,
2003). Results are mixed, however, with other research showing over-

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weight in adolescents to be associated only with physical, and not with
psychological, quality of life impairment (Swallen, Reither, Haas, &
Meier, 2005). It is possible that the link between obesity and quality of
life may be associated with or mediated by stigma, either as perpetrated
by others or as internalised by the overweight individual. Research is
needed to identify the association between experiences of weight bias
and quality of life in children and adults.

Integration of sociocultural theory and evolutionary

theories of physical attractiveness

In their classic meta-analytic study, Langlois et al. (2000) found that

a majority of studies supported evolutionary hypotheses as opposed to
sociocultural hypotheses of physical attractiveness, indicating that men
and women largely agree on physical attractiveness across cultures, ages,
and different contexts. In particular, Langlois et al. (2000) suggested
that reliability in attractiveness ratings across cultures was evidence that
attractiveness is not a culture-bound phenomenon. While this finding
is somewhat controversial, we believe that the two theories are not
inconsistent on this issue. For instance, both sociocultural and evolu-
tionary theories predict the flexibility of attractiveness preferences across
contexts. Specifically, there are individual and culture-bound variables
that influence mate preferences or, in the case of sociocultural theorists,
attractiveness ideals.

Mate selection theory

Mate selection theory is a primary component of evolutionary theory
and distinguishes between two types of competition that effect mate
preferences, namely intrasexual (between-sex) and intersexual (within-
sex) competition (Buss, 1992). Mate preference has been linked to phys-
ical attractiveness based on observed relationships between reproductive
value and physical attractiveness and the assumption that preference
(perceived attractiveness) influences behaviour (mate choice; Miller,

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226 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

1998). Both forms of competition are theorised to maximise an indi-

vidual’s preferences for reproductive value and much of the support for
these mechanisms derives from evidence of cross-cultural similarities in
mating strategies and trait preferences (e.g., Buss, 1989).
However, the social mechanisms that reflect intrasexual and inter-
sexual competition have received less attention in the evolutionary
literature, with exceptions contained to individual phenomenon such

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as long-term versus short-term mating strategies (e.g., Buss & Schmidtt,
1993) or macro-level phenomenon such as the impact of sex-ratio on
between-sex selection strategies (e.g., Pedersen, 1991). In particular, the
process of within-sex competition and its direct consequences on percep-
tions of attractiveness has not received much attention. Rather, the
existing data and theory has focused on mate choice (i.e., between-
sex competition) because it is more directly related to reproductive
outcomes.

Sociocultural theory
Primary to sociocultural theories are the relative influence of mech-
anisms such as social stereotyping, group norms, and social compar-
isons to the development of preferences for attractive individuals. In
particular, body image researchers have focused on how participation
in different groups leads to exaggerated preferences for ideal body types,
which in many cases fall outside the range of reproductive advantage.
A range of social mechanisms have been indicated in this process that
suggests subgroups of teenage girls create an ‘appearance culture’ where
social status and communication centers around appearance control
and value (Jones & Crawford, 2006). Not only does this culture lead to
increased competition between same-sex adolescents, but may have the
consequence of exaggerated attractiveness norms. Similarly, this culture
facilitates discrimination against unattractive individuals (Pearce et al.,
2002; Strauss & Pollack, 2003). Despite such evidence, sociocultural
theorists have not provided strong theoretical evidence for why indi-
viduals cluster into same-sex cliques or why there is a seemingly innate
tendency for social comparison and group norm development.

Theory integration
Because both sociocultural and evolutionary theory allow flexibility
in mate preference (ideal attractiveness) either through social mech-
anisms (Thompson et al., 1999) or through adaptation to different
environmental and mate selection pressures (Sugiyama, 2005), there is
ample justification to integrate both theories of physical attractiveness.

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 Tom Hildebrandt and Janet D. Latner 227

Specifically, we believe that social comparison, group norm develop-

ment, and social stereotyping are social mechanisms that constitute
special forms of within-sex competition. Appropriately, all three social
mechanisms have been shown to influence attractiveness norms within
groups and contribute to the negative treatment and perception of unat-
tractive individuals.
In fact, recent evidence suggests that social stereotyping may be more

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important for linking unattractiveness to negative attributions than
attractiveness to positive attributions (Griffin & Langlois, 2006). Such
processes are also likely then to be flexible enough to adapt to environ-
mental pressures. For instance, one could argue that the increasing focus
on thinness as an attractiveness norm for women is in part a reaction to
escalating rates of obesity, in essence, an adaptive function of the envir-
onmental pressures associated with an abundance of food. Such adapt-
ations, and its relative influence on behaviour, allows for much quicker
adjustments in mate preferences than relying entirely on the genetic
transmission as a function of mate choice. Relying completely on mate
choice, then, would be a poor strategy for survival where information
about important environmental pressures (i.e., poor health associated
with excess body weight) is discovered relatively quickly.
Between-sex competition (i.e., mate choice) is also affected by these
sociocultural processes; mate choices must produce adequate variab-
ility for adaptation. Thus, the presence of universal agreement on
attractiveness may ultimately be less important than variability in
attractiveness perceptions. Such flexibility, or the ability to choose
mates that do not have ideal attractiveness features, allows rapid
adjustment to potential environmental or contextual variables that
may increase potential for reproductive success. For instance, the lack
of body hair might lead to very high risk of skin cancer due to
increases in ultraviolet radiation. Knowledge of this phenomenon may
lead to changes in perceptions of hairy individuals and give them
a distinct social advantage over those with less body hair. Social
mechanisms such as social comparisons between same-sex individuals,
group norm development, and stereotyping/stigmatisation may facil-
itate these selection processes by motivating individuals to highlight
their body hair, allowing body hair to influence social status, and
attributing positive traits to those with body hair and attributing
negative traits to those without body hair. This between-sex flexib-
ility in mate choice, thus, allows for existing within-sex social mech-
anisms to facilitate mate choices that have the greatest reproductive
value.

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228 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

Summary

Social groups clearly play an important role in the development of

attractiveness ideals, whether they simply support pre-existing prefer-
ences for mate value or develop in response to a range of social demands.
Existing literature has focused on individual responses to social mech-
anisms and could benefit from understanding individual responses as

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a function of membership in specific groups. Nonetheless, it appears
as though several social mechanisms are important to physical attract-
iveness including social comparison, group norm development, and
social stereotyping/stigmatisation. These mechanisms not only have
significant impact on the development of self-perceived attractiveness,
but may facilitate prejudice against unattractive individuals, in partic-
ular those who are overweight or obese. Similarly, these mechanisms
may be appropriately considered specific evolutionary mechanisms that
facilitate within-sex and between-sex competition.
To our knowledge, no one has formally attempted to integrate both
theories of physical attractiveness, but both theories are likely to benefit
from such integration. Namely, sociocultural theories would benefit
from a greater understanding of why such social processes exist and why
attractiveness plays such an important role in these processes. Similarly,
evolutionary theories would benefit from an expanded understanding
of how mate preferences result in mate choices and how social groups can
facilitate both convergence upon attractiveness ideals and the adaptab-
ility of such convergence.

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12
Feminism and Body Image
Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen

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Body image is defined as one’s perception of, affective reaction to, and
cognitive appraisal of one’s body. It has become evident that the process
of developing a body image as well as the nature of these perceptions and
appraisals are marked by considerable gender differences. In addition,
the consequences of negative body image seem to differ for men and
women. More specifically, in the United States and in a variety of other
countries (e.g., Grogan, 1999; Luo, Parish, & Laumann, 2005), women
are more likely to be interested in obtaining a thin body while men are
more interested in obtaining a muscular body.
Women and girls may be more likely to take action to change their
bodies when they are dissatisfied (Grogan, 1999). They are certainly
more likely to engage in dangerous calorie-restrictive dieting and to
develop life-threatening eating disorders (American Psychiatric Associ-
ation, 2000; Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2004). This is true in childhood as
well as in adulthood (Bryant-Waugh, 2006; Smolak & Levine, 2001).
Men are more likely to engage in exercise than dieting to control their
weight (though not necessarily at higher levels than women do) and
to build muscle (Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2004). Boys and men are more
likely than girls and women to use steroids and food supplements to
build muscles (e.g., Field et al., 2005). Women are more likely to submit
to body reshaping cosmetic surgeries, such as liposuction and breast
enhancement. For example, 287,932 women compared to 35,673 men
underwent liposuction in 2005 (American Society of Plastic Surgeons,
2006). Thus, although a small group of men engage in dangerous
body shaping activities (e.g., steroids and food supplements), a larger
group of women use extreme and even life-threatening means (e.g.,
self-starvation, liposuction) to try to achieve a particular body type.

236

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 237

For males especially, some of this investment in body shape is

attributable to functional interests, such as the strength to participate
in sports or to perform certain ‘masculine’ activities (e.g., Grogan &
Richards, 2002; Smolak & Stein, 2006). Furthermore, both men and
women report some health-related motives for weight loss (e.g., Grogan
& Richards, 2002). However, it is also clear that both men and women,
and indeed girls and boys, are motivated to participate in body shaping

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activities such as dieting, exercise, weight-lifting, and steroid use in order
to be attractive.
The question addressed by this chapter is whether the roots of gender
differences in the definitions of and the pressure to adopt standards of
attractiveness are better explained by biological theories or sociocultural
theories. We begin with a feminist analysis of behavioural evolutionary
and genetic theories of attractiveness. We then present sociocultural
theories, and more explicitly feminist theories and research, to help
interpret these gender differences.

A feminist critique of evolutionary psychology and genetic

theories of female attractiveness

Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology posit that mate selection to maximise repro-
ductive success is the driving force behind gender-differentiated beha-
viours (Singh, 1993). A woman’s reproductive fitness is equated with
her fertility and her ability to mother while a man’s is signaled by his
potential to provide material resources. Hence, a woman should look
for indications that a man has a high status while a man should seek
evidence that a woman will be fecund. The best indicators of the latter
are body cues, aspects of women’s body’s shape that has come to be
equated with physical attractiveness (Singh, 1993).
Thus, in evolutionary psychological theory, women’s physical attract-
iveness is valued because it indicates that she will be able to bear and
rear children (Buss, 1994). Some of this attractiveness simply reflects
good health, an ability to resist pathogens. But what is presumably
more crucial is the presence of the ‘gynoid’ body shape. This body
shape is marked by fat deposition that is associated with normal
adult female levels (as opposed to male levels) of circulating estrogen
(Singh, 1993). In their original formulations, evolutionary theorists
pointed out that this gynoid body shape resulted in a waist-to-hip ratio
(WHR) that normally fell in the range of 0.67 to 0.80, whereas for

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238 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

‘android’ shaped men a normal WHR was 0.85 to 0.95 (e.g., Singh, 1993,
1994).
There have been data supporting this perspective (e.g., Singh, 1993).
However, WHR and body mass index (BMI) were often confounded in
the methodology used in the research (Swami & Tovée, 2005a). Further-
more, even very thin women, including those in the anorexic range
who are amenorrheic, can maintain a gynoid WHR. Therefore, some

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evolutionary theorists shifted focus to arguing that a healthy BMI is
the key indicator of attractiveness, again because of its association with
reproductive fitness (Swami & Tovée, 2005a). Other chapters in this
volume examine some of the specific methodological and empirical
issues related to the evolutionary psychological perspective in detail. Our
purpose is to briefly present three feminist criticisms of the theory and
then to focus on alternative feminist explanations of how attractiveness
is defined and learned.

Feminist critiques
Status
While feminists offer a variety of critiques of evolutionary psycho-
logy, three are particularly relevant for our purposes. First, evolutionary
psychological theory confuses what exists in society with what is natural
or inherent. Socially pervasive roles, inculcated from infancy, can appear
to be natural because we perform them without thinking. An altern-
ative theory that has generated much empirical support is Social Roles
Theory (SRT; Eagly, 1987; Eagly, Wood, & Diekman, 2000; Eagly, Wood,
& Johannesen-Schmidt, 2004). According to SRT, the social roles that
people occupy in society produce traits and behaviours that, in turn,
support the role. In gender-segregated cultures, women and men take
on different societal roles that lead to gender-differentiated behaviour.
In many societies, women are associated with the domestic role while
men are associated with the employee or work role (Eagly et al.,
2004).
Eagly argues that the origins of gender-differentiated roles likely
resulted from physical differences between women and men (e.g., men’s
larger body size, women’s ability to bear children) that interacted with
social and ecological conditions. Once established, roles are reinforced
through various societal and psychological forces, even though the phys-
ical differences may be of marginal significance. For example, if women
are more likely to be placed in care-taking roles in society due to the
fact that they bear children and can breast-feed them, they are more
likely to develop skills such as nurturance to help them fulfill that

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 239

role. Individuals see women perform this role and develop stereotypes
that women are more nurturing than men.
Women often behave in ways consistent with the gender stereotype
because failure to do so creates a risk of negative social consequences.
In addition, observers tend to remember behaviour that is consistent
with stereotypes and act in ways to elicit stereotype-consistent beha-
viours from others, thus further perpetuating the stereotypes (Eagly et

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al., 2000). Thus, we enact gender roles in the smallest details and the
largest themes of our daily lives in an almost automatic manner. This
makes them appear innate. But the question is whether the basis for such
behaviours is biological (evolutionary, genetic, hormonal) or whether it
is rooted in status differences in society.
Buss et al. (1990) suggested that because the pattern of women
selecting men of high status as partners existed across 37 different
cultures, it must be innate in the human species. But Eagly and Wood
(1999) demonstrated that the strength of this pattern varied with the
status of women in the society. Similarly, researchers have found that
women’s investment in a particular body shape is related to their percep-
tion that the body shape will gain them status (Becker & Fay, 2006).
For example, Becker (2004) reported that girls in Fiji who thought
that weight loss would gain them economic opportunities and upward
social mobility were the ones who tried to emulate body shapes of the
newly introduced television medium. Similarly, Anderson-Fye (2004)
found eating disordered behaviour only among Belize teenagers working
in the tourist industry whose families thought that the girls’ ‘West-
ernised’ bodies would gain them more customers. Cases of anorexia
nervosa in Curacao were found only among mixed ethnicity women
who thought that thinness would bring them greater acceptance in the
White community (Katzman et al., 2004).
Thus, women – and men – may select marital partners based on status.
A beautiful woman may be a status symbol for men whereas a wealthy
husband may be important to women when they cannot earn their own
resources. Furthermore, status and investment in definitions of attract-
iveness appear to be intertwined. Women will invest in a particular
definition of physical attractiveness if it gains them resources. This may
be because in many societies women’s attractiveness continues to be
their main currency.

Parenting
Second, evolutionary psychology continues to suggest that women are
designed to be active parents while men are not. We might begin

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240 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

by noting that the animal data indicate that females are sometimes
good mothers and sometimes reject the maternal role; circumstances
are crucial in determining the likelihood that females will parent their
offspring (Hrdy, 1999). Among humans, it is evident that men are
not only interested in parenting, beginning with ‘engrossment’ with
their newborns (Greenberg & Morris, 1974), but that they can play an
important role in the cognitive and social development of children that

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is not simply redundant to the role mothers play (e.g., Hart, Newell,
& Olsen, 2003). Both men and women are capable of providing phys-
ical, emotional, and social support to children. Men simply do it less
frequently than women do. Again, this leads to a confusion of what is
‘natural’ with what is ‘common.’ Eagly’s SRT, for example, can again
explain this phenomenon.

Male attractiveness
Finally, and perhaps most importantly for this chapter, the evolutionary
psychological perspective suggests that men’s attractiveness is of limited
importance. Until the 1990s, much body image and eating problems
research focused exclusively on girls and women. This was partially
because of the long-held finding that the major eating disorders, anor-
exia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), are 8 to 9 times more
common in women than in men (American Psychiatric Association,
2000), though recent research suggests a slightly lower ratio (Hudson,
Hiripi, Pope, & Kessler, 2007). Research examining body dissatisfac-
tion focused on the symptoms associated with AN and BN, namely
drive for thinness and dieting, and found that women, and even young
girls, were much more likely to be body dissatisfied and to engage in
weight management techniques than were men and boys (e.g., Smolak
& Levine, 2001; Smolak & Murnen, 2004). Women are also more likely
than men to report that their body shape is important to their self-
definition (e.g., Reichborn-Kjennerud et al., 2004).
However, more recent research has clearly demonstrated that, if both
interest in losing weight and in gaining muscle are considered, then men
show about as much body dissatisfaction as women do (e.g., Ricciardelli
& McCabe, 2004). Furthermore, boys and men will engage in potentially
dangerous practices, including the use of food supplements and ster-
oids, in order to gain muscle (e.g., Cafri et al., 2005; Smolak, Murnen,
& Thompson, 2005). Although this is less common than dieting and
eating disorders among women, it does underscore men’s commitment
to obtain a particular body type.

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 241

Men’s desire to be muscular could be viewed as consistent with evol-

utionary psychological theory since, arguably, muscularity might be
associated with strength and health and hence reproductive fitness. As
with definitions of women’s attractiveness, however, men’s definitions
of and investment in attractiveness appear to be substantially sociocul-
turally influenced. Although the research concerning men is limited, like
women, men’s commitment to a muscular ideal of attractiveness seems

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to vary by culture. For example, gay men seem more invested in body
shape than straight men do (Rothblum, 2002); while Swami and Tovée
(2005b) reported that chest size is the more important determinant of
attractiveness among urban men, but BMI is more important among
rural men. Researchers have also found that investment in muscularity
is correlated with perceived media and peer pressures (e.g., Ricciardelli
& McCabe, 2004; Smolak et al., 2005). Interestingly, investment in male
gender role may be related to drive for muscularity in boys and men
(e.g., McCreary, Saucier, & Courtenay, 2005; Smolak & Stein, 2006), a
finding that is consistent with Eagly’s SRT.

Genetic theories
During the past decade, genetic research and theorising concerning
eating disorders has grown immensely (e.g., Bulik & Tozzi, 2004; Mazzeo,
Landt, van Furth & Bulik, 2006). As part of this effort, researchers have
examined individual components and symptoms of eating disorders,
including body dissatisfaction, to assess their possible heritability.
Several studies have reported a significant additive genetic component of
body dissatisfaction in older adolescent girls and women. For example,
Klump, McGue, and Iacono (2000) found a heritability estimate (h2 )
of 0.23 in 17-year-old girls after BMI had been considered. Similarly,
Wade, Martin, and Tiggemann (1998) reported that genetics were more
important than the environment in determining shape concerns among
adult (30 to 45 years old) women.
These studies only included female participants. In a recent study
by Keski-Rahkonen et al. (2005), both male and female Finnish young
adults (aged 22 to 27) completed the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI)
Body Dissatisfaction scale. This large sample (n = 4 667) study included
both monozygotic and dizygotic twins. The results suggested that
additive genetics accounted for a little more than 59 per cent of the
variance in body dissatisfaction among the women but that body dissat-
isfaction among the men was completely determined by environmental
forces.

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242 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

This finding is consistent with the frequent historical claim that

women’s bodies (and minds) are more controlled by nature (e.g., repro-
ductive hormones), while men’s are more controlled by rationality
(e.g., Bordo, 1993). Indeed, scientific data have often been marshaled
to demonstrate women’s biological ‘problems’ (e.g., Shields, 1975).
Feminist analysis shows how scientific research traditions can be biased
to yield such results (e.g., McHugh, Koeske, & Frieze, 1986).

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The genetic research examining body dissatisfaction, and much of the
work on eating disorders, is quantitative behavioural genetics. Molecular
genetic sites for body dissatisfaction, or concepts similar to body dissat-
isfaction, have not been identified. Thus, critiques that generally apply
to quantitative behavioural genetics research (e.g., Gottlieb, 1995) are
applicable here. So, for example, this research does not explicitly permit
a role for gene-environment interactions in their equations. Rather, they
typically assume that genes determine environments rather than vice
versa and hence include the variance associated with the interactions
under the genetic component (Gottlieb, 1995). Given that environments
can indeed influence genetic expression, this assumption may result in
an inflated heritability estimate.
Returning to the Keski-Rahkonen et al. (2005) study of gender differ-
ences in the heritability of body dissatisfaction, the EDI body dissatis-
faction scale served as the dependent variable. This scale does not tap
body dissatisfaction in males as effectively as it does in females because
it does not assess concerns about muscularity. Thus, the researchers did
not fully consider the gendered nature of body image in designing their
study.
Furthermore, genetic researchers, like evolutionary psychologists, may
be conflating what is common with what is innate. Some geneticists
(e.g., Turkheimer, 2000) claim that every behaviour is genetically based.
Clearly this is an overstatement. It is important to distinguish beha-
viours that are rooted in genetic predispositions, including, perhaps,
some gender differences, from those that are socioculturally determined.
There may, indeed, be some small percentage of variance in attractive-
ness associated with either evolution or genetics; for example, there may
be a preference for faces or body shapes that fall within the ‘average’
range that is indicative of good health (e.g., Langlois et al., 2000). But
the current Caucasian American ideal body shape for women does not
represent good health and is not easily obtained by healthy methods.
Rather, attractiveness ideals, and the body dissatisfaction that accrues
by perceived failures to meet those standards, are more likely to be
explained by sociocultural than genetic influences.

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 243

Sociocultural explanations of attractiveness

If one rejects biological explanations of gender differences in definitions

and implications of attractiveness, then typically cultural factors are
cited as causative. Indeed, sociocultural theories are probably the most
popular explanations of attractiveness, body dissatisfaction, and eating
disorders. There are many sociocultural theories (e.g., Cash & Pruzinsky,

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2002; Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). They
commonly point to media, parents, and/or peers as influencing the
development of an ‘ideal’ body type which, when compared to the
individual’s appraisal of her own body often results in body dissatis-
faction. In the case of women, body dissatisfaction can become weight
concerns, a focus, perhaps even an obsession, with avoiding gaining
even 2 to 5 pounds for fear that it will negatively impact one’s well-being
(Wertheim, Paxton, & Blaney, in press). For men, this body dissatis-
faction may take the form of concern about overweight or it may be
expressed as a drive for muscularity (e.g., McCreary & Sasse, 2000).
Sociocultural theories generally seek to explain how people learn
and internalise the cultural ideals of attractiveness. For most American
ethnic groups, the cultural ideal for females is the ‘thin ideal’ (Grabe
& Hyde, 2006). Many researchers have pointed out that an unreal-
istically thin ideal for women is promoted in various media (Groesz,
Levine, & Murnen, 2002; Levine & Smolak, 2006). Playboy centrefold
models, Miss America contestants, female television characters, and
models in magazines have all become thinner across time (Mazur, 1986;
Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, & Kelly, 1986), whereas American women
have become heavier. The thin ideal for girls is linked with beauty and
attractiveness, both aspects of current norms for femininity (Mahalik
et al., 2005), as well as with social, educational, and economic success.
The current American ideal male body is muscular and V-shaped.
Parallel to changes in the body ideal for women, in the last 20 years
Playgirl centrefold models and action figures have become more
muscular (Leit, Pope, & Gray, 2001; Pope, Olivardia, Gruber, Borowiecki,
1999). The muscular image is associated with power and masculinity
(Grogan & Richards, 2002; McCreary et al., 2005; Smolak & Stein, 2006).
While extreme muscularity of the sort associated with body builders
or portrayed in ‘action figures’ (e.g., Pope et al., 1999) is unattain-
able by most men without resorting to artificial and dangerous means,
the general form of the muscular ideal is much more consistent with
the ‘normal’ adult male physique than the thin ideal is with the ‘normal’
adult female physique. Thus, puberty moves boys towards the male

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244 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

ideal but takes girls away from the female ideal. This difference in the
similarity between the ideal and the norm also reflects the patriarchal
system’s power differential.
Thompson et al.’s (1999) Tripartite Model of Body Dissatisfaction is
an example of a sociocultural theory. In this theory, three sociocultural
influences – media, peers, and parents – are seen as the primary causal
determinants of the body ideal. However, this will not translate to body

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dissatisfaction unless the girl has internalised the thin ideal or is high on
social comparison of physical attributes. If she possesses these mediating
characteristics, then she is likely to develop body dissatisfaction. There
has been some support for this model with adolescent girls and boys
(Keery, van den Berg, & Thompson, 2004; Smolak & Stein, 2006).

Feminist critique
Why not just continue to develop the sizeable body of literature on
sociocultural factors? What can feminist perspectives add to the discus-
sion? First and foremost, most sociocultural theories do not explicitly
consider gender, despite the gendered nature of attractiveness ideals,
body image, and eating problems. Gender differences need to be faced
and explained directly. This is particularly important given the growing
trend to explain eating problems and even body dissatisfaction in terms
of genetics and neuropsychology (e.g., Bulik & Tozzi, 2004; Kaye, Frank,
Bailer, & Henry, 2005) and to treat body image and eating problems
pharmacologically. Feminist theories highlight gender and the meaning
of gender.
Furthermore, feminists emphasise that the experience of growing up
and living as a male is very different from the ‘lived experience’ of
being female. The power and status of men differs from the power and
status of women. Analysing these differences may lead to a focus on
different potential causal factors. For example, non-feminist sociocul-
tural theorists often do not discuss sexual violence or sexual harass-
ment as causative in body image or eating disorders (e.g., Stice’s, 2002,
meta-analysis of risk factors for eating disorders), variables that feminist
theories argue need substantial attention. Indeed, traditional empiricists
might claim that these variables cannot be considered as causal factors
because they cannot be experimentally manipulated and are rarely
studied prospectively. Feminists suggest that this argument exemplifies
how the power structure of science has developed to minimise, and
even negate, women’s experiences. Thus, feminist explanations adopt
a different position when analysing and interpreting theory, method,
and data.

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 245

The influence of feminist theory on psychological theory

and research

Feminist theorists argue that the patriarchal structure of society is

reproduced through societal institutions and the everyday behaviours
of individuals. Women’s bodies and the treatment of women’s bodies
are believed to be an important site for oppression. In a patriarchal

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culture, women do not have control over their own bodies. The main
value of women’s bodies is to appear attractive to men. Attractiveness
and ‘sexiness’ are important aspects of current definitions of femininity.
Mahalik and colleagues (2005) recently developed a measure of feminine
norms in dominant American culture. Five of the eight norms deal
with appearance and relationships. Women are supposed to be ‘nice in
relationships,’ maintain romantic relationships, exhibit sexual fidelity,
invest in appearance, and be thin.
These norms are encouraged in a variety of ways. For example, Ward
(1995) found that the most common theme among television shows
popular to adolescents is that women attract men through their phys-
ical appearance. The sexual subordination that is part of women’s role
helps maintain women’s lower status in at least two ways. First, while
women who comply with the cultural demand for sexual subordina-
tion are seen as non-threatening, they also are not likely to increase
their status (Matschiner & Murnen, 1999). Furthermore, many theorists
have noted that the beauty work required to maintain the thin ideal is
believed to represent a form of ‘backlash’ against the rights that women
have gained (Bordo, 1993). To the extent that women need to exert
energy to try to meet beauty ideals, they will have less energy to fight
oppression. Indeed, researchers have documented that focusing on one’s
body interferes with cognitive functioning (e.g., Fredrickson, Roberts,
Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998; Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004). Also, to the
extent that women do not meet these ideals, they will experience body
dissatisfaction and self-doubt.
In addition to the work required to aspire to societal notions of sexual
attractiveness and ‘beauty,’ daily social interactions provide continual
reminders to women that they do not control their own bodies. Theor-
ists have discussed the role of objectification, degradation, harass-
ment, abuse, and assault. For example, one ubiquitous reminder is the
objectification of women. Objectification involves treating women as
bodies to be looked, primarily for men’s sexual pleasure. Men’s bodies,
on the other hand, are defined as agentic and functional, as acting
to accomplish things rather than simply to be enjoyed by others

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246 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

(Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Thus, being attractive becomes the raison
d’etre for the female body.
Objectification of the female body is demonstrated in a variety of
ways including the way the media display and sometimes dismember
female bodies, using them to sell products. In a recent review, Ward
(2003) concluded that women were objectified in the mass media more
than men. Objectification is present in many realms including fashion

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and fitness magazines (Rudman & Verdi, 1993); music television videos
(Sommers-Flanagan, Sommers-Flanagan, & Davis, 1993); and prime-time
television shows and commercials (Lin, 1998). In a recent meta-analysis,
Levine, Murnen, Smith, and Groesz (2006) found that the correlations
between the frequency of use of various media and amount of body
image dissatisfaction were stronger among women than men. Similarly,
exposure to the thin body ideal in experimental research is consistently
linked to increased body dissatisfaction in women (Groesz et al., 2002).

Objectification Theory

The feminist psychological theory about the body that has received the
most empirical attention is Objectification Theory. Both Fredrickson
and Roberts (1997) and McKinley and Hyde (1996) have developed
psychological theories that tie the societal objectification of women to
self-objectification. In self-objectification, women have internalised the
gaze of the outside observer/evaluator. This means women will judge
and monitor their own bodies to make sure that they are sufficiently
attractive, that they meet societal standards. Even elementary school
girls are aware of and have internalised these standards. A substantial
minority of elementary school girls – studies commonly report 40 per
cent by 4th and 5th grade – are concerned about being or becoming
too fat (see Smolak & Levine, 2001, for a review). Self-objectification
is believed to have psychological consequences, including body shame,
anxiety, lack of ‘peak’ emotional states, and lack of internal body aware-
ness. These phenomena, in turn, are predicted to put women at risk for
eating disorders.
Fredrickson and Roberts’ (1997) model has been tested through correl-
ational and experimental research. Many correlational studies have
found that self-objectification scores are related to eating disorder scale
responses, a relationship mediated by amount of body shame (Calogero,
Davis, & Thompson, 2005; Fredrickson et al., 1998; Greenleaf, 2005;
Miner-Rubino, Twenge, & Fredrickson, 2002; Muehlenkamp & Saris-
Baglama, 2002; Noll & Frederickson, 1998; Slater & Tiggemann, 2002;

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 247

Tiggemann & Kuring, 2004; Tiggemann & Lynch, 2001; Tiggemann &
Slater, 2001; Tylka & Hill, 2004).
McKinley and Hyde (1996) developed the Objectified Body Conscious-
ness (OBC) Scale as a way to measure a similar set of ideas. They
argued that objectification increases as girls develop sexually during
puberty and that over time some women internalise the objectification,
resulting in self-surveillance. Because the beauty standards are so unreal-

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istic, self-surveillance can lead to body shame. Women are told they are
responsible for how they look, so they think they should control their
bodies which leads to the third dimension of control beliefs. Thus, the
three components measured by their scale are body surveillance, body
shame, and appearance-control beliefs. OBC scores have been linked
to low body esteem (McKinley, 1998, 1999; McKinley & Hyde, 1996;
Noll & Frederickson, 1998) and eating problems (Fredrickson et al.,
1998; McKinley, 1999; Muehlenkamp & Saris-Baglama, 2002; Noll &
Frederickson, 1998; Slater & Tiggemann, 2002, Tiggemann & Lynch,
2001; Tiggemann & Slater, 2001), supporting their model.
Experimental manipulations have been designed to determine the
effects of self-objectification. These studies are crucial because they
allow us to assess the potential role of self-objectification as a causal
risk factor (Kraemer et al., 1997) for body image problems. Fredrickson
et al. (1998) asked college women to try on a swimsuit or sweater
supposedly to measure consumer choice, but in reality to induce self-
objectification. Compared to women who tried on a sweater, those in
the swimsuit condition reported higher levels of body shame which
predicted restrained eating on another task. Gapinski, Brownell, and
LaFrance (2003), as well as Hebl et al. (2004), have replicated this finding.
Roberts and Gettmann (2004) manipulated self-objectification through
a sentence scramble task involving objectification-related words and
found increases in self-surveillance. Finally, Calogero (2004) led women
participants to believe that they would be interacting with a man for five
minutes of ‘small talk.’ Just the thought of this interaction led women
to experience higher body shame and social physique anxiety than
the expectation that they would be interacting with a woman. These
studies show that self-surveillance can be induced by cultural forces, and
its prompting leads women to experience negative feelings about their
bodies.
Prospective studies are another way of establishing the nature of risk
factors (Kraemer et al., 1997). Aubrey (2006) found that exposure to
sexually objectifying television correlated with trait self-objectification
one year later in both college men and women. This finding, along with

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248 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

some experimental data (e.g., Hebl et al., 2004), demonstrates that it

is possible to induce self-objectification in both men and women. This
strengthens the argument that self-objectification and its accompanying
characteristics (e.g., body shame, self-survelliance) are neither genetic
nor evolutionary in nature. Rather, a particular lived cultural experience
leads to self-objectification. When men are treated the way that women
are routinely treated, they will behave like women commonly do. It is

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simply the case that in today’s Western societies, women are more likely
to encounter objectifying experiences.
For example, in one study college, women and men kept diaries of
sexist experiences (Swim, Hyers, Cohen, & Ferguson, 2001). Women
experienced more incidents such as demeaning comments and sexual
objectification than men did. Women experienced sexist events having
a personal impact once or twice per week. Sexual harassment has been
linked to body image disturbance in adolescent girls and college women
(e.g., Harned, 2000; Weiner & Thompson, 1997). Sexual harassment is
related to body esteem in elementary school girls but not boys (Murnen
& Smolak, 2000). Sexual harassment serves as a reminder of the potential
for rape. Both child sexual abuse (CSA) and rape victimise women more
frequently than men. CSA and rape have been related to the develop-
ment of eating problems in girls and women (Faravelli, Giugni, Salvatori,
& Ricca, 2004; Smolak & Levine, in press; Smolak & Murnen, 2002).
Thus, girls and women may learn to monitor and be ashamed of their
bodies through direct, body shape-related messages (e.g., comments
from peers) or through other ‘lived experiences’ of being female (e.g.,
CSA or rape).
Furthermore, there are individual differences in self-objectification/
self-surveillance that support the idea that the culture helps influence
these phenomena. Tiggemann and Slater (2001) found that former
dancers were higher on self-objectification than non-dancers. McKinley
and Hyde (1996) indicated that women in highly feminine activities
showed elevated OBC scores. Daubenmeier (2005) reported that yoga
participants showed less self-objectification, greater satisfaction with
physical appearance, and fewer disordered eating attitudes than non-
participants.
As women age they are believed to experience less objectification, so it
is not surprising that there are age differences in many of the constructs
described in Objectification Theory. Tiggemann (2003) reviewed the
research on age differences in body constructs and found that there is
stability in women’s body dissatisfaction across age. Across all age
groups, women want to be thinner, show concerns about weight and

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 249

diet, and experience low body satisfaction. However, the importance

of appearance decreases as women age. So even though women grow
further from the ideal, it does not result in greater body dissatisfaction.
McKinley (1999) found that mothers of undergraduate women showed
lower body surveillance than their daughters. Self-objectification, body
monitoring, and appearance anxiety decreased with age in another
cross-sectional study (Tiggemann & Lynch, 2001). In a 10-year follow-up

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study of college women and their mothers, McKinley (2006) found that
body esteem increased across time among the younger women, perhaps
the result of less objectification, indicated by lower body surveillance,
and an increased focus on other roles. Overall, then, objectification
indices appear to be highest among young women who are arguably the
target of the sexualised ideal and the attention it brings. Nonetheless,
middle age women are not immune to the effects of objectification.

Summary
The empirical support for Objectification Theory shows that it is
possible to link societal phenomena identified by feminist theories to
psychological processes. Furthermore, the presence of experimental and
longitudinal data supporting major tenets of the theory strengthens the
arguments that (a) gender differences in the definition and meaning
of attractiveness are socioculturally rooted; (b) the status differences
between the genders in patriarchal societies are crucial to understanding
the roots of body image and eating problems, including the gendered
nature of these problems; and (c) feminist strategies in research, treatment,
and prevention will be necessary to understand and address these prob-
lems. Specifically, future research should continue to examine the effect
of various disempowering experiences on women’s bodies and their lives.
Feminist perspectives help us understand more about how various
‘lived experiences’ of women, including sexual violence and discrimin-
ation, affect their bodies and their status in society. Such factors have
frequently been ignored in previous sociocultural research but objecti-
fication theory data have begun to call attention to their importance.
Such findings may be useful in attempts to design programmes aimed
at preventing body image and eating problems.

Prevention
The cost of body image problems is substantial, particularly given
the causal relationship of these problems to eating disorders, cosmetic
surgery, steroid and food supplement abuse, excessive exercise, extreme
calorie restrictive dieting, and other potentially dangerous forms of

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250 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

body shaping techniques (e.g., Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2004; Stice, 2002;
Wertheim et al., in press). Arguably, the most effective way to elim-
inate or at least substantially reduce body image and eating problems
is through prevention programmes (Levine & Smolak, 2006). Although
there are numerous approaches to prevention and there are ongoing
debates about which are most effective, it is evident that prevention
programmes for body image and eating problems can indeed work

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(Levine & Smolak, 2006).
The adoption of feminist perspectives holds promise for preven-
tion. In one of the earliest feminist programmes, Niva Piran (1999)
instituted a longitudinal prevention programme in a residential ballet
school. Piran’s approach emphasised establishing respectful relation-
ships with the students that allowed them to voice their concerns about
the elements of their school environment that were damaging to body
image. Piran then worked with the students and the staff to actually
change the school environment. This is a crucial piece of the feminist
approach. If we assume that the root causes of body image and eating
problems lie in women’s status and the societal treatment of women,
then it is status and social treatment that must change. Although there
was no control comparison group in Piran’s study, over the course of the
9 years of the study, the prevalence of anorexia nervosa dropped tenfold
and there were no new cases of bulimia nervosa, as well as declines in
rates of other extreme body shaping techniques.
Other feminist prevention programmes have also been tested. Full of
Ourselves (Steiner-Adair et al., 2002), a programme for middle school
girls to help them gain assertiveness as well as to critically evaluate
cultural messages, has resulted in improved body satisfaction. Another
feminist-based programme for 12 to 14 year old girls, GirlTalk, also
led to increased body esteem (McVey, Lieberman, Voorberg, Wardrope,
& Blackmore, 2003) though a replication attempt was not successful
(McVey, Lieberman, Voorberg, Wardrope, Blackmore, & Tweed, 2003).
In a study using college women, very brief exposure (15 minutes) to
feminist principles resulted in increased self-identification as a feminist
and in improved appearance satisfaction. Furthermore, changes in
feminist identity were positively related to changes in body image
(Peterson, Tantleff-Dunn, & Bedwell, 2006).
These successes, limited though they are, underscore the potential
value of a feminist approach to prevention. Larkin and Rice (2005)
argue that we should ‘mainstream body equity’ into our preven-
tion programmes and promote an acceptance of diverse body types.
Similarly, Piran (1999) has argued that we should focus on the

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 Linda Smolak and Sarah K. Murnen 251

many disempowering experiences that women have, including sexual

harassment and prejudice. Piran (e.g., Piran & Cormier, 2005) has further
drawn attention to the various ways that women express their disen-
gagement from their bodies (‘disembodiment’) through behaviours such
as smoking for weight control, plastic surgery, self-harm behaviour (e.g.,
‘cutting’), risky sexual behaviours, and unhealthy weight management
practices. In order to fully address such behaviours, we need to add a

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critique of the culture to our current prevention efforts.
Individuals who develop a critical perspective of the culture through
feminism may be better able to cope with some potentially disem-
powering experiences. For example, Sabik and Tylka (2006) found that
synthesis and active commitment aspects of feminist identification
buffered the effects of perceived sexist events on eating disorders. Rubin,
Nemeroff, and Russo (2004) spoke with self-identified feminist college
women to try to understand their experiences with their bodies. The
women reported that feminist attitudes helped them develop strategies
to resist cultural messages about the body. Feminism did not entirely
change their thoughts about their bodies, though. The authors stated
that, ‘Rejecting beauty ideals is a radical act, particularly for college-age
women for whom appearance norms may be most salient    ’ (Rubin
et al., 2004: 28). Similarly, Swami and Tovée (2006) found that self-
reported feminism was not related to preferred body shape (for others)
in a sample of predominantly college age lesbian and straight women.
Finally, Tiggemann & Stevens (1999) examined the influence of self-
esteem and feminist attitudes on body image across the lifespan. In
women aged 30 to 49, though not in those under 30, feminist attitudes
were negatively related to weight concerns.
Thus, we are left with a complex picture concerning the role of
feminism as a protective factor for body image. Some prevention and
correlational research suggest that feminism is protective. Indeed, there
may be more data supporting feminism as a protective factor than for
any other variable. Yet, there are several studies that fail to find this rela-
tionship, particularly when the sample consists of college-age women.
More research is needed to document the circumstances under which
feminist identification and cognitive schema serve to ameliorate the
impact of sociocultural influences on body image.

Conclusion

Biologically-based explanations of attractiveness and body image

conflate what is common with what is ‘natural.’ Closer examination

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252 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

suggests that these common trends are actually rooted in cultural

prescriptions that are associated with specific gender roles. These gender
roles result in gender differences in body image as well as in the adoption
and use of techniques to achieve a particular body shape, including the
development of eating disorders. While there have long been sociocul-
tural theories to explain body image development and functioning, few
of these have fully addressed the gender issues. In particular, they have

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often skirted the root cause of the gender difference: the status of men
and women in society. This is the focus, and contribution, of feminist
theory.
Feminist approaches, particularly objectification theory, have received
some empirical attention. Correlational data support the relationship
between a wide range of objectification experiences and body image
problems as well as the protective nature of feminist ideology. Perhaps
more importantly, there are now limited experimental and prospective
data supporting objectification theory. Furthermore, some prevention
programmes based on feminist theory have positively affected body
satisfaction; these too may be viewed as experimental evidence of the
efficacy of feminist explanations.
Taken together, these data are beginning to build a strong, consistent
argument for feminist explanations of body image development and
functioning. Feminism provides a more parsimonious explanation of
gender differences in body image than does either evolutionary psycho-
logy or genetics. It also provides a theoretical basis for successful preven-
tion programmes. While much work remains to be done, feminist theory
clearly holds promise as both an etiological and clinical framework in
understanding body image.

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13
The Impact of Western Beauty
Ideals on the Lives of Women: A
Sociocultural Perspective

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Rachel M. Calogero, Michael Boroughs, and J. Kevin Thompson

I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep.
That’s deep enough. What do you want – an adorable pancreas?
∼ Jean Kerr

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is good-

ness.
∼ Leo Tolstoy

I wanted to get rid of my stomach, but [I have] no money    [I]

asked my doctor, ‘Don’t you have a pill to give me bulimia?’
∼ Dillaway (2005: 13)

According to a recent survey of 3,300 girls and women across 10 countries,

90 per cent of all women aged 15 to 64 worldwide want to change at least
one aspect of their physical appearance, with body weight ranking the
highest (Etcoff, Orbach, Scott, & D’Agostino, 2004). This finding suggests
that women’s anxiety about their appearance is a global phenomenon,
observed in every country studied from Saudi Arabia to the United States.
Beyond body dissatisfaction, a stunning 67 per cent of all women aged 15
to 64 worldwide reported that they actually withdraw from life-engaging,
life-sustaining activities due to feeling badly about their looks. These activ-
ities include giving an opinion, meeting friends, exercising, going to work,
going to school, dating, and going to the doctor.
Body dissatisfaction is considered ‘normative’ in the experience of girls
and women in Western cultures (Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore,
1984; Smolak, 2006). Children as young as 6 to 9 years old express body
dissatisfaction and concerns about their weight (Flannery-Schroeder &
Chrisler, 1996; Schur, Sanders, & Steiner, 2000; Smolak & Levine, 1994).

259

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260 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

Drawing on a sociocultural theoretical model, considerable research has

demonstrated the powerful influence of societal factors on these disturb-
ances in girls’ and women’s lives (Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, & Zoino,
2006; Levine & Smolak, 1996; Thompson, 1992; Thompson, Heinberg,
Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). In particular, ample empirical research is
available documenting associations between idealised images of female
beauty and negative effects on women’s physical, psychological, and

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social well-being (Thompson et al., 1999).
A variety of perspectives have been offered to explain the nature of
female beauty ideals. For example, female beauty ideals may provide
information about fertility (Buss, 1989), reflect the distribution of
economic and political power in society (Hesse-Biber, 1996), and/or
negotiate gender role identity (Nagel & Jones, 1992). Consistent with
a sociocultural approach, the common element among these various
perspectives is the idea that beauty ideals contain information about
more than mere external appearance. However, where individual
perspectives may be limited in their capacity to explain the unreal-
istic nature of beauty ideals and their negative consequences for indi-
viduals, groups, and societies, applying a sociocultural framework offers
a more comprehensive account for the systematic and significant reduc-
tions in the physical, mental, and social well-being of girls and women
(Heinberg, 1996; Thompson et al., 1999).
In the following sections, we review the variation in beauty ideals
over time and the consequences of these ideals on the lives of women
and men within a sociocultural framework. Although the focus will
be primarily on ideals for body weight and shape in Western culture,
examples of beauty ideals that go beyond weight and shape and
represent other cultures will be included where appropriate. Particular
attention is given to the effects of the promotion and pursuit of these
cultural beauty ideals on the lives of women, and increasingly men,
across the world. We begin with an in-depth analysis of women because
the great majority of research over the years has involved an examina-
tion of women.

A history of beauty ideals

The ideal beauty is a fugitive which is never found.

∼ Joan Rivers

External appearance is extremely important in Western cultures (Bartky,

2003; Bordo, 1993). The external body has been described as a ‘text

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 261

of culture: it is a symbolic form upon which the norms and practices

of a society are inscribed’ (Lee, 2003: 82). Broadly defined, beauty
ideals represent culturally prescribed and endorsed ‘looks’ that incor-
porate various features of the human face and body, and thus define
the standards for physical attractiveness within a culture. According to
Zones (2000: 87), at any given time and place, there are fairly ‘uniform
and widely understood models of how particular groups of individuals

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“should” look.’
A review of the history of beauty ideals provides the clearest
demonstration of the importance of beauty and appearance in the lives
of women. Surviving texts, artifacts, and images from ancient Egypt
showcase the immense amount of time and effort women invested
toward the perfection of their bodies (Watterson, 1991). The following
review provides considerable evidence that this crusade for thinness,
beauty, and youth among ancient Egyptian women continues 5000
years later among modern Western women.
Between 1400 and 1700, the ideal for female beauty was fat and full.
This is best exemplified in the popular art of this era. For example, in
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, the goddess of beauty was endomorphic in
shape, with a round face and pear-shaped body (see Swami, 2007). In the
19th century, we see a shift toward restricting women’s fullness. In fact,
this period seems to represent the early stages of the mass ‘standardising’
of female beauty in Western culture, and the promotion of unrealistic,
unnatural body ideals. Corsets, the restrictive garment of choice, actually
originated much earlier and were compulsory for aristocratic women
around the 16th century; however, by the 19th century they had become
a hallmark of fashion for women of nearly all classes. Corseted waistlines
gave the illusion of voluptuousness by propping up, pushing out, and
holding in the fuller features of women’s bodies, whittling some women
down to a 15 inch waist (Kunzle, 2004). This idealised hourglass figure
was not possible without special garments, and thus required women to
‘work’ at making their bodies conform to unnatural measurements.
The sheer extremity of corseting must be underscored. The Lancet, a
preeminent British medical journal, published more than an article a
year on the medical dangers of corseting from the late 1860s to the
early 1890s. Late 19th century women’s corseting practices included
sleeping and bathing in corsets (using steel bolts to flatten the waist at
the sides) to permanently reduce and maintain smaller waists (between
14 and 20 inches if possible) (Kunzle, 2004). Corseting is not an arcane
beauty practice relegated to particular historical contexts, however. Even
within the last decade, there are notable examples of women adhering

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262 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

to these beauty practices. Born in 1937, Cathie Jung has worn a corset
for virtually every hour of the day and night since 1983. The only time
that she is not wearing a corset is for the hour it takes her to shower
and dry herself thoroughly. Her waist was 26 inches when she began
serious ‘waist training,’ 23 hours a day, every day of the week. Today,
at a height of 5 feet, 6 inches, and a weight of 135 pounds, Cathie’s
uncorseted waist is 21 inches around, and she wears a 15-inch corset

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(Guinness World Records, 2006).
During the mid-19th century there was an additional conflict in the
portrayal of ideal female beauty. Banner (1983) identified two, distinct
(but both corseted) beauty ideals. On the one hand, there was the image
of the ‘steel engraving lady,’ so named for the illustrative process used to
create her by Currier and Ives. This image embodied frailty by accentu-
ating a slight shape, sloped shoulders, small waist, tapered fingers, and
tiny, delicate feet. In short, she was anything but ‘steel,’ and instead
depicted a vision of ill-health and weakness. This delicate image was
associated not only with beauty, but with high social status and moral
values. On the other hand, there was the image of the ‘voluptuous
woman,’ which gained popularity toward the end of the century. This
image embodied a full-figured, fleshy female that was consonant with
European nude art during this period (Renoir bathers) and the body
shapes of popular American theatre performers, such as Lillian Russell.
In contrast to the unhealthy appearance described above, this image of
beauty depicted a vision of good health, with broadened bottoms and
large-boned figures.
At the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, these
conflicting images seemed to morph into a new ideal, which is best
known as the ‘Gibson Girl.’ Appearing about 1890, this new beauty ideal
contained features from the ‘steel engraving lady’ and the ‘voluptuous
woman,’ and added a few of her own. The Gibson Girl was slender in the
waist and legs, but still curvy with wide hips and large breasts. Corseting
and padding were still used to obtain this image, and in particular to
form the breast into a ‘monobosom’ (Mazur, 1986). This ideal embodied
athletic features as well, as depicted by the rounded calves, erect posture,
and sports attire.
At the end of World War I, waistlines were loosened and skirts were
shortened. The 1920s saw the exchange of padding and corsets for
different undergarments that bound the breasts to create a flat-chested,
boy-like appearance (Caldwell, 1981). Referred to as the ‘flapper’ era, the
beauty ideal of this period had shifted to an almost exclusive focus on
a cosmetically decorated face and slender legs. Miss America pageants

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 263

emerged in 1921. Mary Campbell, who was Miss America in 1922–1923,

was 5 feet, 7 inches, and weighed 140 pounds, which was thin for this
era. Without the adulation of curves, and with the unveiling of the legs,
women of this era embarked on a quest to reduce any signs of secondary
sex characteristics. According to Silverstein, Peterson, and Perdue (1986),
this required the use of rolling machines, iodine, starvation diets, and
strenuous exercise to lose weight. Interestingly, in 1926, the New York

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Academy of Science convened to study the ‘outbreak’ of eating disorders
(Fallon, 1990).
The proliferation of mass media in the 1920s, and throughout the 20th
century, ensured the perpetuation of standardised beauty ideals, and the
homogenisation of Western culture. Motion pictures, magazines, and
singular Hollywood stars informed women and men about what was
beautiful. The period of the Great Depression saw a return to longer
hemlines and narrow waist, and a resurging emphasis on secondary sex
characteristics. While a slender figure was still ideal, a flat stomach was
emphasised as well as long legs. Moving into the 1940s, legs were the
focal point of ideal beauty, as depicted in the popular World War II
pinup of Betty Grable and her ‘million dollar legs’ and rear end. Legs
were enhanced and emphasised with hemmed stockings, garters, and
high-heeled shoes. In addition, bust size was growing in the 1940s, and
eventually breasts would assert themselves as the dominant feature of
the female beauty ideal.
This trend toward larger busts and an hourglass figure can be
observed throughout the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s in the Hollywood and
fashion industry. During this period, waist size declined so that the
body exhibited conspicuous curves, with measurements of 36-23-36.
Playboy magazine glorified full-breasted women (Garner, Garfinkel,
Schwartz, & Thompson, 1980), with Hollywood stars such as Marilyn
Monroe and Jane Mansfield exemplifying the proper bust-to-waist-to-
hip-ratios. Since 1950, almost all Miss America winners have had bust-
hip symmetry. The beauty ideal of the 1950s and ’60s seemed to exem-
plify the same slender but voluptuous figure of the 19th century. During
this period, researchers reported that women desired smaller ideal body
sizes and larger ideal breast sizes compared to their actual self-rated body
and breast sizes (Jourard & Secord, 1955). Notably, DuPont introduced
Lycra in 1960, which made the use of whalebone or metal frames used
in corsets obsolete, but not the corset itself. In effect, the corset became
the girdle.
Then came Twiggy. Debuting in the United States in 1966, the 17-year
old model was spread across the pages of Seventeen and Vogue, with

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264 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

skeletal measurements of 31-22-32. She was described by Newsweek

as ‘four straight limbs in search of a woman’s body’ (Fallon, 1990).
Twiggy’s flat-chested, hipless, anorexic image peaked in popularity
in 1976, but never completely dominated the female beauty ideal.
However, the trend toward increasingly slender bodies had taken hold.
Although the movement toward a thinner ideal body shape was obvious
merely by scanning fashion magazines, researchers quantified and

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confirmed this change in shape. Garner et al. (1980) revealed similar
trends in the body measurements of Playboy centrefold models and
Miss America pageant contestants. Specifically, between 1959 and 1978,
average weights (based on age and height), bust measurements, and hip
size decreased, whereas height and waist size increased. Other research
has confirmed this slenderisation trend. The body shapes of English
fashion models showed similar decreases in bust and hip measurements
with corresponding increases in waist size and height between 1967 and
1987 (Morris, Cooper, & Cooper, 1989). This particular combination
of measurements was described as creating a ‘tubular’ body shape. By
comparison, the body measurements of average women during this
time period were significantly higher than the body measurements of
models and pageant winners.
In the 1970s, the focus shifted more explicitly from breasts to buttocks,
and small buttocks were preferred over large breasts by both men and
women (Fallon, 1990). In the 1980s, a more muscular image of female
beauty had emerged, as depicted by celebrities such as Jane Fonda
and Victoria Principal. Jane Fonda, feminine and attractive, became
the prototype of the fit American woman with her fitness videos that
first came out in 1982. Broad shoulders were in vogue, and shoulder
pads were everywhere. However, the focus remained on a thin, slender
body shape. Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, and Kelly (1986) demonstrated
significant decreases in the bust-to-waist ratios of models portrayed in
Ladies Home Journal and Vogue magazines between the 1970s and 1990s.
An update of Garner et al. (1980) showed that the trend in women’s
body size did not reverse itself between 1979 and 1988, but either
stabilised at a below average weight as observed for Playboy centrefold
models or continued to decrease as observed for Miss America contest-
ants (Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, & Ahrens, 1992). Wiseman et al.
(1992) demonstrated that 69 per cent of Playboy centrefold models and
60 per cent of Miss American contestants were 15 per cent or more below
their expected weight for their height, indicating that these ‘ideals’ of
female beauty met one of the central criteria for anorexia nervosa based
on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders – Fourth

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 265

Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The high percentage of

these ideal images displaying below normal weights corresponded with
an increase in magazine articles focused on weight loss (diet-for-weight-
loss, exercise, diet-exercise) in popular women’s magazines during this
period, with exercise articles surpassing the prevalence of diet articles
after 1983 (Wiseman et al., 1992).
By the 1990s, the female beauty ideal was synonymous with the

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‘thin ideal’ (Owen & Laurel-Seller, 2000). Spitzer, Henderson, and Zivian
(1999) updated and extended the research by Garner et al. (1980)
and Wiseman et al. (1992), demonstrating that the body sizes (based
on measures of BMI) of Miss America pageant contestants continued
to decrease throughout the 1990s, whereas Playboy centrefold models
remained below average weight. Recently, Seifert (2005) confirmed this
trend toward increased thinness in Playboy centrefold models over the
last 50 years (1953–2003); however, based on analyses of anthropo-
metric measurements, WHR did not vary over time, suggesting that the
models did not become less curvaceous over this period. According to
Sypeck et al. (2006), there were fewer Playboy centrefold models below
normal weight between 1989 and 1999 (10–15 per cent) compared to
between 1979 and 1988 (13–19 per cent). These researchers suggest that
the downward trend in the weights of the models may have stabilised
as indicated by Wiseman et al. (1992), and possibly begun to reverse
itself. In addition, they did not confirm Seifert’s findings regarding
WHR, and rather supported the increased prevalence of a ‘tubular’
shape.
The Psychology Today surveys have documented an increasing shift
toward a more muscular female body ideal over the last three decades
(Garner, 1997). Women’s dissatisfaction with their muscle tone has
increased over time, rising from 30 per cent in 1972, to 45 per
cent in 1985, and to 57 per cent in 1997. In the 1997 survey, 43
per cent of the entire sample, and 67 per cent of the women in
the sample with pre-existing body dissatisfaction, reported that ‘very
thin or muscular models’ made them feel insecure. Recent research
indicates a discrepancy between women’s actual and ideal level of
muscularity, with women wishing to be more muscular than they actu-
ally are (Cafri & Thompson, 2004). When making social comparisons
with specific celebrities, college women selected Brittany Spears most
frequently, followed by Christina Aguilera and Angelina Jolie (Strahan,
Wilson, Cressman, & Buote, 2006). Thus, while the current Western
ideal for female beauty continues to glorify thinness, this ultra lean
figure also includes a flat stomach, thin waist, boyish hips, long legs,

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266 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

well-developed breasts, well-defined muscles, and flawless skin (Groesz,

Levine, & Murnen, 2002; Harrison, 2003).

Negative consequences of promoting and pursuing cultural

beauty ideals

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No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not
look ugly.
∼ Oscar Wilde

Exposure to beauty ideals

Virtually every form of media exposes individuals to information
about thinness and ideal female beauty (Levine & Harrison, 2004),
including magazines (Englis, Solomon, & Ashmore, 1994), television
shows (Harrison & Cantor, 1997), television advertisements (Richins,
1991), music television (Tiggemann & Slater, 2003), popular films (Silver-
stein, Perdue, et al., 1986), children’s fairy tales (Baker-Sperry & Grauer-
holz, 2003), and children’s videos (Herbozo, Tantleff-Dunn, Gokee-
Larose, & Thompson, 2004). A meta-analytic review of the immediate
impact of experimental exposure to the thin beauty ideal revealed a signi-
ficant association between exposure to media images of the thin ideal and
negative body image in girls and women (Groesz et al., 2002). Other evid-
ence indicates that exposure to non-media-based messages about the thin
beauty ideal also produces adverse effects on women. For example, college
women reported higher body dissatisfaction after exposure to ‘fat talk’
among peers (Stice, Maxfield, & Wells, 2003) and after in vivo exposure
to an attractive peer who typified the thin beauty ideal (Krones, Stice,
Batres, & Orjada, 2005). These associations between exposure to idealised
images of women and increased body image disturbances have been well-
established across research designs, including correlational (e.g., Harrison
& Cantor, 1997), quasi-experimental (e.g., Turner, Hamilton, Jacobs,
Angood, & Dwyer, 1997), experimental (e.g., Irving, 1990), longitudinal
(Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003a), prospective (e.g., Stice & Whitenton,
2002), and meta-analytic studies (Stice, 2002).
In addition to body image variables, exposure to media images has
also been linked to the disproportionate prevalence among women of
disordered eating attitudes (e.g., McCarthy, 1990), dieting and bulimic
pathology (e.g., Stice, 2002), and actual eating behaviours (e.g., Strauss,
Doyle, & Kreipe, 1994; Harrison, Taylor, & Marske, 2006; but see Jansen
& de Vries, 2002, for non-significant effects with subliminal primes).

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 267

For example, Harrison et al. (2006) exposed women and men to overt
media images that were presented with congruent text or incongruent
text. Results revealed significant reductions in the actual eating beha-
viour of women and men when images were presented alone or with
congruent text, but not when presented with incongruent text, and
only in the presence of high body-related self-discrepancies between
how they see themselves and what they believe their peers expect of

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them. Thus, the accumulated evidence indicates that exposure to ideal-
ised images of female beauty is a causal risk factor for body image and
eating disturbances among women in Western cultures (Cusumano &
Thompson, 1997; Polivy & Herman, 2004; Thompson et al., 1999).
Even for individuals who do not purposely expose themselves to
media sources of these beauty ideals, the negative impact of these
sources still seems virtually unavoidable. For example, exposure to ideal-
body television images was associated with preferences for thinness
and approval of plastic surgery even for individuals who expressed
no interest in viewing television shows with topics such as dieting,
nutrition, fitness, and exercise (Harrison, 2003). In other research, high
school boys who reported a mid-range level of appearance schematicity
(extent of investment in appearance as basis for self-evaluation) rated
attractiveness as significantly more important in a potential girlfriend
after viewing appearance-based versus non-appearance-based commer-
cials (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003b).
Thus, direct and indirect exposure to cultural beauty ideals does have
serious negative consequences for women, although as discussed next,
not all women are equally affected.

Internalisation of thin ideal

Researchers have established that people associate beauty with good-
ness: ‘What is beautiful is good’ (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972;
Seid, 1989). Attractive people are assumed to be better liked, more
sociable, independent, exciting, less deviant, and less stigmatised (e.g.,
Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991). Dellinger and Williams
(1997) found that American women who adhere to cultural stand-
ards of female attractiveness (e.g., wearing make-up to work) are more
likely to be viewed as heterosexual, healthy, and competent. This
research is consistent with Wolf’s (1991: 14) writings, which assert
that beauty ideals are ‘always actually prescribing behaviour rather
than appearance.’ These associations between beauty and goodness and
beauty and behaviour is well-illustrated in a recent advertisement for
Shape magazine, which offers a free guide with each new magazine

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268 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

subscription focused on how to perfect the abdominal area entitled,

Absolution (Shape, 2006).
People’s chronic exposure to these idealised images reinforces the
associations among thinness, beauty, and social rewards (Cash, 1990;
Eagly et al., 1991; Evans, 2003). For example, women reported that they
expected their lives would change in important and positive ways if they
looked like the ideal portrayals of women in the media (Engeln-Maddox,

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2006), such as being happier, better adjusted, more socially competent,
romantically successful, and improving job opportunities.
Such an emphasis on idealised images and their associated rewards
can lead to a personal acceptance or internalisation of cultural beauty
ideals (Heinberg, Thompson, & Stormer, 1995; but see Engeln-Maddox,
2006, for slightly different interpretation). Thin-ideal internalisation refers
to the extent to which individuals cognitively accept the thin societal
standard of attractiveness as their own personal standard and engage
in behaviours designed to help them meet that standard (Thompson
et al., 1999). Women who have internalised cultural beauty ideals are
more vulnerable to experiencing the negative outcomes associated with
exposure to beauty ideals than women who have not internalised these
ideals. For example, while all women exposed to appearance-based
images (versus non-appearance based) reported higher levels of anger,
anxiety, depression, and overall appearance dissatisfaction (Cattarin,
Thompson, Thomas, & Williams, 2000), these effects were stronger for
women who reported pre-existing thin-ideal internalisation, high body
dissatisfaction, and interest in appearance-based television programmes.
Dittmar and Howard (2004a) found that adult, professional women who
reported higher levels of thin-ideal internalisation experienced more
body anxiety following exposure to thin-ideal media than women with
lower levels of internalisation. In addition, women working in secondary
schools reported less body-focused anxiety when exposed to average-size
models compared to no models, whereas women working in fashion
advertising reported no such benefits (Dittmar & Howard, 2004b).
Recent studies have differentiated the use of media as an informa-
tional source for how to be attractive from the internalisation of media
ideals, with the former demonstrating weaker, albeit significant, associ-
ations with measures of body dissatisfaction in non-clinical and eating
disorders samples (Calogero, Davis, & Thompson, 2004; Thompson, van
den Berg, Roehrig, Guarda, & Heinberg, 2004). Empirical evidence has
linked thin-ideal internalisation to experiences of self-objectification,
negative affect, negative body image, and disordered eating in young
girls, college women, and women with eating disorders (e.g., Calogero,

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 269

Davis, & Thompson, 2005; Heinberg et al., 1995; Sands & Wardle, 2003;
Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994), and it is considered a
causal risk factor for body image and eating disturbances (Stice, 2002;
Thompson & Stice, 2001).
Recent longitudinal research suggests that thin-ideal internalisation
may not stem directly or exclusively from media influences (e.g., tele-
vision and magazine exposure). In a 1-year study of prepubescent

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girls, television viewing at Time 1 was associated with the desire for
a thin body as an adult and disordered eating at Time 2, but did
not predict a current desire for a thin body at Time 2 (Harrison &
Hefner, 2006). These researchers note that the girls’ current preferences
for thin body shape were already quite thin, which suggests that a
thin ideal had already been internalised. These findings are consistent
with other research on body and eating-related disturbances in pread-
olescent samples. For example, parental feedback has been identified
as an important source for conveying sociocultural ideals and atti-
tudes about appearance to preadolescent girls (Levine & Smolak, 1996;
McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2003). Smolak, Levine, and Schermer (1999)
demonstrated that the body esteem scores of elementary school girls
were related to both maternal dieting and parental complaints about
their own weight. McKinley (1999) provided further evidence that
mothers’ experiences with their own bodies may influence daughters’
experiences with their own bodies in a sample of 151 undergraduate
women and their middle-aged mothers. Specifically, McKinley demon-
strated significant, positive relationships between mothers’ and daugh-
ters’ body esteem and body surveillance. In addition, higher body shame
in mothers was associated with lower body esteem in daughters, and
daughters’ perceptions that her family approved of her appearance signi-
ficantly predicted her body esteem. Phares, Steinberg, and Thompson
(2004) found that, compared to boys, girls exhibited greater body image
concern, received more information regarding weight and dieting from
their parents, and tried more actively to stay thin. Thus, it is clear
that the thin ideal is not promoted exclusively by the media as the
role of parents and peers appear to be powerful contributing factors
to thin-ideal internalisation in preadolescent girls. However, family
and peer groups live in the same cultural context, and therefore are
not immune to the exposure, pressures, and internalisation of female
beauty ideals. An important area of future research is to investigate thin-
ideal internalisation within family and peer-based groups to improve
knowledge about how beauty ideals are indirectly transmitted to young
girls.

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270 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

Broader societal patterns: Discrepancy and objectification

Two broader societal patterns can be gleaned from this historical

evidence regarding the evolution, prevalence, and internalisation of
beauty ideals: cultural beauty ideals perpetuate chronic discrepancies in
women and the chronic objectification of women. These patterns are
interrelated, and each of these patterns promotes and produces negative

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effects for women’s lives, which will be delineated in the sections below.

Chronic discrepancy
Considerable evidence highlights the discrepancy that is concomitant
with striving toward ideal beauty standards. The majority of women’s
bodies have always been, and will continue to be, discrepant from
the contemporary ideals of female beauty. Between the 19th and 21st
century, women have tried to have no waist but large hips, to be full-
figured but thin, to have no breasts but lower body curves, and today, to
have sizable breasts and muscle, but no body fat. Female beauty ideals
have almost always promoted the attainment of physically incompat-
ible body attributes. Indeed, the current beauty ideal may represent the
ultimate in unrealistic and unnatural attributes for female beauty: ultra
thinness and large breasts (Thompson & Tantleff, 1992). This ‘curva-
ceously thin’ ideal for women is virtually impossible to achieve without
some form of surgical modification, which makes the current standards
of female beauty particularly dangerous (Harrison, 2003).
The obvious biological reality is that breasts are composed of fat tissue
(Sherwood, 1993), and therefore breast fat is positively correlated with
total body fat (Katch et al., 1980). It is impossible to lose body fat
(in attempt to meet the thin standard) and maintain breast size (in
attempt to meet the bust size standard) because as fat disappears, so
does breast tissue. In addition, some bodies are just not compatible with
current ideals because of their particular somatotype, or body shape
(Brownell, 1991). In short, the beauty ideals themselves contain obvious
biological discrepancies for most female bodies, and thus culture and
physiology are in perpetual conflict. As Harrison (2003) describes, to
meet the current ‘curvaceously thin’ ideal, women are at risk for doing
‘double damage’ to their bodies as they try to reduce and reshape the
lower half through disordered eating and exercise practices while trying
to enlarge and reshape the upper half through surgical practices and drug
use (e.g., herbal supplements). In fact, Harrison’s research demonstrates
that body image and eating disturbances are not the only potential
adverse outcomes of exposure to contemporary standards for female

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 271

beauty: both women and men were more likely to express approval for
body-altering surgical procedures after exposure to ideal body television
images. Considering these patterns of behaviour, it could be argued that
the corset and the girdle have been replaced with diet, exercise, and
plastic surgery. Considering this perpetual conflict between culture and
physiology, Thompson et al. (1999) observed that, ‘culture appears to
be winning.’

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As early as 6-years-old, children report discrepancies between how
they actually look and how they wished they looked, and this discrep-
ancy increases over time with children preferring smaller ideal body
sizes as they get older, especially girls (Gardner, Sorter, & Friedman,
1997). When asked to rate different figures representing varying sizes of
women’s bodies, 72 per cent of 1,056 adolescent girls defined their ideal
body as smaller than their actual body (Wertheim, Paxton, & Tilgner,
2004). The average American woman is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and weighs
140 pounds whereas the average American model is 5 feet, 11 inches tall,
and weighs 117 pounds (National Eating Disorders Association [NEDA],
2002). NEDA also reports that fashion models are thinner than 98 per
cent of American women. If the infamous Barbie doll’s measurements
were extrapolated to that of an average woman, she would lack the
necessary 17 to 22 per cent body fat for menstruation, and her measure-
ments would be 39-21-33, which is dangerously unattainable (Turkel,
1998). The probability of a woman attaining Barbie’s measurements is
less than 1 in 100,000 (Norton, Olds, Olive, & Dank, 1996). Researchers
have consistently acknowledged that only 5 to 10 per cent of women
can actually acquire and easily maintain the desired fat-free body, which
means 90 to 95 per cent of women cannot naturally acquire it.
Despite this reality, girls are socialised to believe that they can manipu-
late and change their bodies if they try hard enough (Becker & Hamburg,
1996). Repeated exposure to the sheer prevalence of these idealised
images of women, and media’s blurred boundaries between fictitious
and real women, fosters the belief that these images are actually attain-
able and realistic (Freedman, 1984; Holstrom, 2004). Evidence exists
documenting that health, beauty, and fashion products are strategically
marketed to create an awareness of a ‘gap’ between the consumer and the
ideal, and then to provide the solution in a product (see Becker, 2004).
Evidence also exists documenting that media images of women are often
computer-merged images of different models, and require a tremendous
investment of time and finances from multiple professionals/trainers
(e.g., agent, clothing, make-up, hair, and exercise/diet) to control and
manipulate appearance, which is unrealistic for the average woman;

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272 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

however, many women still consider these images to be appropriate

comparisons for what they should look like (Heinberg, 1996; Wolf,
1991).
According to social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954), people
tend to make downward social comparisons with relevant comparison
targets to enhance their self-image. That is, people prefer to compare
themselves to social others who may be worse off or rated more

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negatively on some variable in order to feel better about themselves.
However, many women report that they make upward social compar-
isons with media-presented models as comparative targets when evalu-
ating their physical appearance (e.g., Irving, 1990; Wertheim, Paxton,
Schutz, & Muir, 1997). These patterns run counter to the literature on
self-enhancement and social comparison theory.
A recent experimental investigation offers some explanation for this
phenomenon (Strahan et al., 2006). First, compared to men, women
demonstrated more spontaneous irrelevant, upward social comparisons
and evaluated themselves more negatively, but only for appearance and
not other domains, such as social skills. Second, when beauty ideals
were made salient, both women and men evaluated their appearance
more negatively and made upward social comparisons with irrelevant
(professional models) versus relevant (peers) targets. The salience of the
beauty ideals alone, and not necessarily their personal endorsement
of them, was enough to influence participants’ self-appraisal processes.
These researchers suggest that women chronically engage in upward
social comparisons with irrelevant targets such as fashion models and
celebrities because the cultural norms for appearance imply that these
standards are attainable, relevant, and appropriate by all women.
It is important to note that all participants in this study were
exposed to only three advertisements reflecting gender-specific cultural
beauty ideals. Being exposed to the same number of images related to
cultural beauty standards seemed to equalise the effects of exposure
to these ideals on men and women. However, we know that women
are bombarded with messages about their appearance whereas the
same messages are not as ubiquitous for men, and thus we can imagine
the effects on women in the real world (Andersen & DiDomenico, 1992).
On the basis of this cumulative evidence, then, it is not surprising that
appearance-related comparisons occur regularly in the lives of women,
and they are associated with sizable self-discrepancies that contribute
to depression, anxiety, body dissatisfaction, body shame, and eating
disordered behaviours (Markham, Thompson, & Bowling, 2005; Durkin
& Paxton, 2002; Stormer & Thompson, 1996).

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 273

Chronic objectification
The prevalence of idealised images of women’s bodies throughout
history and across media provides the clearest evidence of the pervasive
objectification of women. As defined by Bartky (1990: 26), ‘a person
is sexually objectified when her sexual parts or sexual functions are
separated out from the rest of her personality and reduced to the

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status of mere instruments or else regarded as if they were capable of
representing her.’ Reducing women’s bodies to the status of objects
renders them available for visual inspection, measurement, evaluation,
and manipulation. Examples of this pervasive sexual objectification
include catcalls, ‘checking out’ or gazing at women’s bodies, sexual
comments about appearance, sexualised visual depictions across media,
pornography, sexual harassment, and sexual violence (e.g., Fredrickson
& Roberts, 1997; Lin, 1998; Rudman & Verdi, 1993; Swim, Hyers,
Cohen, & Ferguson, 2001; Thompson et al., 1999). Murnen and Smolak
(2000) demonstrated that a remarkable 75 per cent of elementary school
girls (3rd through 5th grade) reported experiences of sexual harass-
ment. In recent qualitative research, Eck (2003) illustrated the differ-
ential responses of women and men to viewing nude media images
of women and men, confirming that familiar cultural scripts exist for
viewing, evaluating, and commenting on women’s bodies, but not for
men’s bodies. Among grade-school girls and boys between the ages of
6 and 12, girls are already demonstrating more consistent responses
to objectified images of women that relate to how they feel about
their bodies, whereas boys are not displaying these response patterns
(Murnen, Smolak, Mills, & Good, 2003). In a recent study of 52,677
heterosexual adults aged 18 to 65 based on survey data collected by
Elle magazine, women reported greater dissatisfaction with their appear-
ance and were more likely to avoid situations where their bodies were
on display, such as wearing a swimsuit in public, compared to men
(Frederick, Peplau, & Lever, 2006). This study also found that while
men felt better about their bodies than women across most of the
weight span, among underweight individuals the women felt better than
men, reflecting the difference in cultural standards for female and male
beauty.
The societal emphasis on women’s appearance and its association
with women’s achievement has contributed to women valuing how
they look more than how they feel or what they can do. As early as
the 1950s, adolescent girls were listing ‘good looks’ as a top aspiration
when asked to write essays on the sort of person they would like to
be when they grow up (Crane, 1956). Indeed, ‘women are encouraged

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274 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

to    feel pleasure through their own bodily objectification, especially

being looked at and identified as objects of male desire’ (Lee, 2003:
88). Researchers have consistently observed stronger links among weight
satisfaction, appearance, and general self-worth in girls compared to
boys (e.g., Bowker, Gadbois, & Cornock, 2003; Tiggemann & Rothblum,
1997). More recently, Tiggemann (2005) demonstrated that adolescent
women who were not overweight, but perceived themselves as over-

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weight or felt dissatisfied with their current weight, reported lower self-
esteem over a 2-year period.
Theories of objectification and objectified body consciousness have
articulated the pervasive nature of women’s objectification and delin-
eated many of the negative psychological consequences it brings to
women (Berger, 1972; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; McKinley & Hyde,
1996; Moradi, Dirks, & Matteson, 2005; Roberts & Gettman, 2004).
Chronic exposure to objectified images of women and personal experi-
ences of objectification encourage women to internalise the objectifying
gaze of others, and to turn this gaze on themselves, referred to as self-
objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Watching the self as an
object requires a psychic distancing between the self and the body,
which may explain how so many women are able to break and bruise
skin, cut to shape themselves, rearrange or amputate body parts, and/or
starve their bodies continuously in an effort to meet the current stand-
ards of beauty. Little empirical research is available that examines the
influence of sexual and self-objectification on the type and degree of
women’s behavioural adherence to beauty ideals. The severity of these
practices described above underscores the importance of investigating
these relationships in future research.
Considerable evidence indicates that women who chronically self-
objectify, or women who experience self-objectifying situations (i.e.,
where there bodies are on display), are vulnerable to a variety of negative
consequences: These consequences include increased levels of body
shame, physique anxiety, depression, disordered eating, and decreased
levels of intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and cognitive performance
in women across age, ethnic, and clinical groups (e.g., Calogero, 2004;
Calogero et al., 2005; Fredrickson et al., 1998; Gapinski, Brownell, &
LaFrance, 2003; Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004; McKinley & Hyde, 1996; Miner-
Rubino, Twenge, & Fredrickson, 2002; Noll & Fredrickson, 1998; Slater
& Tiggemann, 2002; Tiggemann & Kuring, 2004; Tiggemann & Lynch,
2001).
Particularly insidious are the effects of self-objectification on cognitive
performance, indicating that the emphasis on how one looks affects

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 275

more than body dissatisfaction, or even disordered eating; it affects how

well women will perform and meet their potential across a multitude
of personal, academic, and social contexts. For example, Fredrickson
et al. (1998) demonstrated that women wearing a swimsuit reported
more negative affect, performed worse on a math test, and ate less food
compared to women wearing a sweater and men wearing either type of
clothing, with these effects even more pronounced in women reporting

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high trait levels of self-objectification. A similar induced state of self-
objectification disrupted the attentional focus of undergraduate women
when performing a standard Stroop-colouring name task (Quinn, Kallen,
Twenge, & Fredrickson, 2006). Researchers have also demonstrated
that body-related thoughts persist after women are removed from self-
objectifying situations, and the amount of shame experienced medi-
ates the relationship between self-objectification and subsequent body-
related thoughts (Quinn, Kallen, & Cathey, 2006). These findings suggest
that rumination about the body continues to tap cognitive resources
for some period of time even when women are removed from the
self-objectifying situation. The real-world implications of this research
are underscored by Puwar’s (2004) interviews conducted with women
members of the British parliament, which revealed that the legitimacy
of these women in the legislature required suffering constant sexual
remarks, being sexually objectified, and chronically monitoring their
appearance to convey the right amount of femininity; thereby making
it difficult to be effective in government. As Hesse-Biber (1996: 14)
points out, ‘Even a woman with a successful and lucrative career may
fear that her success comes at the expense of her femininity.’ If we
imagine the multitude of seemingly innocuous environments in which
girls and women may be exposed to objectifying experiences, the effects
on women’s achievement and potential are far-reaching.

Beyond weight and shape: The most beautiful bodies are

unchanged

There are aspects to the female beauty ideal that have not been explicitly
articulated, but are clearly associated with Westernised female beauty:
contemporary standards of female beauty incorporate the attributes of
youth, whiteness, and flawlessness (Zones, 2000). Historically, research
on the effects of exposure to and internalisation of Western beauty ideals
has predominantly focused on young, non-disabled, White, European
American women. Research that examines other populations will be
reviewed here.

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276 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

Non-white populations
Increasing attention has been given to the responses and experiences of
ethnic minority women to cultural beauty ideals (Altabe, 1998; Parker
et al., 1995). Research has demonstrated that African American women
have more flexible conceptions of beauty and reject White ideals, which
is linked to higher levels of body image and self-esteem and less guilt

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about body size, despite their objectively higher body weights (Bond &
Cash, 1992; Lovejoy, 2001; Makkar & Strube, 1995; Molloy & Herzberger,
1998; Stevens, Kumanyika, & Keil, 1994). More recently, experimental
research extended the effects of state self-objectification to other ethnic
groups (Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004), demonstrating that wearing a swim-
suit versus a sweater negatively affects women across ethnic groups
(African American, Hispanic, Asian American) and men (although not
to the same degree), not only European American women. State self-
objectification increased body shame and reduced self-esteem and math
performance across all ethnic groups, with Hispanic women reporting
the highest level of body shame and the lowest level of self-esteem
when wearing a swimsuit. Although still negatively affected by state
self-objectification, this research demonstrated that African American
women are least likely to internalise culturally objectifying gazes, and
thus may be least vulnerable to the negative effects of trait and state
self-objectification.
Differences between Euro-American and Latina women in the effects
of beauty ideals may be less pronounced. This may be due to the fact that
Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the United States, and there-
fore they are exposed to the same socialisation practices related to body
weight and shape. In fact, research has indicated that Latina women
born in the United States endorse an even thinner ideal body size than
European American women whereas Latina women who immigrated to
the United States endorsed a larger body ideal (Lopez, Blix, & Blix, 1995).
This is consistent with research demonstrating that children of immig-
rants in the United States may utilise the media as a ‘cultural guide’ to
negotiate social strategies (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001). Both
Latina and White women have reported that bodily self-control is their
primary means to exert control in the social world (Goodman, 2002).
Recent research has identified ‘the whiter the better’ ideal of beauty as
increasingly problematic for Latin American women in Latin American
countries (Casanova, 2004), where female beauty is equated with white-
ness, delicate features, straight, light hair, and light eyes. Qualitative
interviews and quantitative assessments of young, Ecuadorian women
in rural and urban settings revealed that the dominant ideal for female

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 277

beauty is white, although they do apply more flexible criteria to real

Ecuadorian people who reflect a continuum of blackness. Despite the
acknowledged acceptance of this white ideal, 65 per cent of participants
from two different samples did not report that they compare them-
selves to idealised versions of white or Latina beauty. However, the
majority of participants reported that it was compulsory to look good
because it affected job and romantic opportunities, and this was asso-

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ciated with lower body and self-esteem scores in the rural sample. In
addition, there was considerable preoccupation with appearance, with
young women reporting, ‘You always have to think about what others
will think of you’ (Casanova, 2004: 300). Casanova states that women
chronically anticipate reactions to their appearance by the los demás,
which refers to all the people, known and unknown, with whom a
person comes into contact on a daily basis, as well as people who
may know of her or hear something about her. With the increasing
emphasis on idealised images of Latina women such as Jennifer Lopez,
Latina models in swimsuit issues of Sports Illustrated, and the winners
of Miss Universe contests from Puerto Rico (reigning) and the Domin-
ican Republic (former), this pervasive self-objectification among Latin
American women can be expected to increase, and should continue to
be investigated in future research.
The cross-cultural work of Ann Becker and colleagues demonstrates
the impact of Westernised media imagery on adolescent girls in Fiji.
Since the introduction of television in 1995, young Fijian girls have
expressed an increased desire to be thin. Between 1995 and 1998, a cross-
sectional, two-wave cohort study revealed increased eating disordered
attitudes and behaviours among ethnic Fijian adolescents (Becker,
Burwell, Gilman, Herzog, & Hamburg, 2002). This is remarkable consid-
ering that the traditionally revered body in Fiji is large and robust; yet,
there is no corresponding preoccupation with attaining this robust ideal
and an almost explicit disinterest in reshaping the body (Becker, 1995).
The narrative responses of adolescent Fijian girls reveal that young girls
admire and accept Western ideals of beauty portrayed in the media, and
they associate thinness with success and social mobility (Becker, 2004).
In addition, these young girls report increased identification with tele-
vision characters as role models, preoccupation with weight loss, greater
motivation to reshape their bodies through dieting and exercise, and
disordered eating behaviours. According to Becker (2004: 553), ‘Fijian
self-presentation has absorbed new dimensions related to buying into
Western styles of appearance and the ethos of work on the body.’

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278 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

Western beauty ideals have not pervaded every part of the globe,
however. Recent cross-cultural research provides evidence for the
adverse effects of internalising beauty ideals that do not embody thin-
ness, but rather fatness. Utilising a figural rating scale, a sample of 249
Moroccan Sahraoui women rated their ideal body size as significantly
larger than their rating of a healthy body size (Rguibi & Belahsen, 2006).
The desire to lose weight was very low, even among the majority of

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obese women, and educational level did not affect desire to lose weight.
Women who reported dissatisfaction with their body size were more
likely to report trying to gain weight. Consistent with the literature on
thin-ideal internalisation, the internalisation of a fat-ideal was associ-
ated with maternal feedback, men’s approval, and culturally prescribed
clothing, and it is implicated in the prevalence of obesity among
women. Similar results have been reported in samples of Samoans
(Brewis, McGarvey, Jones, & Swinburn, 1998), Malaysians (Swami &
Tovée, 2005), and many African societies (Tovée, Swami, Furnham, &
Mangalparsad, 2006; Treloar et al., 1999).
The cross-cultural differences in perceptions of female beauty
described above are consistent with prior research that has docu-
mented differential associations between socioeconomic status (SES)
and perceptions of physical attractiveness in developing vs. developed
countries. In a review of 144 studies across several continents, Sobal
and Stunkard (1989) observed a positive association between obesity
and SES for women in developing countries, with similar associations
observed for men and children as well. These results support the idea
that obesity is often viewed positively as the feminine beauty ideal in
developing countries (Anderson, Crawford, Nadeau, & Lindberg, 1992;
Brown & Konner, 1987). In contrast, a negative association was observed
between obesity and SES for women in developed countries (Sobal &
Stunkard, 1989). Specifically, obesity was six times more prevalent in
women of lower SES compared to women of higher SES. This reverse
pattern in developed countries was not demonstrated for men or chil-
dren, confirming the unique association between thinness and beauty
for women in developed countries, and the corresponding association
between obesity and stigma, especially for women with the resources
to manipulate weight. Researchers have suggested that thinner, less
curvaceous body types are highly valued in societies where women are
in competition with men for the same resources, mainly jobs (Barber,
1998). This view suggests that in societies where economic opportun-
ities are not available to women, a more curvaceous ideal is dominant
in order to secure economic resources by attracting men.

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 279

The cross-cultural differences in perceptions of female beauty

described above are also challenge the idea that WHR is a universal indic-
ator of female beauty. Some researchers have suggested that women’s
mean WHR (calculated by dividing the circumference of the waist by
the circumference of the hips) is the universal indicator of ideal female
beauty because particular distributions of body fat reflect a women’s
ability to produce healthy, abundant offspring (Buss, 1989; Singh, 1993).

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However, other researchers suggest that WHR may not vary with fertility
to the same degree that body mass index (BMI) varies with fertility
(Swami & Tovée, 2005). For example, comparisons of amenorrheic
women with anorexia and healthy women have shown little distinc-
tion in terms of WHR, which demonstrates that women with effect-
ively zero fertility can have the same WHR as women with effectively
normal fertility (Tovée, Maisey, Emery, & Cornelissen, 1999). In addi-
tion, as WHR increases there is a corresponding increase in BMI, which
suggests that this emphasis on WHR in women may be confounded by
variations in body mass index (BMI). Swami and Tovée recently demon-
strated that BMI, and not WHR, is the primary predictor of female
attractiveness across samples of British and Malayasian subgroups,
accounting for 75 per cent of the variance in attractiveness ratings.
Thus, while body shape cues do seem to be associated with perceived
male attractiveness (Maisey, Vale, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 1999), female
attractiveness is apparently judged based on fatness across cultures
(Furnham, Tan, & McManus, 1997; Puhl & Boland, 2001; Tovée &
Cornelissen, 2001).

Age
As a symbolic marker of bodily change and loss of reproduction, it
has been argued that aging women find themselves in contradiction
with contemporary beauty ideals (Dillaway, 2005; Markson, 2003). Little
systematic research has examined how older women respond to contem-
porary beauty ideals (Pliner, Chaiken, & Flett, 1990). Among a sample
of women aged 61 to 92, Hurd Clarke (2002a) reported that weight
and appearance are still central to women’s identity and their perceived
social value. The majority of women reported some degree of body
dissatisfaction, a desire to lose weight for appearance reasons, and
varying degrees of dieting behaviour. However, in samples of older
women, appearance concerns seem to stem more from socialisation
practices and pervasive social norms for female beauty than media
messages per se; and they appear to reject extreme thin ideals, preferring
more rounded female bodies and emphasise inner beauty (Hurd Clarke,

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280 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

2002b). Managing appearance concerns is difficult for older women

because they have internalised the importance of looking good, but a
focus on appearance is considered vain later in life, and thus appearance
concerns become embedded in weight and health discourse. According
to Pliner et al. (1990), ‘The need outwardly to deny the importance of
appearance, and instead to emphasise the health benefits of staying slim,
undoubtedly reinforce existing cultural norms about the relationship

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between women’s appearances and their social value’ (770).

Disfigurement and disability

Little research is available that examines the impact of cultural beauty
ideals on individuals with varying types of disfigurement or disability.
As with aging bodies, disfigured or disabled bodies contradict contem-
porary standards of beauty. Scholars have discussed the perpetuation
of negative perceptions of disfigurement or disability across various
media (Bowman & Jaeger, 2004). Evil characters in children’s stories
are portrayed as ugly or disfigured (e.g., evil queens and stepmothers;
Scar in The Lion King) whereas good characters are portrayed as beau-
tiful (e.g., Snow White), and these messages continue in adult stories
and films (e.g., Freddy Kruger in Nightmare on Elm Street; Partridge,
1990; Smith, McIntosh & Bazzini, 1999). Quite often when characters
in films become ugly, they are often turning bad or evil (e.g., The Fly,
The Exorcist). Individuals who contradict the norms of beauty are often
viewed as societal deviants and experience dehumanising treatment by
others (e.g., Solomon, 1998). For example, adults with visible burns
are perceived as significantly less attractive, less sociable, and lacking a
sense of humour compared to adults without visible burns (Franks &
Goodrick-Meech, 1997). The recent development of measures to assess
the perceptions of stigma among adult burn victims highlights the
importance of addressing societal effects on populations who are unable
to meet cultural beauty ideals (Lawrence, Fauerbach, Heinberg, Doctor,
& Thombs, 2006).

Pregnancy
Pregnant women in Western cultures are not immune to the pressures
of attaining contemporary standards of beauty. Indeed, medical and
cultural pressures encourage women to gain minimal weight during
pregnancy in order to regain their pre-pregnancy shape/weight as
quickly as possible (Dworkin & Wachs, 2004). Leifer (1977) found
that body image changes during pregnancy evoked negative feelings in
women regardless of how satisfied women were with their body prior to

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 281

pregnancy. Similarly, Fairburn and Welch (1990) found that 40 per cent
of the pregnant women in their sample expressed fear of weight gain in
pregnancy and 72 per cent expressed a fear that they would not be able to
return to their pre-pregnancy body weight. In a sample of healthy preg-
nant women, Skouteris, Carr, Wertheim, Paxton, and Duncombe (2005)
reported that most women do adapt to the changes in their bodies;
however, sociocultural pressures to be thin and appearance comparisons

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with other people were significant predictors of body image disturbance
over the course of the pregnancy.
Robin Wallace (2003), journalist for Fox News, offered her experience
while sitting in her doctor’s office when she was 8 and 1/2 months
pregnant. She was flipping through a fashion magazine and saw a full-
page nude picture of a 5-month pregnant model:

As if women were not already held to an impossible standard of

media-defined beauty, now there is a pregnant ideal that we’re
expected to achieve, and it is an image of Cindy or Demi with
their barely-there bumps. It may be the cruellest standard of all. As
impossible as it will ever be for my body to resemble Cindy’s under
normal circumstances, it’s a thousand times less likely-truly beyond
impossible-in our respective pregnant forms    I can relate to preg-
nant Cindy about as much as I can when she’s on the cover of Vogue.

Beauty ideals as oppressive practices

The beauty practices that women engage in, and which men find
so exciting, are those of political subordinates    The fact that some
women say that they take pleasure in the practices is not inconsistent
with their role in the subordination of women.
∼ Jeffreys (2005: 26–27)

We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge what these detrimental

beauty practices are ultimately conveying about the conditions of the
social world within which women live (Hesse-Biber et al., 2006; Katzman
& Lee, 1997; Thompson et al., 1999). It has been argued that the most
powerful, and most devastating, impact of these narrow, unrealistic,
and ever changing beauty ideals on women is oppression. In applying a
sociocultural approach to examine dangerous beauty-related practices,
it seems critical to consider the effects of the promotion and adher-
ence to these beauty ideals on the legitimation of gender inequality
(Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003; Lorber, 1994).

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282 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

According to Dworkin (1974: 112, emphasis in original):

Standards of beauty describe in precise terms the relationship that an

individual will have to her own body. They prescribe her mobility,
spontaneity, posture, gait, the uses to which she can put her body.
They define precisely the dimensions of her physical freedom.

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Indeed, the promotion and pursuit of beauty ideals is considered
oppressive because of ‘the guise of free will and choice’ that is created
by the media with regard to women’s appearance (Callaghan, 1994).
A survey by Glamour magazine in 1995 uncovered this guise (Haiken,
1997). Glamour asked men, ‘If it were painless, safe, and free, would you
encourage your wife or girlfriend to get breast implants?’ More than half
of the men sampled (55 per cent) answered ‘yes.’ The pressure to meet
current beauty ideals, by surgically altering one’s body, is clearly present
and supported within the culture, and raises the question of women’s
choice.
Internalised beauty ideals and objectified gazes create a context
in which women are vulnerable to the ubiquitous cultural messages
regarding female beauty. The beauty industry renders women even
more vulnerable by portraying real women’s bodies as deficient and
in constant need of alteration. According to Wolf (1991), over 20
billion dollars are spent in America each year on beauty products.
Wolf demonstrated that an alternative use of this incredible sum
over one year could fund 400,000 4-year university scholarships, 20
million airline tickets around the world, one million well-paid home
health aides for homebound elderly, 75,000 women’s music, art, or
film festivals, and 33,000 battered women’s shelters. This chronic
emphasis and valuing of appearance in women not only usurps and
wastes precious cognitive and physical resources (e.g., time, physical
energy, cognitive capacity) that could be utilised for achievement-
based activities, but it requires a considerable financial investment that
can drain the average woman’s economic resources, and thus become
disempowering over time. As noted by Tiggemann and Rothblum
(1997: 592):

Given that billions of dollars are spent annually on diets, diet foods,
and weight-loss surgery, there would be a considerable economic
impact (and backlash against women) should women cease to be
focused on thinness. The economy has much to gain to keep women
blaming themselves (and other women) for their weight.

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 283

Cross-cultural evidence exists supporting this association between

the subordination of women and adherence to beauty ideals. The
Karen women of upland Burma are known in Europe as ‘giraffe-necked’
women. This is because the females of this group are required by local
beauty norms to start wearing brass neck rings from an early age.
Initially, five brass rings are fixed around the neck, and this number is
increased gradually each year to a total of 24 rings. Brass rings are also

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put on the arms and legs, so that a woman might carry between 50 to 60
pounds of brass while walking long distances and working in the fields.
In an attempt to artificially lengthen the neck, this custom stretches the
cervical muscles in the neck and pulls apart the neck vertebrae to such a
degree that women’s necks cannot support their own heads if the rings
are removed (Fallon, 1990; Morris, 1985).
The practice of foot binding in China dates back to at least 900 AD, and
continued until the 20th century (Fallon, 1990; Jeffreys, 2005). From as
early as age 2, girls were forced to bind their toes to the soles of their
feet. A wide bandage was wrapped around the four small toes, bending
them back on themselves, and then woven tightly around the heel to
pull the toes and heel together. Large stones were placed on the top of
the foot to crush the arch. Girls were required to walk on their bound
feet in order to force the feet into their new, buckled shape. Smaller
pairs of shoes were worn every few days. By the time these girls were
adults they were permanently crippled, unable to walk normally – they
had to be carried or crawl to move. A Chinese woman whose feet had
not been bound would not be married. Bound feet were considered the
most beautiful and erotic feature of a woman. Writer Jung Chang (1993)
describes the experience of her grandmother in China whose feet were
bound at the age of two by her mother. Chang explains that when the
feet were bound and the bones were crushed:

My grandmother screamed in agony and begged her [mother] to stop.

Her mother had to stick a cloth into her mouth to gag her    For
years my grandmother lived in relentless, excruciating pain. When
she pleaded with her mother to untie the bindings, her mother would
weep and tell her that unbound feet would ruin her entire life, and
that she was doing it for her own future happiness. (p. 24)

Both of these examples clearly reflect the absolute rejection of

women’s natural body parts and sizes, and the eroticisation of artifi-
cially modified (mutilated) body parts which become necessary to obtain
in order to attain social and economic rewards. The perpetuation of

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284 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

extreme beauty practices is evident across Western cultures as well.

Indeed, scholars have articulated the similarities between contemporary
beauty practices for women in the West (e.g., labiaplasty) and the
mutilation and subordination of women’s bodies in non-Western
cultures (e.g., female genital mutilation; see Jeffreys, 2005). For example,
in earlier centuries, small feet had been a dominant feature of Western
female beauty, and some women did have their small toes amputated

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to fit their feet into smaller, more pointed shoes (Brownmiller, 1984).
Wearing high-heeled, pointed shoes creates opportunities for short and
long-term deformity, increases the risks of twisted ankles, strained backs,
shortened tendons, and torn ligaments, and requires increased vigil-
ance and energy to avoid uneven paths, pavement cracks, elevator grids,
and sidewalk gratings. The bound foot and the high-heeled foot impose
problems of grace and self-consciousness ‘on what would otherwise be a
simple art of locomotion, and in this artful handicap lies its subjugation
and supposed charm’ (Brownmiller, 1984: 186).
Body modification in the form of plastic surgery is an estimated
$8 billion-dollar per year industry in the United States. Based on reports
from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (2004), a remark-
able 1.8 million elective surgical procedures and a little over 7 million
minimally invasive procedures (e.g., Botox injections, chemical peels)
were performed in 2003, with 80 per cent performed on women.
Breast augmentation increased 114 per cent between 1997 and 2001,
and 80 per cent of these surgeries were done on healthy women to
change their breast size – not as part of a postmastectomy. Over one
billion dollars was spent on silicone breast enlargement in 2004 (Hesse-
Biber et al., 2006). Between 2001 and 2003, buttock lifts increased by
78 per cent, tummy tucks by 61 per cent, and Botox injections by
267 per cent.
These remarkable increases in plastic surgery resonate with Morgan’s
(1991) assertion that the severity of pressure experienced by women to
be ‘perfect’ will eventually render women who refuse to have plastic
surgery as deviant. Indeed, the normalisation of plastic surgery is most
clearly evident in mainstream television shows, such as Extreme Makeover
and The Swan, which have large prime-time audiences. People on these
shows compete to undergo large numbers of surgical procedures to
modify their appearance to make it more acceptable and closer to
cultural beauty ideals. This normalised practice of surgically modi-
fying the body to meet beauty standards has caused deadly infections,
gangrene, nerve damage, loss of sensation, loss of body parts, mutili-
ated body parts, and death: these deleterious effects of plastic surgery

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 285

on women’s physical health and psychological well-being have been

reported for decades (Haiken, 1997).

Future trends and shifting focus

Recent research has identified a shifting trend in the responses of over

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3,000 college women and men between 1983 and 2001 across multiple
dimensions of body image (Cash, Morrow, Hrabosky, & Perry, 2004).
Specifically, whereas body image dissatisfaction increased among non-
Black women between 1983 and the early to mid-1990s, body-image
dissatisfaction, overweight preoccupation, and investment in appear-
ance decreased among non-Black and Black women from the mid-1990s
onward. Men’s body image remained relatively stable over this time
period. Perhaps paradoxically, these apparent improvements in body
image have coincided with actual increases in body weight during this
period (Flegal, Carroll, Ogden, & Johnson, 2002). As of yet, it is unclear
whether these trends will continue and how they can be understood
within the current cultural climate of increasingly extreme pressures and
methods to meet unrealistic beauty ideals.
It is possible that societal awareness and public consciousness of body
image and eating disturbances is growing, and programmatic efforts
to enhance media literacy may empower women to reject unrealistic
beauty ideals and the dangerous behaviours required to meet them (Irving
& Berel, 2001; Levine & Piran, 2004; Levine & Smolak, 2001, 2002).
Meta-analytic and literature reviews have indicated that some types of
interventions that target internalisation of cultural beauty ideals, such
as dissonance-based models, produce marked improvements in body
dissatisfaction (Stice & Shaw, 2004; Thompson & Stice, 2001). However,
not all intervention studies have demonstrated positive effects. Irving,
DuPen, and Berel (1998) found that a media literacy-based interven-
tion decreased thin-ideal internalisation and perceived realism of media
images, but there was no corresponding reduction for body dissatisfac-
tion or the desire to look like the media images. In fact, some researchers
have demonstrated that critically viewing idealised media images may
increase the extent to which they are processed, thereby increasing body
dissatisfaction (Botta, 2003; Milkie, 1999; Nathanson & Botta, 2003).
It seems clear that women are quite capable of critiquing the current
standards for beauty and the images portraying these standards, but
they continue to feel bound by them and motivated to attain them. This
may not be surprising when we consider that there is no evidence of a
reduction in the cultural messages conveying contemporary standards

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286 Theory Development: Sociocultural Perspectives

of female beauty at the societal level (Tiggemann, 2002). Many women

continue to engage in beauty practices and perceive being ‘beautiful’
as empowering; this is despite the widely held view that female beauty
ideals are oppressive and contribute to the objectification, devaluation,
and subordination of women. According to the United Nations (1995),
harmful cultural practices against women are identified as: (1) being
harmful to the health of women and girls; (2) arising from the material

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power differences between the sexes; (3) being for the benefit of men;
(4) creating stereotyped masculinity and femininity which damage the
opportunities of women and girls, and; (5) being justified by tradition.
Thus, it can be argued that beauty practices in Western culture represent
harmful, cultural practices against girls and women.
Furthermore, the World Health Organization [WHO] (2006) defines
human health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental, and social
well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’ Based
on the evidence reviewed in this chapter, a considerable number of
women in Western culture, and increasingly other cultures, are not
meeting the WHO’s definition of human health; that is, many women
do not embody a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-
being because of these harmful, cultural beauty practices. The evidence
reviewed in this chapter stands as a stark call to action for researchers,
practitioners, and community members to systematically identify the
negative effects of cultural beauty ideals and eliminate detrimental
beauty practices from the lives of girls and women.

Men’s body image: The emergence of the muscular ideal,

and beyond

Men’s body image has emerged in recent years as a focus of empirical

inquiry on a par with women’s body image (Thompson & Cafri, 2007).
Over the past three decades, increasing body dissatisfaction among
men has been documented (see Thompson & Cafri, 2007; Thompson
et al., 1999), with the focus on a drive for muscularity (Cafri, Blevins,
& Thompson, 2006). Researchers have demonstrated marked increases
in the presentation of muscular male physiques in Playgirl centre-
folds (Ginsberg & Gray, 2007) over the past 25 to 30 years. Indeed,
a casual scan of magazine shelves at bookstores, grocery and conveni-
ence stores reveals a wealth of magazines with numerous images of
hyper-muscular male bodies. Similar to research on female beauty ideals,
Thompson and Cafri (2007) demonstrated that men exposed to ads illus-
trating the male body ideal (a mesomorphic physique) reported greater

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 Rachel M. Calogero et al. 287

body dissatisfaction than men exposed to neutral ads. Other beauty

practices among men are becoming popularised including body depil-
ation (Boroughs, Cafri, & Thompson, 2005; Boroughs & Thompson,
2002), which is the removal of hair in rather non-traditional places for
men such as arms, legs, or genital area. Cosmetic procedures for men
have increased 44 per cent between 2000 and 2005 (American Society
of Plastic Surgeons, 2004). As is the case for women, this exacting male

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beauty ideal has required men to spend a great deal more money in
recent years on a variety of appearance enhancing and modification
strategies. Now that men’s attractiveness issues receive almost as much
research attention as women’s, it will be fascinating to track the trends
of the two sexes in the coming years.

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Wiseman, C. V., Gray, J. J., Mosimann, J. E., & Ahrens, A. H. (1992). Cultural
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Index

Abrahams, D., 5–6 attractiveness, biologically based

Adams, G. R., 6, 194 explanations, 251–2

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Hicken, M. and Salehi, M., 223 and BMI, 23, 25, 31, 109
Age, 81, 248–9, 279–80 and body shape, 161
Aguilera, Christina, 265 and health, 118–22
Aiello, L., 134, 145, 147, 149 historical/cultural factors, 29–30, 42
al–Katanani, Y. M., and and interpersonal metaperception,
Hansen, P. J., 146 168–71
Paula–Lopes, F. F. and male body, 39–42
Hansen, P. J., 146 and overall body proportions,
Aberson, C. L., Swan, D. and 29–30, 43
Emerson, E. P., 172 perceptions of, 122
Alexander, R. D., Hoodland, J.L. and positive effects, 122
Howard, R. D., 134 strengths/weakness of, 161
Allen’s rule, 145, 149 and VHI, 34–41
Allport, G. W., 162 and WHR, 15, 17–18, 21, 30–2,
and Vernon, P. E., 163 41–2, 109–11, 160–1
Altabe, M., 276 Aubrey, J. S., 247
Ambady, N., Hallahan, M. and
Conner, B., 172 Bagley, C. R., Conklin, D. N. et al, 220
American Psychiatric Association, Bailey, J. M. and Zucker, K. J., 172
236, 240 Bailey, R. C. and Katch, V. L., 147–8,
American Society for Aesthetic 150
Plastic Surgery, 284 Baker, J. L., Michaelsen, K. F. et al, 67
American Society of Plastic Baker, N. V., Gregware, P. R. and
Surgeons, 87, 236, 287 Cassidy, M. A., 139
Andersen, A. E. and DiDomenico, L., Baker, R. R. and Bellis, M. A., 136, 143
272 Baker–Sperry, L. and Grauerholz, L.,
Anderson, C., John, O.P. et al, 210 266, 281
Anderson, D. A. and Wadden, T. A., Bangladeshi migrants, android body
221 shape, 71
Anderson, J. L., Crawford, C. B. et al, changing preferences, 78, 80
67, 69, 78, 110, 186, 188, 194, data collection, 71–3
201, 278 demographic information, 71
Anderson–Fye, E. P., 239 and education, 81
Andersson, M., 88, 135 and effects of different stimuli, 82
Annis, N. M., Cash, T. F. and exposure effects, 78–9, 81–2
Hrabosky, J.L., 224 health, fertility, wealth markers,
Armstrong, J., 4 79–81
Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D. et al, 15 high WHR in, 71
Asch, S. E., 159 and length of stay/age at
Ashmore, R. D. and Longo, L. C., 210 migration, 81

299

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300 Index

Bangladeshi migrants, android body beauty ideals, and below–normal

shape – continued weight, 264–5
and media influence, 81 and biological reality, 270
and mental modeling, 78, and broad shoulders, 264
79, 81–2 and buttocks, 264
participants, 70 and children, 271
research on, 70–82 and Chinese foot binding, 283
resident/migrant differences, 78–9 and corseting, 261–2

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results of study, 72–8 definition, 261
socioeconomic factors, 70–1 and discrepancy, 270–2
use of photographic exposure to, 266–7
images, 71–2 as fat/full, 261
Banner, L., 262 and flapper era, 262–3
Barber, N., 81, 131, 132, 142, 144, and full-breasted women, 263
194, 278 and gender differences, 273
Barbie doll, 271 and the Gibson Girl, 262
Barclay, A. M., 131 and giraffe-necked women, 283
Barclay, C. D., Cutting, J. E. and history of, 260–6
Kozlowski, L. T., 163 and internalisation of thin ideal,
Baron, R. A., and Byrne, D., 15 267–9
et al, 6 internalized, 282
and mass media, 263
Bartky, S., 260, 273
and the media, 271–2
Bauer, K. W., Yang, Y. W. and Austin,
and million dollar legs, 263
S. B., 223
and muscularity, 265
Beagon, M., 141
negative consequences of
Bearman, S. K., Martinez, E. and Stice,
promoting, 266–9
E., 217
as oppressive, 281–5
beauty, and children/students, 6
and plastic surgery, 284
computer experiments, 5–6
and self-objectification, 274–5
cross–cultural variability, 9
and sexual objectification, 273–5
effect of social learning/political
and social comparison theory, 272
contexts on perception, 9–10
and socioeconomic rewards, 283–4
in eye of the beholder, 5 and steel engraving lady, 262
and first impressions, 6 and subordination of women, 283
and Judgement of Paris, 3–4 and surgical procedures, 271
philosophical view, 4–5 and thinness, 263–6
positive qualities, 6 and voluptuous woman, 262
psychology of, 5–7 and WHR/BMI, 265
Pythagorean explanation, 4 Becker, A. E., 239, 271, 277
quest for secret of, 4 Burwell, R. A. et al, 277
social/evolutionary psychologies of, and Fay, K., 239
7–8 and Hamburg, P., 271
and study of human body, 8–9 Beckerman, S., 92, 103
beauty ideal, and age, 279–80 Bem, S. L., 162, 168
and disfigurement/disability, 280 Benson, P. J., and Campbell, et al, 7,
and non–white populations, 276–9 176
and pregnancy, 280–1 Benyshek, D. C. and Watson, J. T., 68
Westernized, 275 Berger, J., 274

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 Index 301

Bergman’s rule, 149 body proportions, android/gynoid

Bernardi, L., 120 considerations, 67–9, 71
Berscheid, E. and Reis, H. T., 192 classical Greek concept, 29–30
Bhargava, A., 67 cross-cultural preferences, 69–70,
Birkhead, T., 135, 136 121
Björntorp, P., 66, 161, 173, 188 historical/cultural differences, 30
Blacker, J., 119 and influence of media, 121
Block, R. A., Hess, L. A. et al, 144 and local variations, 69

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Blumberg, P. and Mellis, L. P., 220 optimal, 68–9
Blurton Jones, N. G., 139 scanning technology, 32–4
bodily cues, additional, 162–3 WHR/BMI as important cues, 30–2,
and bodies in balance, 162 see also body mass index;
and body motion, 163, volume height index;
164, 168 waist-to-hip ratio
cognitive approach, 161 body shape, gynoid/android, 237–8
and interpersonal metaperception, Bond, C. F. and Kenny, D. A., 210
163–77 Bond, S. and Cash, T., 276
and multiple social judgements, Bongaarts, J. and Potter, R. G., 139, 140
162, 166 Bordo, S., 242, 245, 260
and sex categorization, Borgia, G., 90
164–8 Boroughs, M., Cafri, G. and
and weight, 160–1 Thompson, J. K., 287
and WHR, 160–1 Botta, R., 285
body dissatisfaction, 215–17, 240, Bowker, A., Gadbois, S. and
242, 249, 259–60 Cornock, B., 274
body image, changing, 236–7 Bowman, C. A. and Jaeger, P. T., 280
and cosmetic surgery, 236 Bradshaw, D., 120
cost of problems, 249–50 breasts, and beauty ideal, 263
definition, 236 ethnic differences, 145–6
development of, 236 and heat stress, 145–8, 149–50
gender reactions to, 236–7 and lactation, 142
male preferences, 131–2 male attraction to, 132, 142, 145–8
preferences as hardwired/ as sign of puberty, 145
flexible, 69 size of, 142, 149–50
prevention programmes, 250–1 Brewis, A. A., and McGarvey, S. T., 70
body mass index (BMI), 47–8, McGarvey, S. T. et al, 278
238, 241 Brody, S., 54
alternatives to, 48 Brown, P. J. and Konner, M. J., 110,
and attractiveness, 23, 25, 188, 278
31, 109 Brown, W. M., Cronk, K. et al, 163
as body fatness measure, 65 Brownell, K. D., 270
and health, 66–7 and Napolitano, M. A., 212
and health outcomes, 26, 31 Brownmiller, S., 284
and image manipulation, 49–60 Bruce, H., 139
and interpersonal metaperception, Bryant–Waugh, R., 236
177 Brylinsky, J. A. and Moore, J. C., 221
and mate value, 66–7 Buckingham, G., DeBruine, L. M. et al,
and waist-to-hip ratio, 16, 19, 78
25–6, 27 Bulik, C. and Tozzi, F., 241, 244

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302 Index

Buller, D. J., 160 children, 135, 136, 138–9, 143–4,

Burke, Edmund, 5 221–3, 224, 259
Burley, N., 135, 144 Clastres, P., 109
and Johnson, K., 136 Clauser, C. E., Tebbetts, I. O. et al, 168
Buss, D. M., 15, 65, 121, 131, 132, Clay, I., Randall, S. et al, 146
134, 136, 143, 185, 186, 189, 226, Clifford, M. M., 211
237, 260, 279 and Hatfield, E., 6
Abbott, M. et al, 225, 239 climate, 145–7, 149

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and Barnes, M., 200 Clutton–Brock, T. H., 136
and Kenrick, D. T., 188, 202 and Parker, G. A., 134, 135
Schmidt, D. P., 226 Cohan, G., 120
Coon, C. S., 145
Cafri, G., Blevins, N. and Thompson, Cordain, L., Miller, J. and Mann, M.,
J. K., 286 68
and Thompson, J. K., 265 Cordero, P. J., Wetton, J. H. and
Thompson, J. K. et al, 240 Parkin, D. T., 89–90
Calder, A. J. et al, 176 Corter, C. et al, 6
Caldwell, D., 262 Cotton, S., Fowler, K. and
Callaghan, C. A., 283 Pomiankowski, A., 91
Calle, E. D., Rodriguez, C. et al, 120 Cowley, G., 161
Calogero, R. M., 247, 274 Cramer, P. and Steinwert, T., 221
Davis, W. N. et al, 274 Crandall, C. S., 218, 219, 222
Davis, W. N. and Thompson, J. K., and Eshleman, A., 219
246, 268–9 Crane, A. R., 273
Campbell, Mary, 263 Cronin, H., 134, 135
Caradas, A. A., Lambert, E.V. and cue compatability model see
Charlton, K. E., 121 interpersonal metaperception
Casanova, E. M., 276, 277 Cunningham, E. J. A. and Russell, A.
Cash, T. F., 268 F., 89
Kehr, J. A. et al, 122 Cunningham, M. R., 187, 189, 191,
Morrow, J. A. et al, 285 192
and Pruzinsky, T., 243 Roberts, A. R. et al, 186, 192
Cashdan, E., 81 Cusumano, D. L. and Thompson, J.K.,
Castellow, K. S. et al, 7 267
Cattarin, J. A., and Thompson, J. K., Cutting, J. E., 163
224 Moore, C. and Morrison, R., 163
Thompson, J. K. et al, 268 Proffit, D. R. and Kozlowski, L. T.,
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. and Cavalli-Sforza, 163
F., 145, 150
Chagnon, N., 139 3D body images, 32
Chai, R. C., Allred, L. J. et al, 211 3D body scanning technology, 32–4
Chan, F., 7 Danel, D. and Pawtowski, B., 88
Chang, J., 283 Darby, B. W. and Jeffers, D., 7
Chantelau, E.and Gede, A., 144 Darmon, N., Ferguson, E. L. and
Charlton, K. E., Brewitt, P. and Briend, A., 121
Bourne, L. T., 121 Darwin, C., 88, 133, 185, 186
Chen, E. Y., 161 Darwin, Charles, 6
and Brown, M., 221 Daubenmeier, J. J., 248
child sexual abuse (CSA), 248 David, P., Bjorksten, T. et al, 90

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 Index 303

Davidoff, J., Davies, L. and Roberson, Eco, U., 4

D., 103 Edmunds, L. D., 221
Davis, Bette, 192 Edwards, J. L. and Hansen, P.,
Davison, K. K. and Birch, L. L., 223, 134, 146
224 Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I., 163
Dellinger, K. and Williams, C. L., 267 Einon, D., 9
Department of Health, 65, 67, Eisenberg, M. E. et al, 224
71, 112 Ellison, P. T., Lipson, S. F. et al

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DeRidder, C. M., Bruning, P.F. (1993a), 68
et al, 30, 66 Panterbrick, C. et al, 68
DeWall, N. C. and Baumeister, R. F., Ellison, Rodgers, J., 136
200 Ember, C. R., Ember, M. et al, 110
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Engeln-Maddox, R., 268
Mental Disorders (DSM IV), 264–5 Englis, B. G., Solomon, M. R. and
Diamond, J., 198 Ashmore, R. D., 266
Dillaway, H., 279 Enlow, D. M., 187
Dion, K. K., 6, 122 Environment, 110–11, 123
Berscheid, E. and Walster, E., Environmental Security Hypothesis
122, 267 (ESH), 186, 189–96, 200
Dipboye, R. L., Arvey, E. D. et al, 7
at individual level, 193
Fromkin, H. L. et al, 7
based on American actresses
Dittmar, H. and Howard, S., 268
popularity, 191–2
division of labour, 136–9
and beauty pageant contestants, 195
Donelson, S. M. and Gordon, C. C.,
and decision-making, 196
168
development of, 189, 191
Doty, R. M., Peterson, B. E. and
evolutionary prediction
Winter, D. G., 196
ranges, 191
Dressler, Marie, 192
and eye-size, 194
Duffy, D. L., Bentley, G. E. et al, 89
Durkin, S. J. and Paxton, S. J., 272 and female body features, 193–4
Dutt, R. H., 146 and female facial feature
Dworkin, A., 283 preferences, 193
Dworkin, S. and Wachs, F. L., 280 historical/cultural contexts, 191
and influence of social/economic
conditions, 192
Eade, J. A. and Momen, R., 70
Eagly, A. H., 238, 240, 241 and male actors, 192–3
Ashmore, R. D. et al, 6, 131, 209, and popular song performers, 195–6
210, 211, 267, 268 and prediction of fluctuations, 191
and Wood, W., 239 relative preferences, 191
Wood, W. and Diekman, A. B., 238, summary of investigations, 190
239 support for, 194–5
Wood, W. and testing of, 191–2
Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C., and threat/uncertainty, 196
238 and WHR, 194–5
eating disorders, 239, 240, 241, 250, Etcoff, N., Orbach, S. et al, 259
263, 270 Euler, H. A. and Weizel, B., 139
Eating Disorders Inventory Evans, J. P. and Magurran, A. E., 88
(EDI), 241 Evans, P. C., 268
Eck, B. A., 273 evolution, viable route, 142–4

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304 Index

evolutionary approach, 7–8, 15, 46, Fikkan, J. and Rothblum, E.D., 219
65, 88, 176 Fingeret, M., Gleaves, D. H. and
evolutionary model, 186, 201 Pearson, C. A., 213
evolutionary psychology, 91, 103, Fisher, H. E., 131
110, 119, 123, 237–42 Fisher, R. A., 88
and female attractiveness, 237–8 Fisherian sexy sons, 89
feminist critiques, 238–41 Flannery-Schroeder, E. and Chrisler, J.
and genetic theories, 241–2 C., 259

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and mate selection, 237 Flegal, K. M., Carroll, M. D. et al, 285
evolutionary theory, 225 Folsom, A. R., Kaye, S. et al, 30
integration with sociocultural Fonda, Jane, 264
theory, 226–7, 228 Ford, C. S. and Beach, F. A., 132,
Extra-pair matings (EPM), 88, 89, 91, 185, 187
100–2 Ford, L., 6
Forestell, C. A., Humphrey, T. M. et al,
Fabricatore, A. N., Wadden, T. A. and 18
Foster, G. D., 220 Foster, G. D., Wadden, T. A. et al, 220
Faces, 144 Fouts, G. and Burggraf, K., 223
neonate/mature, 187–8 Frable, D. E. S., 163
Fairburn, C. G. and Welch, S. L., 281 Frame, S., Moore, J. et al, 144
Faith, M. S., Leone, M. A. et al, 222 Franks, T. and Goodrick-Meech, A.,
Fallon, A. E., 263, 264, 283 280
and Rozin, P., 160 Frederick, D. A., Peplau, L. A. and
Fan, J., Dai, et al, 32 Lever, J., 273
Liu, F. et al, 25, 32, 48, 57, 109 Fredrickson, B. L., and Roberts, T. A.,
Yu, W. and Hunter, L., 32 246, 273, 274
Faravelli, C., Giugni, A. et al, 248 Roberts, T. A. et al, 245, 247, 274,
Feet, 144, 148–9 275
Feingold, A., 192, 209, 211 Freedman, R., 271
feminism, and body image prevention Freese, J. and Meland, S., 109
programmes, 250–1 Friedland, S. L., Larkin, E. K. et al, 225
and critical perspective of culture, Friedman, K. E., Reichman, S. K. et al,
251 224
critiques of evolutionary Frisch, R. E., 188
psychology, 238–41 Frumkin, R. M., 163
and definitions of femininity, 245 Furnham, A., 7–8, 9, 67
and male attractiveness, 240–1 and Alibhai, N., 16, 69, 121, 131
and Objectification Theory, 245–6, and Baguma, P., 121, 186, 188
252 Dias, M. and McClelland, C., 31, 161
and parenting, 239–40 Lavancy, M. et al, 19, 21
and psychological theory, 245–6 Lavancy, M. and McClelland, A., 110
role of, 251 McClelland, A. et al, 80
and sexual subordination, 245 McClelland, A. and Omer, L., 69
and sociocultural theory, 244 Moutafi, J. and Baguma, P., 110
and status, 238–9 and Nordling, R., 110
Fessler, D. M. T., Nettle, D. et al, 144 Petrides, K.V. and Constantinides,
Festinger, L., 214, 272 A., 49, 110
Field, A., Austin, S. B. et al, 236 and Reeves, E., 21
Fietz, J., 135 Swami, V. and Shah, K., 110

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 Index 305

Tan, 279 Gottlieb, G., 242

Tan, T. and Mcmanus, C., 31, 49, Grabe, S. and Hyde, J. S., 243
69, 161 Greenberg, B. S., Eastin, M. et al, 223
Greenberg, M. and Morris, N., 240
Gagneux, P., Woodruff, D. S. and Greenleaf, C., 246
Boesch, C., 135 and Weiller-Abels, K., 222
Gangestad, S. W., and Buss, D. M., 187 Grilo, C. M., Wilfley, D. E. et al, 224
and Simpson, J. A., 88–9, 102 Groesz, L. M., Levine, M. P. and

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Simpson, J. A. et al, 89 Murnen, S. K., 243, 246, 266
and Thornhill, R., 131–2 Grogan, S., 236
Thornhill, R. et al, 89 and Richards, H., 237, 243
Thornhill, R. and Yeo, R. A., 160 group norms, and attractiveness,
Gapinski, K. D., Brownell, K. D. and 210–12
LaFrance, M., 247, 274 and body dissatisfaction, 213
Gardner, R. M., Sorter, R. G. and and body image, 213
Friedman, B. N., 271 and development of attractiveness
Garfinkel, L., 120 ideals, 228
Garland, Judy, 192 development of, 209, 213
Garn, S. M., 50 gender differences, 213
and Harper, R. V., 50 and individual meaning, 210, 228
Sullivan, T. V. and Hawthorne, V. mechanisms, 214
M., 50 and peer influence, 213
Garner, D. M., 265 and perceived threat, 214
Garfinkel, P. E. et al, 263, 264 research on, 209–10, 212
Garrow, J., 48 and social comparison theory, 214,
Gaut, B. and Lopes, D. M., 29 215–18
Gaynor, Janet, 192 social mechanisms, 212–14
Geary, D., 139 Guinness World Records, 262
genetic theories, 241–2 Guthrie, R. D., 187
George, H., Cornelissen, P. L. et al, 50
Gestalt psychology, 159–60
Gigerenzer, G., Todd, P. M. and ABC Haiken, E., 283, 285
Research Group, 16 Hanna, M. and Brown, H. C., 147
Gil, D., Graves, J. et al, 89 Hargreaves, D. A. and Tiggemann, M.,
Gilbert, D. T., Giesler, R. B. and 266, 267
Morris, K. A., 214 Harmon, D., 103
Gilmore, D. D., 139 Harned, M., 248
Ginsberg, R. and Gray, J., 286 Harrison, K., 223, 266, 270
Gitter, A., Lomranz, J. et al, 69 and Cantor, J., 266
Gladue, B. A. and Delany, J. J., 131 and Hefner, V., 269
Glamour magazine, 283 Taylor, L. D. and Marske, A. L., 266,
Gluckman, P. and Hanson, M., 68 267
Gomi, A., 57 Hart, C., Newell, L. and Olsen, S., 240
Goodman, N., Dornbusch, S. M. et al, Hartz, A. J., Rupley, D. C. and Rimm,
221 A. A., 66
Goodman, R., 276 Haselton, M. G., and Gangestad, S.
Goody, J., 143 W., 89
Gordon, P., 103 and Miller, G. R., 89
Gortmaker, S. L., Must, A. et al, 220 Hasselquist, D., Marsh, J. A. et al, 89

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306 Index

Havlicek, J., Roberts, S. C. and Flegr, Hollis, K. L., Pharr, V. L. et al, 133
J., 89 Holstrom, A. J., 271
Hawkes, K., 136, 138, 139 Horai, J., Naccari, N. and Fatoullan, E.,
O’Connell, J. F. et al, 136, 139 122
Hayworth, Rita, 192 Horn, M. J. and Gurel, L. M., 29
health, and attractiveness, 113, Hosegood, V., Vanneste, A. M. and
118–22 Timaeus, I. M., 120
between-group differences, 117–18 Hrdy, S. B., 240

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and BMI, 26, 31 and Whitten, P. L., 140, 142
and body size, 118, 119 Hudson, J., Hiripi, E. et al, 240
and HIV/AIDS, 111, 119–20 Hume, David, 4
multiple regression results, 113–17 Hunt, S. M., McEwen, J. and
and nutrition, 83 McKenna, S. P., 119
research methods/participants, Huntingdon, E., 146
111–18 Hurd Clarke, L., 279
sex differences, 112–13
and VHI, 42 images, artificial manipulation, 49–57
and weight correlation, 66–7 and attractiveness, 46
and WHR, 26 co-variation problem, 49–50, 60
Heap, R. B. and Flint, A. P. F., 141 degree of distortion, 50
heat stress, 145–8, 149–50 and index variations, 46–7
Hebl, M., King, E. and Lin, J., 245, and inflating of arms/legs, 49–50
247, 248, 274, 276 as laser-scanned, 58
Heider, F., 159 line drawings, 49–50
Heiman, J. D., 161 manipulation of, 112
Heinberg, L. J., 260, 272 and mate quality, 46
and Thompson, J. K., 215 natural variation, 57–8
Thompson, J. K. and Stormer, S., perceptual cues/physical features
268, 269 distinction, 47–9
Henrich, J., Boyd, R. et al, 103 photographs, 50
McElreath, R. et al, 103 plausibility/realism of, 50–1, 52,
Henss, R., 17, 19, 21, 49, 50, 69, 110, 58–9
161, 172–3 principled manipulation, 58–60
Herbozo, S., Tantleff-Dunn, S. et al, problems with studies on, 46–7
266 and rationale for shape change, 50
Herek, G. M., 172 standardisation of, 112
Hesse-Biber, S. J., 260, 275 tests on, 51–7
Leavy, P. et al, 260, 281, 284 as videoed, 58
Higa, M., 173 and waist versus hip size, 52, 54,
Hildebrandt, K. A. and Fitzgerald, H. 56–7
E., 187 interpersonal metaperception,
Hildebrandt, T. and Walker, D. C., 213 accordant percepts, 168
Hill, H. and Pollick, F. E., 176 and bodily cues, 163–77
Hill, K., and Hurtado, M., 139 and body motion, 168
and Kaplan, H., 139 and body shape/motion, 164–8
Hoffman, M. L., Janssen, E. and compatibility factors, 172
Turner, S. L., 133 and cross-cultural research, 175,
Holliday, T. W. and Fallesetti, A. B., 179n4
145 and eye tracking, 165–7

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 Index 307

gynoid/android shapes, 175 Kalick, S. M., Zebrowitz, L. A. et al, 7

as integrative approach, 174 Kanazawa, S. and Kovar, J. L., 211
line drawn versus photographic Kaplan, H. and Hill, K., 139
stimuli, 173 Karama, S., Lecours, A. R. et al, 133
and perceived attractiveness, Katanani, Paula-Lopes, and Hansen,
168–71 134
and perceived sex/gender, 164–8 Katch, V. L. et al, 270
practical implications, 172–4 Katzman, M. A., Hermans, K. et al, 239

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and sexual orientation, 172 and Lee, S., 281
and social categories, 172 Kaye, W., Frank, G. et al, 244
social judgements, 163, 173–4 Keating, C. F., Mazur, A. and Segall,
theoretical implications, 174–7 M. H., 187
and typical/atypical perceptions, Keery, H., van den Berg, P. and
172 Thompson, J. K., 244
and use of animation, 168–71, 173 Kempenaers, B., Congdon, B. et al, 89
and waist/hip region, 167 Kerrigan, D. C., Todd, M. K. and Della
WHR/Walk Motion, 168–71, 172, Croce, U., 163
178–9n3 Keski-Rahkonen, A., Bulik, C. et al,
Irving, L. M., 266, 272 241, 242
and Berel, S. R., 285 Kim, H. and Markus, H. R., 202
DuPen, J. and Berel, S., 285 King, J. C., 67
Isbell, L. A. and Young, T. P., 146 Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B. and
Martin, C. E., 136
Kirkpatrick, M. and Ryan, M. J., 90
Jabonski, N. G. and Chaplin, G., 132 Kirschner, M. A. and Samojlik, E., 16
Jackson, C., 213 Kleck, R. E., Richardspn, S. A. and
James, W. P. T., Nelson, M. et al, 121 Ronald, L., 6
Jankowiak, W., 131 Klein, D., Najman, J. et al, 220
Jansen, A. and de Vries, M., 266 Klesges, R. C. et al, 220
Janssen, I., Craig, W. M. et al, 224 Klump, K., McGue, M. and Iacono,
Jasienska, G., Ziomkiewicz, A. et al, 66 W., 241
Jeffreys, S., 281, 283, 284 Knight, C., 136, 139, 141
Jennions, M. D. and Petrie, M., 88, 89 Koffka, K., 159
Johnson, K. L., Gill, S. et al, 172 Köhler, W., 159
and Tassinary, L. G., 165, 167, 168, Kokko, H., Jennions, M. D. and
171, 175 Brooks, R., 88, 90
Johnson, O. R. and Johnson, A. W., Komers, P. E. and Brotherton, P. N.
102 M., 136
Johnson, V. S. and Franklin, M., 131 Korthase, K. M. and Trenholme, I.,
Jolie, Angelina, 265 187
Jones, D. C., 213, 217 Kotiaho, J. S., Simmons, L. W. and
and Crawford,J.K.,209,213, 219, 226 Tomkins, J. L., 90
Jones, D. M., 131, 144, 186 Kotler, D. P. and Grunfeld, C., 120
Jones, P. R. M., Hunt, M. J. et al, 188–9 Kraemer, H., Kazdin, A. et al, 247
Jones, T. M., Quinnell, R. J. and Kramer, M. S., Coates, A. L. et al, 67
Balmford, A., 89 Krokene, C., Rigstad, K. et al, 89
Jourard, S. M. and Secord, P. F., 263 Krones, P. G., Stice, E. et al, 215, 266
Jung, Cathie, 262 Kruger, H. S., Puoane, T. et al,
Junshi, C., Campbell, T. C. et al, 109 120, 123

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308 Index

Kruger, J., 197 Ley, C. J., Lees, B. and Stevenson, J.

Kuh, D. and Schlomo, Y.B., 67 C., 66
Kulka, R. A. and Kessler, J. D., 7 Lieberman, M., Gauvin, L. et al, 218
Kunzle, D., 261 Lin, C. A., 246, 273
Kushner, R. F. and Foster, G. D., 225 Lin, L. F. and Kulik, J. A., 215, 216
Lindstrom, K. M., Krakower, D. et al,
Ladies Home Journal, 264 89
Lahti-Koski, M., Pietinen, P. et al, 65, Lippa, R., 160, 173

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66, 67 Lopez, E., Blix, G. G. and Blix, A. G.,
The Lancet, 261 276
Landy, D. and Sigall, H., 6 Lorber, J., 281
Langlois, J. H., Halakanis, L. et al, 225 Lorenz, K., 187
Kalakanis, L. et al, 242 Lovejoy, M., 276
Ritter, J. M. et al, 6 Lublin, A. and Wolfenson, D., 133,
and Roggman, L. A., 160 144, 146
and Styczynski, L., 6 Luo, Y., Parish, W. and Laumann, E.,
Lanska, D. J., Lanska, M. J. et al, 65, 236
66, 161, 188 Lyubomirsky, S. and Ross, L., 214
Larkin, J., and Pines, H., 220
and Rice, C., 250 McCabe, M. P. and Ricciardelli, L. A.,
Laslett, P., 139 213, 215, 217, 269
Lassek, W. D. and Gaulin, S. J. C., 26 McCarthy, M., 266
Latner, J. D., and Schwartz, M. B., 221 McCreary, D. R., and Sasse, D. K., 243
Stunkard, A. J. and Wilson, T. G., Saucier, D. and Courtenay, W., 241,
209, 222 243
Lawrence, J. W., Fauerbach, J. A. et al, McGraw, K. J., 92, 100
280 McHugh, M., Koeske, R. and Frieze, I.,
Laws, A., King, A. et al, 161 242
Lawson, M. C., 222 McIntosh, W. D., Murray, J. D. et al,
Le Grange, D., Louw, J. et al, 121 196
Telch, C. F. et al, 121 Schwegler, A. F. and Terry-Murray,
Lee, J., 261, 274 R. M., 196
Lee, K. J., Byatt, G. and Rhodes, G., Mackenzie, I. Z., Cooke, I. and Annan,
176 B., 144
and Perrett, D. I., 176 McKinley, N. M., 247, 249, 269
Leifer, M., 280 and Hyde, J. S., 246, 247, 248, 274
Leit, R. A., Pope, H. G. and Gray, J. J., McVey, G., Lieberman, M. et al, 250
243 Maddox, G. L., Back, K. W. and
Lerner, M. J. and Mikula, G., 139 Liederman, V. R., 221
Lerner, R. M. and Korn, S. J., 222 Mahalik, et al, 243, 245
Levine, D. and Wrighton, K., 139 Maiman, L. A., Wang, V. L. et al, 220
Levine, M. P., and Harrison, K., 266 Maisey, D. M., Vale, E. L. E. et al, 279
Murnen, S. K. et al, 246 Makkar, J. K. and Strube, M. J., 276
and Piran, N., 285 male attractiveness, and acquisition of
and Smolak, L., 243, 250, 260, 269, a mate, 88
285 and body dissatisfaction, 240
Lewin, R., 134, 145 evolutionary psychological
Lewis, M. B. and Johnston, R. A., 176 explanations, 88
Lewis, R. J., Cash, T. F. et al, 221 and female selection process, 89–90

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 Index 309

gay/straight differences, 241 Martin, R. D., Willner, L. A. and

and good-genes explanation, 89 Dettling, A., 134
importance of, 240 mate choice, and between-sex
and lek paradox, 90–3 competition, 227
and mixed-mating strategy, 88, 91 and between-sex flexibility, 227
and muscular ideal, 241, 286–7 and body weight, 120, 188,
non-human studies, 89–90 189, 201
traits, 88 and body-shape preferences, 103

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variations in, 88 and cross-cultural variation, 100,
VHI indicators, 39–42 102–3, 187, 202
male preferences, adaptive or flexible, cultural factors, 91–2
65, 68–9 and cultural/evolutionary gaps,
and breasts, 132, 142, 145–8 201–2
cross-cultural studies, 65–70 and direct/indirect benefits, 88, 90–1
evolutionary rationale, 65 and directional selection, 90
explanations for, 132–3 and environmental security
hypothesis, 189–96, 200
and faces/feet, 144, 148–9
evolutionary model, 186, 201
and fertility, 68–9, 82–3,
and extra-pair matings, 88, 89, 91,
132–3
100–2
and local conditions, 69–70, 82
and financial wealth, 197–8
logic of choice, 136–42
and food resources, 198–9
and low WHR, 66, 69
gender differences, 199
and mate value relationship, 68–9,
historical context, 186
82–3
and ideal mate, 186–9, 197
migrant Bangladeshi pilot study,
and immunocompetence/
70–82
masculinity theory, 89–90
and nutritional stress, 69
judgement-based differences, 197–9
and reasons for arousal, 150–2 and long-term pairing, 88, 91
and resource availability, 82 and male attractiveness, 88–93
and sexual selection, 133–5 and male predictability, 199–200
and skin colour, 144 and masculine versus effeminate,
and status, 131 88, 91, 92
and weight, 66–7 and Matsigenka study, 92–102
youthful/pretty women, 131–2, and metacognitive processes, 200–1
143–4, 149–50 and parental preferences, 99, 102
Mann, A. E., 109 and physiological condition, 90
Mansfield, Jayne, 263 and resource scarcity, 186, 197–9,
Manson, J. E., Willet, W. C. et al, 66, 200–1
120 and selection processes, 227
Markham, A., Thompson, T. and theory, 225–6
Bowling, A., 272 and theory integration, 226–7, 228
Markson, E. W., 279 underlying psychology of, 200–2
Marlowe, F. W., 136 and universal ideal, 185,
Apicella, C. L. and Reed, D., 16, 66, 186–7, 189
81, 110 variability in, 186
and Wetsman, A., 16, 67, 69, 70, and WHR preferences, 109, 176,
121, 175, 178 188–9
Martikainen, P. et al, 119 and women’s faces, 187–8

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310 Index

Matschiner, M. and Smolak, L. et al, 273

Murnen, S. K., 245 Murry, M. P., Kory, R. C. and
Matsigenka study, 175 Sepic, S. B., 163
and correcting for Myers, A. and Rosen, J. D., 224
pseudo-replication, 94 Møller, A. P., 136
and extramarital liaisons, 92 and Alatalo, R. V., 88
interviews, 93–4 and Ninni, P., 90
kinship system, 102

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___location of, 93 Nagel, K. L. and Jones, K. H., 260
and masculine versus feminised Nathanson, A. I. and Botta, R. A., 285
faces, 98, 99–100, 101–2 National Eating Disorders Association
and mixed-mating strategy, 101–2 (NEDA), 271
and parental influence, 92, 98, 99 Neisser, U., 160
Penton-Voak model, 96–9 Nelson, L. D., and Morrison, E. L.,
preferred marriage partner, 92 110, 186, 197, 198, 199, 200
results, 94–6 Sherman, D. K. and Kim, H. S.,
sample size, 99 198–9
Mauro, R. and Kubovy, M., 176 Neumark-Sztainer, D., Falkner, N. et al,
Mazur, A., 243, 262 222
Mazzeo, S., Landt, M. et al, 241 Story, M. and Harris, T., 222
Meindl, R. F., 144 Newcomer, S. D., Zeh, J. A. and
Menstruation, 139–42 Zeh, D. W., 89
Metaperception, 159–60, see also Newman, C., 161
interpersonal metaperception Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K. et al, 201–2
Milinski, M., 88, 90 and Wilson, T.D., 197
Milkie, M., 285 Noll, S. M. and Frederickson, B. L.,
Miller, G. F., 131, 133, 135, 225 246, 247, 274
Milton, K., 109 Non-white populations, 276–9
Miner-Rubino, K., Twenge, J. M. and Norton, K. I., Olds, T. S. et al, 212, 271
Fredrickson, B., 246, 274
Misra, A. and Vikram, N. K., 71 obesity, consequences of weight bias,
Mixed-mating strategy, 88, 91, 96–9, 223–5
101–2 and interpersonal consequences,
Mohanty, C., Prasad, R. et al, 67 223–4
Molloy, B. L. and Herzberger, S. D., psychological consequences, 224
276 and quality of life/health, 224–5
Monroe, Marilyn, 263 and social stigma, 219–25
Mook, D. G., 19 and transmission of weight bias,
Moradi, B., Dirks, D. and 223
Matteson, A., 274 and weight bias against adults,
Morgan, K. P., 284 219–21
Morris, A., Cooper, T. and and weight bias against children,
Cooper, P. J., 264 221–3, see also weight
Morris, D., 131, 283 Objectification Theory, and age,
Morse, S. and Gergen, K. J., 214 248–9
Muehlenkamp, J. J. and Saris-Baglama, and beauty ideals, 273–5
R. N., 246, 247 and body dissatisfaction, 249
Murdock, G. P., 136, 147 correlation studies, 246–7
Murnen, S. K., and Smolak, L., 248, 273 empirical support for, 249

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 Index 311

and experimental manipulation, Sacco, D. F. et al, 193, 194, 195, 196,

247 199
and the female body, 245–6 and Tesser, A., 186, 189, 191, 192,
and feminism, 252 193, 196, 200
prospective studies, 247–8 and Yerkes, M. J., 195
and self-objectification/self- Phares, V., Steinberg, A. and
surveillance, 247–8, Thompson, J., 269
274–5 physical cues, 159–60, see also bodily

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and sexist experiences, 248 cues
and societal standards, 246 physical features, 47–9
Objectified Body Consciousness Pierce, J. W. and Wardle, J., 224
(OBC) scale, 247 Piran, N., 250
O’Brien, K. S., Hunter, J. A. and and Cormier, H. C., 251
Banks, M., 222 Plaud, J. J. and Martini, J. R., 133
Ohl, J., Shepard, G. H. Jr et al, 100 Playboy magazine, 194, 243, 264, 265
O’Keefe, J. H. and Cordain, L., 109 Pliner, P., Chaiken, S. and Flett, G. L.,
Ostlund, B. E., Staten, M. et al, 161 279
Ovid, 3 Pliny the Elder, 141
Ovulation, 139–42 Polinko, N. K. and Popovich, P. M.,
Ovulatory-shift hypothesis, 88 220
Owen, P. R. and Laurel-Seller, E., 265 Polivy, J. and Herman, C.P., 267
Owens, I. P. F., 103 Pollard, I. A., 146
Pollick, F. E., Fidopiastis, C. and
Paradox of the Lek, 90–3 Braden, V., 176
Parducci, A., 176 Hill, H. et al, 176
Parenting, 239–40 Polsky, B., Kotler, D. and Steinhart,
Park, B., 6 C., 120
Parker, S. et al, 276 Pond, C. M., 149
Partridge, J., 280 Mattacks, C. H., et al, 142, 147
Partridge, L. and Halliday, T., 135 Pope, H. G. Jr, Olivardia, R. et al, 212,
Patzer, G. L., 6, 122 243
Pawlowski, B. and Grabarczyk, M., 66, Phillips, K. A. and Olivardia, O., 212
148 Powers, P.S., 80
Paxton, S. J., Shultz, H. et al, 213, 215 Pregnancy, 280–1
Pearce, M. J., Boergers, J. and Prentice, A. M., 68, 123
Prinstein, M. J., 223, 226 Principal, Victoria, 264
Pedersen, F. A., 226 Profet, M., 141
Penton-Voak, I. S., Jacobson, A. Provost, M. P., Kormos, C. et al, 89
et al, 91 Przbyla, D. P. and Byrne, D., 133
and Perrett, D. I., 88, 91, 92, 96–9, Psychology, 159
100–1 and influence of feminist theory,
Perrett, D. I. et al, 88 245–6
perceptual cues, 47–9 Psychology Today, 265
Perrett, D. I., Lee, K. J. et al, 93–4 Puhl, R. M., and Boland, F. J., 109, 279
Peterson, R., Tantleff-Dunn, S. and and Brownell, K. D., 219
Bedwell, J., 250 Schwartz, M. B. and Brownell, K. D.,
Petrie, M., Schwable, H. et al, 89 219
Pettijohn, T. F., 192 Puoane, T., Steyn, K. et al, 120, 123
and Jungeberg, B. J., 70, 194 Putney, D. et al, 146

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312 Index

Puwar, N., 275 Ruff, C. B., 145, 149

Pythagoras, 4 Russell, Lillian, 262

Quinn, D. M., Kallen, R. W. et al, 275 Sabik, N. J. and Tylka, T. L., 251
Sales, S. M., 196
Rand, C. S., and MacGregor, A. M., Salusso-Deonier, C. J., and Markee, N.
221 L. and Pedersen, E. L., 178
and Wright, B. A., 222 Salzano, F. M. and Callegari-Jacques,

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Reagan, P. C., 221 S. M., 109
Register, C. A. and Williams, D. R., Sands, E. and Wardle, J., 269
220 Sargent, J. D. and Blanchflower, D. G.,
Reichborn-Kjennerud, T., Bulik, C. 220
et al, 240 Sarlio-Lahteenkorva, S., Silventoinen,
Rhodes, G., 161, 175 K. and Lahelma, E., 220
Jeffrey, L. et al, 78 Scheib, J. E., Gangestad, S. W. and
and Moody, J., 176 Thornhill, R., 89
and Zebrowitz, L. A., 8 Schneider, D. J., 209
Zebrowitz, L. A. et al, 185 Schneider, J., 139, 143
Ricciardelli, L. A. and McCabe, M. P., Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, and Stein,
236, 240, 241, 250 269
Rich, J., 211 Schur, E. A., Sanders, M. and Steiner,
Richardson, S. A., Goodman, N. et al, H., 259
221 Schwartz, M. B., O’Neal, H. et al, 221
Richins, M.L., 266 Vartanian, L. R. et al, 222
Rieger, G., 172 Schwartz, N., 198
Linsenmeier, J. A. W. et al, 172 and Clore, G.L., 197
Roberts, T. A. and Gettmann, J. Y., Schwimmer, J. B., Burwinkle, T. M.
247, 274 and Varni, J. W., 225
Rodin, J., Silberstein, L. and Sear, R., Mace, R. and McGregor, I. A.,
Striegel-Moore, R., 259 139
Rodman, P. S. and McHenry, H. M., Searcy, W. A., 135
147 Seid, R. P., 267
Roehling, M. V., 220 Seventeen, 263
Roggman, L. A., 7 sexual arousal, reasons for, 150–2
Roney, J. R., Hanson, K.N. et al, 89, and sexual behaviour, 151
101 and visual stimuli, 133
Rose, L., 139 sexual selection, and dimorphism,
Ross, L., Greene, D. and House, P., 197 134–5
Roth, Z., 146 and female choice, 134, 135
Rothblum, E., 241 and female promiscuity, 135
Rowe, L. and Houle, D., 90 inter/intra distinction, 133
Rozmus-Wrzesinska, M. and and male competition, 134, 135
Pawlowski, B., 52, 54, 55, 56–7, and male emissions, 136
173 and ornamentations, 135
Rubens, P. P., 109 simultaneous/sequential choice, 134
Rubin, L. R., Nemeroff, C. J. and theory of, 132
Russo, N. F., 251 Shakespeare, W., 185
Rudman, W. J. and Verdi, P., 246, Shape magazine, 267–8
273 Shapiro, J. R., 92

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 Index 313

Sheldon, B. C., 89 and Levine, M. P., 236, 240, 246,

Sheldon, W. H., Stevens, S. S. and 248, 259
Tucker, W. B., 160 and Murnen, S. K., 240, 248
Shell-Duncan, B. and Yung, S.A., 67 Murnen, S. K. and Thompson, J. K.,
Shepard, G. H., 92, 93 240
Sheridan, Ann, 192 and Stein, J. A., 237, 243
Sherwood, L., 270 Snyder, M., Tanke, E. D. and
Shields, S., 242 Berscheid, E., 6, 32

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Shisana, O., Rehle, T. et al, 120 Sobal, J. and Stunkard, A. J., 65, 66,
Short, R. V., 141 188, 278
Shuttle, P. and Redgrove, P., 141 social comparison theory, 214
Sigall, H. and Landy, D., 131, 139 and adolescents, 216–17
Sillen Tulberg, B. and Møller, A. P., in adulthood, 217
140 alternatives to, 218–19
Silverstein, B., Peterson, B. and and appearance, 216
Perdue, L., 263 and attractiveness norm
development, 216
Silverstein, L. R., Perdue, L. et al, 243,
as automatic/intentional, 214
264, 266
and body dissatisfaction, 215–17
Simmons, J. P. and Nelson, L. D., 201
and boyfriend status, 215–16
Simmons, R., 68
consequences of, 214
Singh, D., 15, 16, 19, 26, 30–1, 32, 49,
cross-sectional/experimental
69, 70, 80, 88, 108–9, 110, 131,
studies, 215–16
132, 142, 160, 161, 171, 173, 174,
and feedback, 214, 215
185, 186, 189, 194, 211, 237–8,
and group conformity, 214
279
and group membership, 218
and Luis, S., 65, 70
importance of, 214
and Young, R. K., 131, 185
and individual variables, 218
Singleton, B. B. R., Cornelissen, P. L.
longitudinal studies, 216–18
and Tovée, M. J., 50
and parent/peer support deficit, 217
Sirin, S. R., McCreary, D. R. and and perceived threat, 214
Mahalik, J. R., 172
and same-sex individuals, 217
Siskind, J., 101–2 upward/downward effects, 215,
skin colour, 144 217–18, 272
Skouteris, H., Carr, R. et al, 281 Social Roles Theory (SRT), 238, 240,
Slater, A. and Tiggemann, M., 246, 241
247, 274 social stigma, 219–25
Small, M. F., 134, 135 sociocultural theory, 226–7
Smith, D. M., 187 and age, 279–80
Smith, K. L., 58 and beauty ideals, 260–6, 281–5
Cornelissen, P. L. and Tovée, M. J., and body dissatisfaction, 259–60
9, 32, 48, 69, 109 and chronic discrepancy, 270–2
Tovée, M. J. et al, 58, 59, 118 and chronic objectification, 273–5
Smith, L. K., Lelas, J. L. and Kerrigan, and disfigurement/disability, 280
D. C., 163 and explanations of attractiveness,
Smith, S. M., McIntosh, W. D. and 243–4
Bazzini, D. G., 212, 280 feminist critique, 244
Smolak, L., 259 future trends/shifting focus, 285–6
Levine, M. and Schermer, F., 269 and men’s body image, 286–7

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314 Index

sociocultural theory – continued and social status, 210–11

non-white populations, 276–9 support for validity of, 212
and pregnancy, 280–1 and unattractiveness/negative
and promoting/pursuing cultural attributions link, 227
beauty ideals, 266–9 and WHR, 211
and youth, Whiteness, flawlessness, Stevens, J., Kumanyika, S. K. and
275 Kell, J. E., 276
socioeconomic status (SES), 110, 121, Stevens, S. S., 24

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123, 278 Stewart, J. E., 7
Solomon, M. R. and Schopler, J., 7 Stice, E., 217, 244, 250, 266, 269
Solomon, S. E., 280 and Bearman, S. K., 218
Sommers-Flanagan, R., Maxfield, J. and Wells, T., 216, 266
Sommers-Flanagan, J. and and Shaw, H., 285
Davis, B., 246 and Whitenton, K., 217, 266
Spears, Brittany, 265 Stormer, S. M. and Thompson, J.K.,
Spitzer, B. L., Henderson, K. A. and 272
Zivian, M. T., 265 Strahan, E. J., Wilson, A. E. et al, 265,
Sprecher, S., Aron, A. et al, 131 272
Sroufe, R. A., Chaikin, A. and et al, 7 Strassmann, B., 134, 140, 141, 142
Stacey, P. B., 135 Strauss, J., Doyle, A. E. and Kreipe, R.
Stangor, C., Lynch, L. et al, 162, 168 E., 266
Sechrist, G. B. and Jost, J. T., 219 Strauss, R. S. and Pollack, H. A., 223,
Stanish, M., 161 226
Status, 238–9, 249 Streeter, S. A. and McBurney, D. H.,
and body-shape, 239 17, 18, 19, 50, 52, 53,
and gender-differentiated roles, 110, 173
238–9 Stromer, S. M. and Thompson, J. K.,
and marital partners, 239 218
and socially pervasive roles, 238 Suarez-Orozco, C. and
Steer, P., 67 Suarez-Orozco, M. M., 276
Steiner-Adair, C., Sjostrom, L. et al, Sugiyama, L. S., 66, 69, 78, 81, 110,
250 226
Stephan, C. W. and Langlois, J. H., 6 Swaddle, J. P. and Reierson, G. W., 102
stereotypes, and attractiveness, Swallen, K. C., Reither, E. N. et al, 225
210–12 Swami, V., 4, 67, 110, 123, 261
definition of, 209 Antonakopoulos, N. et al, 110, 123,
and environmental pressures, 227 175
and halo effects, 212 Caprario, C. et al, 110, 123, 175, 201
and intelligence/achievement, 211 Chan, F. et al, 7
and male/female Extraversion, Einon, D. et al, 30
210–11 and Furnham, A., 7–8, 19, 109, 112,
and physical status, health, 121, 123, 161
reproduction, 211–12 Gray, M. and Furnham, A., 109
predictive validity of, 210 Greven, C. and Furnham, A., 211
research on, 209 Knight, D. et al, 110
and social comparison theory, Neto, F. et al, 110, 123
215–18 and Tovée, M. J., 16, 70, 110, 118,
and social competence, 210 122, 198, 238, 241, 251, 278,
social mechanisms, 212–14 279

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 Index 315

Swim, J. K., Hyers, L. L. et al, 248, 273 Tregenza, T. and Wedell, N., 89
Symons, D., 7, 78, 132, 133, 135, 185, Treloar, C. et al, 278
186, 188, 200 Tripartite Model of Body
Sypeck, M. F. et al, 265 Dissatisfaction, 244
Trivers, R. L., 135, 148
Takahata, Y., Ihobe, H. and Idani, G., Troje, N. F., 163
140, 151 Turkel, A. R., 271
Tassinary, L. G. and Hansen, K. A., 16, Turkheimer, E., 242

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17, 18, 109, 161, 178 Turner, S. L., Hamilton, H. et al, 266
Taylor, P. D. and Williams, G. C., 90 Tversky, B. and Baratz, D., 176
Taylor, S., Fiske, S. et al, 162 Twiggy, 263–4
Taylor, S. E. and Lobel, M., 214 Tylka, Y. L. and Hill, M. S., 247
Teachman, B. A. and Brownell, K.D.,
221 Udry, J. R. and Eckland, B. K., 7
Thompson, J. K., 260 Unger, R. K., 160, 178
and Cafri, G., 286 United Nations, 139, 286
Coovert, M. D. et al, 224 Upfold, J. B. et al, 144, 146
Heinberg, L. J. et al, 30, 209, 216,
226, 243, 244, 260 van den Berghe, P. L. and Frost, P.,
and Stice, E., 269, 285 131, 132, 144
and Tantleff, S., 270 van der Merwe, M. T. and
van den Berg, P., et al, 267, 268, Pepper, M. S., 123
271, 273, 281 vandenberg, S. G., 185
Thornhill, R., 88 Varga, C. A., 120
and Gangestad, S. W., 91 Vaughn, L. S., 7
and Grammer, K., 49, 57 Vickers, W. T., 101
Tiggemann, M., 248, 274, 286 Vikram, N. K., Misra, A. et al
and Kuring, J. K., 247, 274 (2003), 71
and Lynch, J. E., 247, 249, 274 Vitzthum, V. J., Bentley, G. R.
and Rothblum, E. D., 274, 283 et al, 68
and Slater, A., 247, 248, 266 Spielvogel, H. and
and Stevens, A., 251 Thornburg, J., 68
Tishkoff, S. A., Reed, F. A. et al, 92 Vogue, 263, 264
Tovée, M. J., 9 volume height index (VHI), 25, 48
Benson, P. J. et al, 56 as body attractiveness index, 34–6,
and Cornelissen, P. L., 48, 49, 58, 42–3
69, 109, 118, 131, 142, 161, and fitness levels, 42
173, 186, 279 as important visual cue, 42–3
Cornelissen, P. L. et al, 31, 32 inconvenience of measure, 42
Hancock, P. J. B. et al, 25–6, 32, 54, and male bodily attractiveness,
57, 58, 72, 109, 112, 113, 118 39–42
Maisey, D. S. et al, 49, 54, 56, 58, optimal, 38–9
72, 109, 112, 113, 118, 173, validation of effects, 36–8
177, 279 Voracek, M. and Fisher, M.L., 109
Reinhardt, S. et al, 54, 56, 58, 109,
113, 118 Waas, P., Waldenstrom, U. et al, 48
Swami, V. et al, 22, 67, 70, 110, 111, Wade, Martin, and Tiggemann, 241
118, 119, 120, 123, 186, 278 Waist-to-chest ratio (WCR), 40, 41, 43
Tracer, D. P., 67 Waist-to-chin height (WHC), 25

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316 Index

Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), 48, 237–8 correlation with health, 66–7

and attractiveness, 17–18, 30–2, and male preference, 66–7
160–1 and mate choice, 120, 188, 189, 201
and choice of mate, 109 and obesity, 219–21, 223–5
correlation between measures, 30–1, transmission of bias, 223
48–9 and WHR, 16–17, see also obesity
criticism of, 16–19, 108–11 Weiner, K. E. and Thompson, J. K.,
and cultural, ethnic, national 248

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differences, 110, 111 Wellings, K. et al, 136, 143, 151
and cultural invariance, 178n2 Wertheim, E. H., Paxton, S. J. et al, 272
and curvaceousness, 65, 194 Paxton, S. J. and Tilgner, L., 271
and environments, 110–11 Wetsman, A. and Marlowe, F., 16, 69,
and fertility, 15–16, 26, 66 70, 110, 175, 178
as first-pass filter of attractiveness, Wheeler, P., 147, 148
109, 118 Whitman, W., 163
front/actual measures, 48–9 Whitten, P. L., 136
and health outcomes, 26 Wilde, O., 266
and image manipulation, 49–60 Wilkinson, G. S. and Taper, M., 90
and interpersonal metaperception, Willet, W. C., Manson, J. E. et al, 120
174–7 Wilson, J. M. B., Tripp, D. A. and
and low BMI, 16 Boland, F. J., 109
optimal, 31, 189 Wiseman, C. V., Gray, J. J. et al, 264,
popularity of hypothesis, 108 265
and relative importance of Wolf, N., 267, 272, 283
characteristics, 19–21 Wolfenson, D., Roth, Z. et al, 132–3
role of, 16 Roth, Z. and Meidan, R., 144, 146
statistical analyses, 21–6 Wong, V., 7
and stereotypes, 211 Woods, L.E.P., 109
validity of, 176–7 World Bank, 70
weight factor, 16–17 World Health Organization (WHO),
Walker, D. W., Hale, J. R. et al, 146 286
Wallace, R., 281
Walster, E., Aronson, V. et al, 5–6 youth, advantages of, 143
Ward, L. M., 245 and children, 143–4
Wass, P., Waldenstrom, U. et al, 16, 66 gender differences, 149
Watterson, B., 261 male attraction to, 143–4
Waynforth, D., Delwadia, S. and and marriage, 143
Camm, M., 89 Yu, D. W. and Shepard, G. H., 16, 30,
Wedekind, C., Seebeck, T. et al, 103 69, 70, 92, 100, 103, 110, 178
Weeden, J. and Sabini, J., 26, 121, 211
weight, below normal, 264–5 Zaadstra, B. M., Seidell, J. C. et al, 16,
and bias against adults, 219–21 30, 48, 66, 161
bias against children, 221–3 Zollner, F. and Nathan, J., 185
and bodily cues, 160–1 Zones, J. S., 261, 275
consequences of bias, 223–5 Zulu study, 111–22

10.1057/9780230596887 - The Body Beautiful, Edited by Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham