Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on May 21, 2009
Behavioral Ecology 2009 20(4):716-721; doi:10.1093/beheco/arp051
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Beyond waist–hip ratio: experimental multivariate evidence that average women's torsos are most attractive
a Evolution and Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney 2052, Australia b School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
Address correspondence to R.C. Brooks. E-mail: rob.brooks{at}unsw.edu.au.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
One of the most iconic findings in human behavioral ecology is the fact that women with waist-hip ratios (WHRs) of approximately 0.7 are most attractive and that this ratio indicates maximum fecundity and reproductive value. However, the effects of WHR and of other indices of body shape and size on attractiveness are far from fully resolved. We adopt a recently developed method that combines multivariate manipulation of experimental stimuli with evolutionary selection analysis to test the linear and nonlinear effects of waist, hip, and shoulder width and the interactions between these traits on the attractiveness of 200 line-drawn models to 100 men. There was no general support that WHR or body mass (expressed as perimeter–area ratio) significantly influences attractiveness. There was, however, strong preference for average values of all 3 traits indicating that attractiveness is due to the tight integration of these 3 traits. We plot the mean waist and hip sizes of 8 samples of women on our response surface, including Playboy centerfolds, models from the 1920s and 1990s, Australian escorts, and Australian women in 4 different age categories (collectively we refer to this latter group as the "regular women"). The regular women in the 25- to 44-year age-group were closest to the peak attractiveness value on our response surface. Our results highlight the strong integration of and interrelationships among different parts of the body as determinants of attractiveness.
Key words: attractiveness, human, multivariate selection, response surface, selection analysis, torso.
Received 19 June 2008; revised 19 February 2009; accepted 19 February 2009.