Darwin (1871)
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Presentation Transcript
Darwin (1871) • Didn’t specify morphological features that females used to select males • Females used aesthetic preference • Independent of male health or fitness • Wallace suggested vigor and health
Singh (1995) • WHR in females’ judgments • Fat deposits on males are health-relevant • Predict women will find male WHRs in typical male range more attractive
Study 1 • 87 women, age 18-22 • Ranked 12 images (most to least attractive) • Top and bottom three for: • good health, youthfulness, attractiveness, sexy, desire for children, faithfulness, caring father, ambitious, intelligent, aggressiveness, leadership, strong and powerful, kind and understanding, sense of humour
Multidimensional Scaling: Female Judgment of Male Attractiveness I: WHR II: Body weight • WHR more related to attractiveness, health, intelligence, and leadership qualities • Body weight more related to kindness and understanding, and being a caring father
Multidimensional Unfolding: Female Judgment of Male Attractiveness
Perception of male attractiveness influenced by WHR size depending on overall body weight • Only normal weight with male-typical WHRs perceived as healthy and attractive • Healthiness appears to be necessary condition for attractiveness • Being strong and powerful not related to attractiveness or healthiness • Fits with highly muscular men not being rated most attractive (e.g., Biasiotto & Ferrando, 1991) • Lack of positive relationship between kindness and understanding and attractiveness • “Dark side of beauty” (Dermer & Thiel, 1975)
Study 2 • 158 women; wide rang of ages, SES, and education • Showed N7, N9, N10 images • Three income levels (low, middle, upper class) matching three occupations (bank teller, video store manager, businessman) • Willingness for relationship: • have coffee/casual conversation, go on a date, nonromantic friendship, short-term romantic, long-term serious romantic, marriage
Complex interactions • Overall, figures with higher WHRs and financial status were rated more desirable for all relationships • Financial status can compensate for lower attractiveness, but men need both high WHR and finances to be maximally desired
Female characteristics enter in • 18-25 years more inclined to dating; 26-35 more inclined to long-term and marriage; 36-69 sought long-term relationships (companionship over reproductive) • Females with lower education more willing to go for coffee and have nonromantic friendship than females with high education, but only if target figure’s income was high • Females with lower income showed higher preference than those with high income for target figures with higher WHR and finances for coffee and conversation
Broadly Speaking • Women show preference for WHR in 0.9 range (0.85-0.95) • 0.7 is in gynoid range • Over 1.0 into obesity
Tapering • Manipulation of male WHR • Torso tapering • Shoulders appear broader • Franzoni & Herzog (1987), Horvath (1979) • SHR • Average 1.2 (male), 1.04 (female)
Dijkstra & Buunk (2001) • Jealousy • Male and Female undergrads • Singh images • Male figures • WHR 0.7 and 0.9 • SHR 1.20 and 1.40 (based on male fashion models)
Measures • Jealousy • If figure was sexually interested in subject’s partner • Dominance • Self-confident, ambitious, competent, assertive, influential, dominant • Attractiveness • How attractive, how attractive to member of opposite sex
Results • High SHR produced greater jealousy in male subjects • Both female and male subjects rated low WHR and high SHR figures as more attractive and dominant • Females put greater emphasis on WHR, whereas males attended more to SHR
Buunk & Dijkstra (2005) • Generally, a follow-up study • Women attend more to rival women’s waist, hips, and hair; men attend more to rival men’s shoulders • Low WHR low SHR rivals (i.e., slender body build) evoked most male jealousy; these figures rated most attractive and socially dominant, but not most physically dominant • Males in study were older (M = 48 years); SHR less significant than for younger males
Hughes & Gallup (2003) • SHR and WHR • Age of first sexual intercourse • Number sexual partners • Number of EPCs • Number of cases of being an EPC partner
Stature • Undergraduate students • Males • SHR 1.03-1.40 (M=1.18) • WHR 0.73-1.03 (M=0.86) • Females • SHR 0.9-1.22 (M=1.03) • WHR 0.69-0.87 (M=0.77)
Results • In males, higher SHR significantly correlates with: • Younger age for first sex • More sexual partners • More EPC partners • More instances of being an EPC partner • Male WHR • Earlier first sex for 0.9, delayed for <0.9 and >0.9 • In females, SHR has no significant correlations • Lower WHRs in females follows male SHR pattern
Hughes, Dispenza & Gallup (2004) • Opposite sex voice attractiveness • Positively correlated with SHR in males • Negatively correlated with WHR in females • Voice attractiveness positively correlates with age of first sex, number of sexual partners, number EPCs, etc.