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Arch Sex Behav (2014) 43:989997 DOI 10.1007/s10508-013-0166-1
ORIGINAL PAPER
Assessment of Waist-to-Hip Ratio Attractiveness in Women: An Anthropometric Analysis of Digital Silhouettes
Krzysztof Kociski
Received: 15 September 2012 / Revised: 12 January 2013 / Accepted: 17 May 2013 / Published online: 24 August 2013 The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The low proportion of waist to hip size in females isauniqueandadaptivehumanfeature.Incontemporaryhuman populations, the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is negatively associated with womens health, fecundity, and cognitive ability. It is, therefore, hypothesized that men will prefer women with low WHR. Although this prediction is supported by many studies, considerable disagreement persists about which WHR values are the most attractive and the importance of WHR for attractiveness of the female body. Unfortunately, the methods applied thus far are awed in several ways. In the present study, we investigated male preferences for female WHR using a high precision assessment procedure and digitally manufactured, high quality, anthropometrically informed stimuli which were disentangled from body mass covariation. Forty men were requested to choose the most attractive silhouette consecutively fromsixseries(2levelsofrealism9 3levelsofbodymass),each consisting of 26 female images that varied in WHR (from .60 to .85 by .01). Substantial inter-individual variation in the choices made was observed. Nevertheless, low and average WHR valueswerechosenmore frequentlythan above-average values or values below the normal variation of the trait. This preference pattern mirrors the relationship between WHR and mate value, suggesting that the preferences are adaptive.
Keywords Waist-to-hip ratio Attractiveness Preference
Mate choice
Introduction
The low ratio of waist to hip size in females is a unique human feature (Singh, 1993) and several adaptive mechanisms might havecontributedtoitsevolution.First,thehumannewbornhasa relatively large head and a large pelvis facilitates its delivery (Rosenberg, 1992). Second, a narrow waist is a visual cue of the absence of pregnancy and therefore current fecunditya feature that ancestral men sought in women. This may be an especially important cue in humans because women do not signal their present fertility in any other easily perceptible way (Singh,1993). Third, fat, when deposited around the hips rather than the waist, facilitates bipedal stability of pregnant and lactating women (Pawowski & Grabarczyk, 2003), contains fatty acids benecial for brain development of the fetus and infant (Lassek & Gaulin, 2008), and may dishonestly signal a...