The relationship of female physical attractiveness to body fatness.
Aspects of the female body may be attractive because they signal evolutionary fitness. Greater body fatness might reflect greater potential to survive famines, but individuals carrying larger fat stores may have poor health and lower fertility in non-famine conditions. A mathematical statistical model using epidemiological data linking fatness to fitness traits, predicted a peaked relationship between fatness and attractiveness (maximum at body mass index (BMI) = 22.8 to 24.8 depending on ethnicity and assumptions). Participants from three Caucasian populations (Austria, Lithuania and the UK), three Asian populations (China, Iran and Mauritius) and four African populations (Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal) rated attractiveness of a series of female images varying in fatness (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR). There was an inverse linear relationship between physical attractiveness and body fatness or BMI in all populations. Lower body fat was more attractive, down to at least BMI = 19. There was no peak in the relationship over the range we studied in any population. WHR was a significant independent but less important factor, which was more important (greater r (2)) in African populations. Predictions based on the fitness model were not supported. Raters appeared to use body fat percentage (BF%) and BMI as markers of age. The covariance of BF% and BMI with age indicates that the role of body fatness alone, as a marker of attractiveness, has been overestimated.
State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , China.
Guanlin
G
Wang
Department of Clinical Nutrition, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran , Iran.
Kurosh
K
Djafarian
Department of Biochemistry, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture , Umuahia, Abia State , Nigeria.
Chima A
CA
Egedigwe
CNESTEN, Unité Mixte de Recherche Nutrition et Alimentation, CNESTEN-Université Ibn Tofail , Rabat , Morocco.
Asmaa
A
El Hamdouchi
College of Health Science, School of Medicine, Medical Physiology Department, Moi University , Eldoret , Kenya.
Robert
R
Ojiambo
Biochemistry Department, Central health Laboratory services, Ministry of Health and Quality of Life , Mauritius.
Harris
H
Ramuth
Center of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Pathophysiology and Immunology, Medical University Graz , Graz , Austria.
Sandra Johanna
SJ
Wallner-Liebmann
Center of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Pathophysiology and Immunology, Medical University Graz , Graz , Austria.
Sonja
S
Lackner
Laboratoire de Nutrition, Département de Biologie Animale, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar , Dakar , Senegal.
Adama
A
Diouf
Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen , Aberdeen , UK.
Justina
J
Sauciuvenaite
Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen , Aberdeen , UK.
Catherine
C
Hambly
Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen , Aberdeen , UK.
Lobke M
LM
Vaanholt
Stephen F. Austin State University , Nacogdoches, TX , USA.
Mark D
MD
Faries
State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , China ; Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen , Aberdeen , UK.
John R
JR
Speakman
Age; Body fat; Evolution; Female physical attractiveness; Fertility; Health; Mate selection; Thrifty gene hypothesis; Waist to hip ratio