Abstract
Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) has been shown to negatively correlate with attractiveness, health, youthfulness, and the reproductive potential of females, which arguably explains why men tend to perceive women with lower WHRs as more attractive. Additionally, it has recently been hypothesized that men are attracted to feminine ranges of WHR even when the actual sex of the target is ambiguous. The current study tests the hypothesis that lower WHRs are reliably associated with women and higher WHRs with men, thus serving as a proximate mechanism by which men find lower WHRs more attractive. An online survey was developed in which line drawings of human waists and hips, with WHRs ranging from 0.65 to 0.95 and no cues for sex identification, were presented to participants who were then asked to infer the sex of the drawings. Results from 72 men and 49 women indicate an increasing frequency of “female” identifications as WHR decreases. Both men and women exhibit high inter-rater reliability in associating low WHRs with women and high WHRs with men. The implications of these findings are discussed, and directions for future research are highlighted.
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