Mere visual experience impacts preference for body shape: evidence from male competitive swimmers

Abstract

Theoretical and empirical studies suggest that phenotypic averageness is a sign of an individual's high biological quality. The averageness should therefore be preferred in mates. A condition for such preference is the knowledge of average phenotype in the population. It is envisaged that an individual develops a neural template of typical phenotype on the basis of perceptual experience with images of conspecifics, and the template is then used in attractiveness assessments of potential partners. Regrettably, studies supporting this view are lacking. In the present study, adult male competitive swimmers and men who did not partake in swimming assessed the attractiveness of female silhouettes with proportions typical for swimmers or non-swimmers. Because swimmers see other swimmers relatively frequently, we hypothesize that they prefer swimmer-like female silhouettes more strongly than non-swimmers do. The analysis supports this hypothesis, suggesting that mere visual experience shapes a neural template of a silhouette, which subsequently serves as a reference for attractiveness evaluations.