Abstract
The issue of cultural universality of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) attractiveness in women is currently under debate. We tested men's preferences for female WHR in traditional society of Tsimane'(Native Amazonians) of the Bolivian rainforest (N = 66). Previous studies showed preferences for high WHR in traditional populations, but they did not control for the women's body mass.We used a method of stimulus creation that enabled us to overcome this problem. We found that WHR lower than the average WHR in the population is preferred independent of cultural conditions. Our participants preferred the silhouettes of low WHR, but high body mass index (BMI), which might suggest that previous results could be an artifact related to employed stimuli. We found also that preferences for female BMI are changeable and depend on environmental conditions and probably acculturation (distance from the city). Interestingly, the Tsimane' men did not associate female WHR with age, health, physical strength or fertility. This suggests that men do not have to be aware of the benefits associated with certain body proportions - an issue that requires further investigation.
Highlights
For several decades, scientists have been studying the ideals and elements of body attractiveness, such as waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) [1] body mass index (BMI) [2], muscularity [3], breast size [4], leg length (LBR) [5] or height [6]
Two-tailed binomial test indicated that the high BMI was chosen more frequently than the average (p = .00014) or low BMI (p = .0065), while frequencies of the two latter levels did not differ from each other (p = .34)
Two-tailed binomial test indicated that the low WHR was chosen more frequently than the average (p = .049) or high WHR (p = .013), while frequencies of the two latter levels did not differ significantly from each other (p = .73)
Summary
Scientists have been studying the ideals and elements of body attractiveness, such as waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) [1] body mass index (BMI) [2], muscularity [3], breast size [4], leg length (LBR) [5] or height [6]. Since the beginning of these studies, they have debated whether the obtained preferences are universal or culture/ecology -dependent [7,8,9,10] Many of these studies have concerned the attractiveness of BMI (or general body size) and WHR in women in both European and non-European populations [11,12,13,14,15]. It remains unclear, which values of BMI and WHR are the most attractive and whether the preferences for these body proportions are culturally universal. Despite the benefits associated with average body weight in women, men in North America, Europe and developed Asian countries generally prefer thin compared to average or overweight women [20,21,22]
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