Abstract
Abstract This study examined how waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) differentially affects males and females in their preference for female images. A WHR of approximately .70 is considered an indicator of health and fertility for females, and previous research indicates that participants perceive images with WHRs closer to .70 as more attractive (Singh, 1993a; Singh & Young, 1994; Streeter & McBurney, 2003). A sex difference has yet to be found in perceptions of attractiveness. Thirty-four male and thirty-four female participants examined a series of slides. Each slide featured two images of a woman in a bathing suit. One of the images showed a woman with a WHR between .70 and .71, while the other image had a WHR of .73 to .74. Previous research has only compared larger incremental differences (e.g., .60 vs. .70 vs. .80). Half of the images were taken from Men’s Interest magazines and half from Women’s Health magazines. The women in both images had comparable reported Body Mass Indexes and were shown from a frontal view, but their faces were not visible. Male participants found the low WHR images significantly more attractive than did female participants.
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