Women's Attractiveness Research Articles

Maternal breast and body symmetry in pregnancy and offspring condition.

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is hypothesized to reflect the level of an individual's developmental instability, and therefore genetic quality. As a potential signal of biological condition, female body (including breast) symmetry was shown to be perceived as more attractive in mate choice context. If symmetry reflects a woman's genetic quality, it is possible that FA, similarly to other maternal anthropometric cues of biological condition (e.g., body height or waist-to-hip ratio), may be also related to her offspring condition. To test this, breast and body asymmetry was measured in 93 pregnant women in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pregnancy trimester. Child's birth weight, length, chest and head circumference, information on the Apgar score, congenital malformations, and birth complications was taken from hospital records. The relationships between offspring birth characteristics and maternal breast FA and body FA were analyzed separately, controlled for a child's sex and maternal weight in pregnancy. Breast asymmetry was not a predictor of a child's neonatal condition assessed from morphological parameters at birth. Asymmetry of maternal non-ornamental body characteristcs, commonly used to assess body FA, correlated negatively with a child's weight, head and chest circumference at birth. A composite asymmetry index of eight body traits, non-sexually selected characteristics, seems to be a better predictor of a woman's ability to invest in fetus during pregnancy than breast asymmetry, sexual ornamentation that is perceived as a signal of a woman's attractiveness and biological condition.

The Evolutionary Origins of Same-Sex Attraction: Assessing Weak Negative Selection and Positive Selection Arguments

About one in five individuals is not attracted exclusively to members of the opposite sex. The presence of same-sex attraction in such a high frequency constitutes a major evolutionary puzzle. One solution that has been proposed is weak negative selection pressures exercised on deviations from exclusive heterosexual attraction in ancestral human societies. The current paper employs a population genetics model in order to assess the explanatory power of this hypothesis. By investigating different scenarios, it is found that weak selection pressure falls short in accounting for the observed prevalence rates of same-sex attraction. On this basis, it is argued that positive selection is also required. By examining the shape of the distribution of same-sex attraction, it is further argued that positive selection pressure has been exercised on heterosexual orientation with same-sex attraction in women and possibly in men, and on homosexual orientation in men. In addition, it is proposed that male preferences for same-sex attraction are the main source of positive selection of female same-sex attraction. The source(s) of positive selection of male same-sex attraction is, however, obscure.

The evolution of same-sex attraction: Exploring women's willingness to have sex with other women in order to satisfy their partners

About one in five women are not attracted exclusively to members of the opposite sex. This high prevalence of same-sex attractions constitutes an evolutionary puzzle as they appear to impair reproductive success. It has recently been proposed that, one reason behind such high prevalence is a male preference for same-sex attraction in women. The male choice hypothesis predicts that heterosexual women who experience same-sex attractions would be more willing than heterosexual women who do not experience such attractions to have sex with other women. It predicts further that heterosexual women who experience same-sex attractions would be more willing than heterosexual women to engaging in extra-pair copulations with a woman than with a man. Evidence from an online sample of 707 heterosexual women found strong support for both predictions. It was also found that about one in four heterosexual women would consider having sex with another woman in order to satisfy their long-term partner, and about one in two heterosexual women would react negatively to such a suggestion by their partner.

Women's attractiveness is linked to expected age at menopause.

A great number of studies have shown that features linked to immediate fertility explain a large part of the variance in female attractiveness. This is consistent with an evolutionary perspective, as men are expected to prefer females at the age at which fertility peaks (at least for short-term relationships) in order to increase their reproductive success. However, for long-term relationships, a high residual reproductive value (the expected future reproductive output, linked to age at menopause) becomes relevant as well. In that case, young age and late menopause are expected to be preferred by men. However, the extent to which facial features provide cues to the likely age at menopause has never been investigated so far. Here, we show that expected age at menopause is linked to facial attractiveness of young women. As age at menopause is heritable, we used the mother's age at menopause as a proxy for her daughter's expected age of menopause. We found that men judged faces of women with a later expected age at menopause as more attractive than those of women with an earlier expected age at menopause. This result holds when age, cues of immediate fertility and facial ageing were controlled for. Additionally, we found that the expected age at menopause was not correlated with any of the other variables considered (including immediate fertility cues and facial ageing). Our results show the existence of a new correlate of women's facial attractiveness, expected age at menopause, which is independent of immediate fertility cues and facial ageing.

Are Women Sexually Fluid? The Nature of Female Same-Sex Attraction and Its Evolutionary Origins

The notion that female sexuality is fluid, meaning that women can experience attractions for either men or women depending on the circumstances, has been widely accepted by the academic community. Accordingly, scholars have attempted to develop evolutionary models that could explain why selection forces have favored sexual fluidity in women. The present paper reviews longitudinal studies on sexual attraction which indicate that the great majority of women do not have a fluid sexuality, but have instead stable attractions over time. Moreover, the current paper reviews studies on arousal, in order to demonstrate that they indicate a weak correlation between sexual arousal and sexual attraction in women, and not that women are attracted to both sexes. The evolutionary implications of the findings on female sexuality are further explored.

Women's attraction to benevolent sexism: Needing relationship security predicts greater attraction to men who endorse benevolent sexism

AbstractBenevolent sexism prescribes that men should cherish and protect women in intimate relationships. Despite the romantic tone of these attitudes, prior research indicates that benevolent sexism undermines women's competence, ambition, and independence. Ambivalent sexism theory proposes that benevolent sexism is able to incur these costs because the promise of a chivalrous and protective partner offers women security in their intimate relationships. We tested this key proposition by examining whether women who intensely need relationship security—women higher in attachment anxiety—are more attracted to men who endorse benevolent sexism. Highly anxious women (N = 632) rated men described as endorsing benevolent sexism as relatively more attractive, and reported greater preferences for partners to hold benevolently sexist attitudes. These results advance understanding regarding the underlying reasons women find benevolent sexism appealing and identify who will be most vulnerable to the potential costs of benevolent sexism.

Is Red Really Romantic?

Abstract. Red has been reported to enhance attraction for women rating men ( Elliot et al., 2010 ) and men rating women ( Elliot & Niesta, 2008 ). We replicated one of these studies online and in-person. To ensure rigor, we obtained original materials, planned for informative sample sizes, pre-registered our study, used a positive control, and adopted quality controls. For men, we found a very weak effect in the predicted direction (d = 0.09, 95% CI [−0.17, 0.34], N = 242). For women, we found a very weak effect in the opposite direction (d = −0.09, 95% CI [−0.30, 0.12], N = 360). The original studies may have overestimated the red effect, our studies may be an underestimate, or there could be strong moderation of the effect of red on attraction.

The neural basis of human female mate copying: An empathy-based social learning process

Abstract We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural basis of human female mate copying. Consistent with previous mate copying effects, women's attractiveness ratings for target males increased significantly greater after the males were observed paired with romantic partners versus ordinary friends, and this was mainly accounted for by males being paired with attractive romantic partners. Attractiveness ratings for male targets were lower when they were paired with an attractive opposite-sex friend. The fMRI data showed that the observational learning process in mate copying recruited brain regions including the putamen, the inferior frontal gyrus, the middle cingulate, the SMA, the insula, and the thalamus – areas overlapped with brain regions involved in empathy. The blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals in higher cognitive functions including the parieto-frontal network, as well as visual areas, were significantly more activated when women evaluated males in the friend versus romantic-partner context, whereas brain regions were not more active in the reverse comparison, suggesting that less cognitive functions or as least no more functions were involved in evaluating the quality of target males in the romantic-partner context than in the friend context. Further analysis indicated that specific brain regions related to the evaluation process of mate copying were associated with bilateral fusiform gyrus (FFA). Thus, results are consistent with a view that mate copying is a domain-specific adaptation involving an empathy-based social-learning process that is also associated with reduced cognition.

The evolution of female same-sex attraction: The male choice hypothesis

Prevalence studies indicate that about one in five women experience some degree of same-sex attraction. The evolutionary origins of such attraction are not well understood. Accordingly, this paper proposed a theoretical framework where, during the period of human evolution, same-sex attractions in women were under positive selection. The source of positive selection has been male preferences for opposite-sex sex partners who experienced same-sex attractions. This theoretical framework was used to generate four predictions that were tested in two online studies which employed a total of 1509 heterosexual participants. It was found that heterosexual women did not desire partners who experienced same-sex attractions, but a considerable proportion of heterosexual men desired partners who experienced same-sex attractions. In addition, it was found that men were more sexually excited than women by the same-sex infidelity of their partners, and they desired more than women, their opposite-sex partners to have sex with same-sex individuals. Finally, participants' preferences were contingent on the seriousness of the relationships, with same-sex attraction to be preferred more in short-term than in a long-term partner. These findings were employed in understanding the evolutionary origins of same-sex attraction in women.

Autonomy and self-esteem of women who donate to an oocyte cryopreservation bank in the Netherlands

Worldwide, oocyte donors donate voluntarily or receive varying amounts of money for donation. This raises ethical questions regarding the appropriateness of financial compensation, and the possibility of undue inducement and exploitation of oocyte donors. Are these donors capable of making an independent, well-considered decision? Regarding this matter, it is important to examine aspects such as autonomy-connectedness and self-esteem. In this cross-sectional study, demographic characteristics and donation motivations were assessed in 92 women who attended the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht as potential oocyte donors between June 2012 and July 2016. Demographic characteristics were assessed. Motivations were recorded in semi-structured interviews (response rate 59%). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to assess level of self-esteem. The Autonomy-Connectedness Scale was used to measure the level of autonomy-connectedness. The typical oocyte donor at the UMC Utrecht is a well-educated, employed, 31-year-old woman living with her partner in a completed family with two children, and donating on altruistic grounds. The donors showed higher autonomy-connectedness scores than the average female Dutch population and do not lack self-esteem (questionnaire response rate 66%). Concerns regarding exploitation and attraction of women with lower socioeconomic status, with shortcomings in autonomy-connectedness and self-esteem, could not be confirmed in this group.

Creating beauty: creativity compensates for low physical attractiveness when individuals assess the attractiveness of social and romantic partners.

Although creativity is attractive in a potential mate, it is unclear (i) whether the effects of creativity on attractiveness generalize to other social contexts and (ii) whether creativity has equivalent effects on men's and women's attractiveness. As social knowledge of creativity may either enhance or ‘offset’ the appeal of social partners who differ in physical attractiveness, three repeated measures experiments were conducted to directly address these issues. Here, participants rated a series of face–text pairs for attractiveness on trials that differed in one of four combinations of facial attractiveness (attractive and less attractive) and creativity (creative and less creative), rating story-tellers in two experiments (short interpretations of an identical painting) and creative ideas in a further experiment (alternative uses for an everyday object). Regardless of the sex of the judge, creativity and facial attractiveness had independent effects on men's overall attractiveness (initial experiment) and, in further experiments, more substantial effects on the attractiveness of men with less attractive faces than men with attractive faces (when using a different measure of creativity) and specific effects on the attractiveness of individuals with less attractive faces (when using different face stimuli). Collectively, across three experiments, these findings suggest that creativity may compensate for putative cues to lower biological ‘quality’ and that the benefits of creativity to social groups more generally enhance attraction to creative men (in two experiments) and creative men and women (one experiment). More broadly, the data suggest that species can integrate knowledge of cognitive intelligence with visual cues to biological ‘quality’ to facilitate mate and/or ally choice.

Own attractiveness and perceived relationship quality shape sensitivity in women’s memory for other men on the attractiveness dimension

Although recent work suggests that opposite-sex facial attractiveness is less salient in memory when individuals are in a committed romantic relationship, romantic relationship quality can vary over time. In light of this, we tested whether activating concerns about romantic relationship quality strengthens memory for attractive faces. Partnered women were exposed briefly to faces manipulated in shape cues to attractiveness before either being asked to think about a moment of emotional closeness or distance in their current relationship. We measured sensitivity in memory for faces as the extent to which they recognized correct versions of studied faces over versions of the same person altered to look either more or less-attractive than their original (i.e., studied) version. Contrary to predictions, high relationship quality strengthened hit rate for faces regardless of the sex or attractiveness of the face. In general, women’s memories were more sensitive to attractiveness in women, but were biased toward attractiveness in male faces, both when responding to unfamiliar faces and versions of familiar faces that were more attractive than the original male identity from the learning phase. However, findings varied according to self-rated attractiveness and a psychometric measure of the quality of their current relationship. Attractive women were more sensitive to attractiveness in men, while their less-attractive peers had a stronger bias to remember women as more-attractive and men as less-attractive than their original image respectively. Women in better-quality romantic relationships had stronger positive biases toward, and false memories for, attractive men. Our findings suggest a sophisticated pattern of sensitivity and bias in women’s memory for facial cues to quality that varies systematically according to factors that may alter the costs of female mating competition (‘market demand’) and relationship maintenance.

No compelling positive association between ovarian hormones and wearing red clothing when using multinomial analyses

Several studies report that wearing red clothing enhances women's attractiveness and signals sexual proceptivity to men. The associated hypothesis that women will choose to wear red clothing when fertility is highest, however, has received mixed support from empirical studies. One possible cause of these mixed findings may be methodological. The current study aimed to replicate recent findings suggesting a positive association between hormonal profiles associated with high fertility (high estradiol to progesterone ratios) and the likelihood of wearing red. We compared the effect of the estradiol to progesterone ratio on the probability of wearing: red versus non-red (binary logistic regression); red versus neutral, black, blue, green, orange, multi-color, and gray (multinomial logistic regression); and each of these same colors in separate binary models (e.g., green versus non-green). Red versus non-red analyses showed a positive trend between a high estradiol to progesterone ratio and wearing red, but the effect only arose for younger women and was not robust across samples. We found no compelling evidence for ovarian hormones increasing the probability of wearing red in the other analyses. However, we did find that the probability of wearing neutral was positively associated with the estradiol to progesterone ratio, though the effect did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance. Findings suggest that although ovarian hormones may affect younger women's preference for red clothing under some conditions, the effect is not robust when differentiating amongst other colors of clothing. In addition, the effect of ovarian hormones on clothing color preference may not be specific to the color red.

Breast shape (ptosis) as a marker of a woman's breast attractiveness and age: Evidence from Poland and Papua.

A women's breast is a sex-specific and aesthetic bodily attribute. It is suggested that breast morphology signals maturity, health, and fecundity. The perception of a woman's attractiveness and age depends on various cues, such as breast size or areola pigmentation. Conducted in Poland and Papua, the current study investigated how breast attractiveness, and the further estimate of a woman's age based on her breast's appearance, is affected by the occurrence of breast ptosis (ie, sagginess, droopiness). In the Polish sample, 57 women and 50 men (N = 107) were presented with sketches of breasts manipulated to represent different stages of ptosis based on two different breast ptosis classifications. The participants were asked to rate the breast attractiveness and age of the woman whose breasts were depicted in each sketch. In Papua, 45 men aged 20 to 75 years took part in the study, which was conducted using only one of the classifications of breast ptosis. Regardless of the classification used, the results showed that the assessed attractiveness of the breasts decreased as the estimated age increased with respect to the more ptotic breasts depicted in the sketches. The results for Papuan raters were the same as for the Polish sample. Breast ptosis may be yet another physical trait that affects the perception and preferences of a potential sexual partner. The consistency in ratings between Polish and Papuan raters suggests that the tendency to assess ptotic breasts with aging and a loss of attractiveness is cross-culturally universal.

Ar visada „gražu yra gerai“: potencialių darbuotojų suvokto fizinio patrauklumo ir lyties įtaka priimant sprendimą pakviesti į pokalbį dėl darbo

Įsitikinimas, kad „grožis yra gėris“, reiškia, jog patraukliems žmonėms priskiriamos teigiamesnės asme­nybės savybės nei nepatraukliems, tačiau įdarbinimo srityje gaunami prieštaringi rezultatai. Pastebėta, kad patrauklios moterys, siekiančios vadovaujamų pareigų, vertinamos neigiamiau, palyginti su patrau­kliais vyrais ir nepatraukliomis moterimis. Šiuo tyrimu siekta išsiaiškinti, kokią reikšmę suvoktas fizinis patrauklumas turi asmens savybių vertinimui ir potencialaus darbuotojo pasirinkimui pakviesti į darbo pokalbį dėl vadovaujamų / nevadovaujamų pareigų. Pagrindiniame tyrimo etape dalyvavo 85 asmenys. Jie turėjo įvertinti keturių fotografijose pavaizduotų skirtingų lyčių žmonių asmenybės savybes, taip pat nuspręsti, kurį iš asmenų kviestų į darbo pokalbį. Nustatyta, kad patraukliems žmonėms priskiriamos teigiamesnės savybės, nesvarbu, kokia jų lytis ar pareigos, į kurias jie kandidatuoja, taip pat jie būtų dažniau kviečiami į darbo pokalbius.

Positive association between vocal and facial attractiveness in women but not in men: A cross-cultural study

Various species use multiple sensory modalities in the communication processes. In humans, female facial appearance and vocal display are correlated and it has been suggested that they serve as redundant markers indicating the bearer’s reproductive potential and/or residual fertility. In men, evidence for redundancy of facial and vocal attractiveness is ambiguous. We tested the redundancy/multiple signals hypothesis by correlating perceived facial and vocal attractiveness in men and women from two different populations, Brazil and the Czech Republic. We also investigated whether facial and vocal attractiveness are linked to facial morphology. Standardized facial pictures and vocal samples of 86 women (47 from Brazil) and 81 men (41 from Brazil), aged 18–35, were rated for attractiveness by opposite-sex raters. Facial and vocal attractiveness were found to positively correlate in women but not in men. We further applied geometric morphometrics and regressed facial shape coordinates on facial and vocal attractiveness ratings. In women, facial shape was linked to their facial attractiveness but there was no association between facial shape and vocal attractiveness. In men, none of these associations was significant. Having shown that women with more attractive faces possess also more attractive voices, we thus only partly supported the redundant signal hypothesis.

Stability of Sexual Attractions Across Different Timescales: The Roles of Bisexuality and Gender.

We examined the stability of same-sex and other-sex attractions among 294 heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 years. Participants used online daily diaries to report the intensity of each day's strongest same-sex and other-sex attraction, and they also reported on changes they recalled experiencing in their attractions since adolescence. We used multilevel dynamical systems models to examine individual differences in the stability of daily attractions (stability, in these models, denotes the tendency for attractions to "self-correct" toward a person-specific setpoint over time). Women's attractions showed less day-to-day stability than men's, consistent with the notion of female sexual fluidity (i.e., heightened erotic sensitivity to situational and contextual influences). Yet, women did not recollect larger post-adolescent changes in sexual attractions than did men, and larger recollected post-adolescent changes did not predict lower day-to-day stability in the sample as a whole. Bisexually attracted individuals recollected larger post-adolescent changes in their attractions, and they showed lower day-to-day stability in attractions to their "less-preferred" gender, compared to individuals with exclusive same-sex or exclusive other-sex attractions. Our results suggest that both gender and bisexuality have independent influences on sexual fluidity, but these influences vary across short versus long timescales, and they also differ for attractions to one's "more-preferred" versus "less-preferred" gender.

Effects of gender, rape-supportive attitudes, and explicit instruction on perceptions of women's momentary sexual interest.

Contemporary models of male-initiated sexual aggression toward female acquaintances implicate misperception of women's sexual interest. This study investigated the effects of gender, rape-supportive attitudes and an instructional manipulation on college students' sexual-interest judgments. Two hundred seventy-six women and 220 men judged the cues of momentary sexual interest expressed by photographed women; half received instruction on the differential validity of nonverbal cues of sexual interest for estimation of women's momentary sexual interest. Participants also completed an assessment of rape-supportive attitudes. Overall, college students' perceptions of women's momentary sexual interest are compromised both nomothetically and idiographically. Both male and female college students relied not only on women's nonverbal affect but also on the provocativeness of women's clothing and attractiveness when judging women's sexual interest. Men and women showed similar average ratings, but women relied more than men on women's affect, whereas men relied more than women on women's attractiveness. Both male and female students who endorsed more rape-supportive attitudes, relative to their peers, relied less on women's affect and more on women's clothing style and attractiveness. Explicit instruction regarding the greater validity of women's affective than nonaffective cues enhanced focus on nonverbal affective cues and decreased focus on clothing style and attractiveness. Although higher rape-supportive attitudes predicted more deficits in processing cues of sexual interest, explicit instruction proved to be effective for both higher-risk and lower-risk participants. These findings highlight the generalizability of the well-established effects of explicit instruction on category learning to sexual perception and may point to procedures that eventually could be incorporated into augmented prevention programs for sexual aggression on college campuses.

Women's evaluations of other women's natural body odor depend on target's fertility status

A large research literature indicates that men perceive women as more attractive when they are at high fertility than at low fertility within the ovulatory cycle. However, it remains unclear whether women also perceive women as more attractive at high fertility. This study examined women's ratings of samples of natural body odor collected from naturally-cycling women at high and low fertility within the cycle and from hormonal contraceptive-using women at mid-cycle. Like men, women rated naturally-cycling women's high-fertility scent samples as more attractive than their low-fertility samples. Women rated hormonal contraceptive (HC) users' scent samples as more attractive than naturally-cycling women's high- and low-fertility samples, though the difference between HC and high-fertility samples was statistically significant only when raters were treated as the unit of analysis. These findings reveal a potentially important role for scent communication in women's perceptions of other women and are consistent with the notion that the ovulatory cycle could influence women's interactions with one another. The findings also highlight the need for rigorous investigations of the possible impacts of hormonal contraception on women's attractiveness and social relationships with other women.

Sex difference in attractiveness perceptions of strong and weak male walkers.

Men and women accurately assess male physical strength from facial and body morphology cues. Women's assessments of male facial attractiveness, masculinity, and dominance correlate positively with male physical strength. A positive relationship also has been reported between physical strength and attractiveness of men's dance movements. Here, we investigate men's and women's attractiveness, dominance, and strength assessments from brief samples of male gait. Handgrip strength (HGS) was measured in 70 heterosexual men and their gait was motion-captured. Men and women judged 20 precategorized strong (high HGS) and weak (low HGS) walkers on attractiveness, dominance, and strength, and provided a measure of their own HGS. Both men and women judged strong walkers higher on dominance and strength than weak walkers. Women but not men judged strong walkers more attractive than weak walkers. These effects were independent of observers' physical strength. Male physical strength is conveyed not only through facial and body morphology, but also through body movements. We discuss our findings with reference to studies suggesting that physical strength provides information about male quality in contexts of inter- and intrasexual selection. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:913-917, 2016. © 2016Wiley Periodicals, Inc.