Visual perception of male body attractiveness
Open accessAbstract
Based on 69 scanned Chinese male subjects and 25 Caucasian male subjects, the present study showed that the volume height index (VHI) is the most important visual cue to male body attractiveness of young Chinese viewers among the many body parameters examined in the study. VHI alone can explain ca. 73% of the variance of male body attractiveness ratings. The effect of VHI can be fitted with two half bell-shaped exponential curves with an optimal VHI at 17.6 l m(-2) and 18.0 l m(-2) for female raters and male raters, respectively. In addition to VHI, other body parameters or ratios can have small, but significant effects on male body attractiveness. Body proportions associated with fitness will enhance male body attractiveness. It was also found that there is an optimal waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) at 0.8 and deviations from this optimal WHR reduce male body attractiveness.
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Previous studies have assumed that a particular body shape signals a particular composition, but this is likely a false assumption.
“So, although previous studies have assumed that a particular body shape signals a particular composition (Singh, 1993; Maisey et al., 1999; Fan et al., 2005; Hönekopp et al., 2007; Gardner and Brown, 2010; Sell et al., 2017), this is likely a false assumption.”
From The degree to which the cultural ideal is internalized predicts judgments of male and female physical attractiveness (2022) · cites this paper as Fan et al., 2005
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ResultEthnicity and Spirituality as Risk Factors for Eating Disorder Symptomatology in Men
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“Men with narrow hips, medium to high levels of musculature and broad, wide shoulders are seen as preferable (e.g., Dixson et al. 2003; Hughes and Gallup 2003; Fan et al. 2005).”
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“Studies of humans have analyzed the role of face, anthropometric indexes (e.g., waist-to-hip ratio), fluctuating asymmetry, and other characters on sexual attractiveness (e.g., Penton-Voak et al. 2004; Fan et al. 2005; and references therein).”
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“1 3 2014), and these characteristics contribute to their perceptions of attraction (Fan et al., 2005; Garza et al., 2017; Garza & ByrdCraven, 2019; Maisey et al., 1999; Swami & Tovee, 2005).”
BackgroundBodily Attractiveness and Egalitarianism are Negatively Related in Males
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“We present results below in separate analyses of: (1) men and women combined, (2) men only, (3) women only, and (4) sex differences in correlations.”
ResultAn Eye Tracking Examination of Men’s Attractiveness by Conceptive Risk Women
Garza, R., Heredia, R. R., & Cieślicka, A. B. (2017) · Evolutionary Psychology · doi:10.1177/1474704917690741 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“Both findings from Fan et al. (2005) and Singh (1995) suggest that smaller waist in men is a preferred physical attribute, which may represent the appearance of a v-shaped torso and a reduction in body fat.”
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“The scanning software can also provide millimetre-accurate estimates of a large number (hundreds) of measures (Fan et al., 2004; 2005; 2007).”
Morgan, A. Z., Ulrich, P. V., Simmons, K. P., Gropper, S. S., Connell, L. J., Daniels, M. K., Latham, E., & Keiley, M. K. (2013) · Children and Youth Services Review · doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.12.006 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
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“Key words: attractiveness, extra-pair copulation, human, morphology, sociosexuality.”
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“So, although previous studies have assumed that a particular body shape signals a particular composition (Singh, 1993; Maisey et al., 1999; Fan et al., 2005; Hönekopp et al., 2007; Gardner and Brown, 2010; Sell et al., 2017), this is likely a false assumption.”
BackgroundGroves, V., Ridley, B. J., Cornelissen, P. L., Maalin, N., Mohamed, S., Kramer, R. S. S., McCarty, K., Tovée, M. J., & Cornelissen, K. K. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1116686 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“Previous studies testing male body image judgements have usually used stimuli varying either in BMI as a proxy for fat content, or body shape (such as the shoulder-to-waist ratio; SWR) as a measure of muscularity (e.g., Maisey et al., 1999; Fan et al., 2005; Hönekopp et al., 2007).”
MethodResultEating Heavily: Men Eat More in the Company of Women
Kniffin, K. M., Sığırcı, Ö., & Wansink, B. C. (2015) · Evolutionary Psychological Science · doi:10.1007/s40806-015-0035-3 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“As we note above, sustained overeating most likely leads to body shapes that women do not typically consider to be attractive (e.g., Fan et al. 2005; Singh 1995); however, in the context of short-term events (e.g., a single meal), it is plausible that overeating would be recognized as an attractive…”
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“Consequently, this is why men assess the formidability of potential opponents using physical cues, such as upper body strength [7], and women find taller, muscular men with a relatively large overall body mass (but not obese) particularly attractive [8].”
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Aesthetic preferences for prototypical movements in human actions
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“Extensive research has uncovered various perceptual factors that determine facial and body attractiveness, including shape averageness, symmetry, and sexual dys-morphism (Thornhill & Gangestad, 1999; Fan et al., 2004, 2005).”
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“Many studies have established that, on average, people regard leaner females and males as more attractive (12-21).”
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“Shoulder to hip ratio (SHR), the circumference of the shoulders relative to the hips, is a sexually dimorphic trait in humans and a higher SHR is positively associated with attractiveness in men (Fan et al., 2005; Horvath, 1981; Tovée et al., 1999).”
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“While both chest masculinization and feminization aim to alter the chest wall contour, neither addresses the underlying bony structure or the contour of the shoulders, which contributes to both the masculine and feminine appearance of the chest [4, 5].”
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“In addition to SHR, there are also other ratios which highly predict male attractiveness, such as the waist-to-shoulder ratio (WSR) (Braun & Bryan, 2006), as well as the waist-to-chest ratio (WCR) (Fan et al., 2005; Maisey et al., 1999).”
BackgroundPeople Watching: Social Perception and the Ensemble Coding of Bodies
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“…of a body, and yet perceptions of such ratios are related to social judgements including evaluations of another person’s attractiveness (e.g., Fan et al., 2005; Singh, 1994), self-evaluations (e.g., Joiner et al., 1994; Pazhoohi et al., 2012), and victim-blaming for sexual assault (Paganini…”
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- Authors
- Fan, J., Dai, W., Liu, F., & Wu, J.
- Affiliations
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- Donghua University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Fan, J.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2005-02-07
- Volume
- 272
- Issue
- 1560
- Pages
- 219-226
- ISSN
- 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
- 0962-8452
- 1471-2954
- PMC
- PMC1634963
- OpenAlex
- W2151138956
- Cited by
- 96
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 10.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PolyU Institutional Research Archive (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
- Keywords
- visual perception, waist-to-hip ratio, body proportions, sexual selection, attractiveness ratings
- MeSH terms
- Beauty, Biometry, Body Height, Body Weights and Measures, Humans, Male, Models, Anatomic, Visual Perception, Body Mass Index, Principal Component Analysis, White People, Asian People
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