The Interacting Effects of Height and Shoulder-to-Hip Ratio on Perceptions of Attractiveness, Masculinity, and Fighting Ability: Experimental Design and Ecological Validity Considerations.

Fighting ability Height Masculinity Physical attractiveness Shoulder-to-Hip Ratio

Journal

Archives of sexual behavior
ISSN: 1573-2800
Titre abrégé: Arch Sex Behav
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 1273516

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Jan 2023
Historique:
received: 24 06 2021
accepted: 23 08 2022
revised: 27 07 2022
pubmed: 9 9 2022
medline: 25 1 2023
entrez: 8 9 2022
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Previous research has shown that men's height and upper body size are both associated with the perception of attractiveness, because they might be cues to men's genetic fitness, fighting ability, and resource holding power. However, the combined effects of men's height and upper body size have not been explored. In this research, across four studies (N = 659 heterosexual women), we systematically explored the perception of men's muscular upper body at different heights on perceptions of attractiveness, masculinity, and fighting ability. Women rated male stimuli with heights ranging from 160 cm (5'3″) to 190 cm (6'3″) and three values of shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR). In general, results showed that women considered taller men and men with larger SHR as more attractive, masculine, and better in fighting ability. However, a robust interaction between height and SHR was dependent on participants being exposed to variation on both variables and the ecological validity of the stimuli (silhouettes vs. more realistic rendered figures).

Identifiants

pubmed: 36074312
doi: 10.1007/s10508-022-02416-2
pii: 10.1007/s10508-022-02416-2
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

301-314

Informations de copyright

© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Références

Barber, N. (1995). The evolutionary psychology of physical attractiveness: Sexual selection and human morphology. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16(5), 395–424.
Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1974). Physical attractiveness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 157–215). Academic Press.
Blaker, N. M., Rompa, I., Dessing, I. H., Vriend, A. F., Herschberg, C., & Van Vugt, M. (2013). The height leadership advantage in men and women: Testing evolutionary psychology predictions about the perceptions of tall leaders. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 16(1), 17–27.
Bogaert, A. F., Fawcett, C. C., & Jamieson, L. K. (2009). Attractiveness, body size, masculine sex roles and 2D:4D ratios in men. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 273–278.
Borras-Guevara, M. L., Batres, C., & Perrett, D. I. (2019). Fear of violence among Columbian women is associated with reduced preferences for high-bmi men. Human Nature, 30, 341–369.
Braun, M. F., & Bryan, A. (2006). Female waist-to-hip and male waist-to-shoulder ratios as determinants of romantic partner desirability. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23(5), 805–819.
Brooks, R., Shelly, J. P., Fan, J., Zhai, L., & Chau, D. K. P. (2010). Much more than a ratio: Multivariate selection on female bodies. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 23(10), 2238–2248.
Brooks, R. C., Shelly, J. P., Jordan, L. A., & Dixson, B. J. (2015). The multivariate evolution of female body shape in an artificial digital ecosystem. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36(5), 351–358.
Buss, D. M. (1994/2003). The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating. Basic Book
Clarkson, T. R., Sidari, M. J., Sains, R., Alexander, M., Harrison, M., Mefodeva, V., et al. (2020). A multivariate analysis of women’s mating strategies and sexual selection on men’s facial morphology. Royal Society Open Science, 7(1), 191209.
Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. John Murray.
Dixson, B. J. W. (2018). Is male facial width to height ratio the target of sexual selection? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47, 827–828.
Dixson, B. J. W., Dixson, A. F., Li, B., & Anderson, M. J. (2007a). Studies of human physique and sexual attractiveness: Sexual preferences of men and women in China. American Journal of Human Biology, 19(1), 88–95.
Dixson, B. J. W., Dixson, A. F., Morgan, B., & Anderson, M. J. (2007b). Human physique and sexual attractiveness: Sexual preferences of men and women in Bakossiland, Cameroon. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, 369–375.
Dixson, B. J. W., Dixson, A. F., Bishop, P. J., & Parish, A. (2010). Human physique and sexual attractiveness in men and women: A New Zealand–US comparative study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(3), 798–806.
Dixson, B. J. W., Grimshaw, G. M., Ormsby, D. K., & Dixson, A. F. (2014). Eye-tracking women’s preferences for men’s somatotypes. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35, 73–79.
Donohoe, M. L., Von Hippel, W., & Brooks, R. C. (2009). Beyond waist–hip ratio: Experimental multivariate evidence that average women’s torsos are most attractive. Behavioral Ecology, 20(4), 716–721.
Ellis, L. (1994). The high and the mighty among man and beast: How universal is the relationship between height (or body size) and social status. In L. Ellis (Ed.), Social stratification and socioeconomic inequality (Vol. 2, pp. 93–112). Praeger.
Fan, J., Dai, W., Liu, F., & Wu, J. (2005). Visual perception of male body attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1560), 219–226.
Fan, J., Liu, F., Wu, J., & Dai, W. (2004). Visual perception of female physical attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 271(1537), 347–352.
Feingold, A. (1982). Do taller men have prettier girlfriends? Psychological Reports, 50(3), 810.
Fessler, D. M., Holbrook, C., & Snyder, J. K. (2012). Weapons make the man (larger): Formidability is represented as size and strength in humans. PLoS ONE, 7(4), e32751.
Fink, B., Neave, N., & Seydel, H. (2007). Male facial appearance signals physical strength to women. American Journal of Human Biology, 19(1), 82–87.
Frederick, D. A., Buchanan, G. M., Sadehgi-Azar, L., Peplau, L. A., Haselton, M. G., Berezovskaya, A., & Lipinski, R. E. (2007). Desiring the muscular ideal: Men’s body satisfaction in the United States, Ukraine, and Ghana. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 8(2), 103.
Fryar, C. D., Carroll, M. D., Gu, Q., Afful, J., & Ogden, C. L. (2021). Anthropometric reference data for children and adults: United States, 2015–2018. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital and Health Statistics, 3(46), 1–44.
Folstad, I., & Karter, A. J. (1992). Parasites, bright males, and the immunocompetence handicap. The American Naturalist, 139, 603–622.
Furnham, A., & Nordling, R. (1998). Cross-cultural differences in preferences for specific male and female body shapes. Personality and Individual Differences, 25(4), 635–648.
Gallup, G. G., & Frederick, D. (2010). The science of sex appeal: An evolutionary perspective. Review of General Psychology, 14(3), 240–250.
Garza, R., & Byrd-Craven, J. (2019). Fertility status in visual processing of men’s attractiveness. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 5, 328–342.
Garza, R., & Byrd-Craven, J. (2020). Effects of women’s short-term mating orientation and self-perceived attractiveness in rating and viewing men’s waist to chest ratios. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50, 1–9.
Garza, R., Heredia, R. R., & Cieslicka, A. B. (2017). An eye tracking examination of men’s attractiveness by conceptive risk women. Evolutionary Psychology, 15, 1–11.
Geniole, S. N., Denson, T. F., Dixson, B. J., Carré, J. M., & McCormick, C. M. (2015). Evidence from meta-analyses of the facial width-to-height ratio as an evolved cue of threat. PLoS One, 10(7), e0132726.
Greenwald, A. G. (1976). Within-subjects designs: To use or not to use? Psychological Bulletin, 83(2), 314.
Groyecka, A., Pisanski, K., Sorokowska, A., Havlíček, J., Karwowski, M., Puts, D., et al. (2017). Attractiveness is multimodal: Beauty is also in the nose and ear of the beholder. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 778.
Hill, A. K., Hunt, J., Welling, L. L., Cárdenas, R. A., Rotella, M. A., Wheatley, J. R., et al. (2013). Quantifying the strength and form of sexual selection on men’s traits. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(5), 334–341.
Horvath, T. (1981). Physical attractiveness: The influence of selected torso parameters. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 10(1), 21–24.
Hughes, S. M., & Gallup, G. G., Jr. (2003). Sex differences in morphological predictors of sexual behavior: Shoulder to hip and waist to hip ratios. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(3), 173–178.
Kościński, K. (2014). Assessment of waist-to-hip ratio attractiveness in women: An anthropometric analysis of digital silhouettes. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43(5), 989–997.
Krams, I. A., Skrinda, I., Kecko, S., Moore, F. R., Krama, T., Kaasik, A., et al. (2014). Body height affects the strength of immune response in young men, but not young women. Scientific Reports, 4(1), 1–3.
Leongoméz, J. D., Sánchez, O. R., Vásquez-Amézquita, M., Valderrama, E., Castellanos-Chacón, A., Morales-Sánchez, L., et al. (2020). Self-reported health is related to body Height and waist circumference in rural indigenous and urbanised Latin-American populations. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1–13.
Mautz, B. S., Wong, B. B., Peters, R. A., & Jennions, M. D. (2013). Penis size interacts with body shape and height to influence male attractiveness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(17), 6925–6930.
Mefodeva, V., Sidari, M. J., Chau, H., Fitzsimmons, B., Antoine, G., Clarkson, T. R., et al. (2020). Multivariate intra-sexual selection on men’s perceptions of male facial morphology. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 6, 143–169.
Mueller, U., & Mazur, A. (2001). Evidence of unconstrained directional selection for male tallness. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 50(4), 302–311.
Nettle, D. (2002). Height and reproductive success in a cohort of British men. Human Nature, 13(4), 473–491.
Pawlowski, B., Dunbar, R. I., & Lipowicz, A. (2000). Tall men have more reproductive success. Nature, 403(6766), 156.
Pawłowski, B., Nowak, J., Borkowska, B., Augustyniak, D., & Drulis-Kawa, Z. (2017). Body height and immune efficacy: Testing body stature as a signal of biological quality. Proceedings of the Royal Society b: Biological Sciences, 284(1859), 20171372.
Pazhoohi, F., Silva, C., Lamas, J., Mouta, S., Santos, J., & Arantes, J. (2019b). The effect of height and shoulder-to-hip ratio on interpersonal space in virtual environment. Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung, 83(6), 1184–1193.
Pazhoohi, F., Arantes, J., Kingstone, A., & Pinal, D. (2020). Waist to hip ratio and breast size modulate the processing of female body silhouettes: An EEG study. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41(2), 150–169.
Pazhoohi, F., Garza, R., Doyle, J. F., Macedo, A. F., & Arantes, J. (2019a). Sex differences for preferences of shoulder to hip ratio in men and women: An eye tracking study. Evolutionary Psychological Sciences, 5, 405–415.
Perkins, J. M., Subramanian, S. V., Davey Smith, G., & Özaltin, E. (2016). Adult height, nutrition, and population health. Nutrition Reviews, 74(3), 149–165.
Prokop, Z. M., & Drobniak, S. M. (2016). Genetic variation in male attractiveness: It is time to see the forest for the trees. Evolution, 70(4), 913–921.
Provost, M. P., Komos, C., Kosakoski, G., & Quinsey, V. L. (2006). Sociosexuality in women and preference for facial masculinization and somatotype in men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35, 305–312.
Provost, M. P., Troje, N. F., & Quinsey, V. L. (2008). Short-term mating strategies and attraction to masculinity in point-light walkers. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 65–69.
Puts, D. (2016). Human sexual selection. Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 28–32.
Puts, D. A. (2010). Beauty and the beast: Mechanisms of sexual selection in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(3), 157–175.
Rhodes, G., Simmons, L. W., & Peters, M. (2005). Attractiveness and sexual behavior: Does attractiveness enhance mating success? Evolution and Human Behavior, 26(2), 186–201.
Roser, M., Appel, C., & Ritchie, H. (2013). Human height. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/human-height
Rurik, I., Varga, A., Fekete, F., Ungvari, T., & Sandor, J. (2014). Sexual activity in young men is not related to their anthropomorphic parameters. International Society for Sexual Medicine, 11, 2264–2271.
Sell, A., Lukazsweski, A. W., & Townsley, M. (2017). Cues of upper body strength account for most of the variance in men’s bodily attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society b: Biological Sciences, 284(1869), 20171819.
Sell, A., Cosmides, L., Tooby, J., Sznycer, D., von Rueden, C., & Gurven, M. (2009). Human adaptations for the visual assessment of strength and fighting ability from the body and face. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 276(1656), 575–584.
Skrinda, I., Krama, T., Kecko, S., Moore, F. R., Kaasik, A., Meija, L., et al. (2014). Body height, immunity, facial and vocal attractiveness in young men. Naturwissenschaften, 101(12), 1017–1025.
Stulp, G., Buunk, A. P., Verhulst, S., & Pollet, T. V. (2015). Human height is positively related to interpersonal dominance in dyadic interactions. PLoS ONE, 10(2), e0117860.
Symons, D. (1995). Beauty is in the adaptations of the beholder: The evolutionary psychology of human female sexual attractiveness. Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture, 80–118.
Tovée, M. J., Maisey, D. S., Vale, E. L., & Cornelissen, P. L. (1999). Characteristics of male attractiveness for women. The Lancet, 353(9163), 1500.
Versluys, T. M., & Skylark, W. J. (2017). The effect of leg-to-body ratio on male attractiveness depends on the ecological validity of the figures. Royal Society Open Science, 4(10), 170399.
Waynforth, D. (2001). Mate choice trade-offs and women’s preference for physically attractive men. Human Nature, 12(3), 207–219.

Auteurs

Farid Pazhoohi (F)

Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada. pazhoohi@gmail.com.

Ray Garza (R)

Department of Psychology and Communication, Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX, USA.

Alan Kingstone (A)

Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada.

Articles similaires

[Redispensing of expensive oral anticancer medicines: a practical application].

Lisanne N van Merendonk, Kübra Akgöl, Bastiaan Nuijen
1.00
Humans Antineoplastic Agents Administration, Oral Drug Costs Counterfeit Drugs

Smoking Cessation and Incident Cardiovascular Disease.

Jun Hwan Cho, Seung Yong Shin, Hoseob Kim et al.
1.00
Humans Male Smoking Cessation Cardiovascular Diseases Female
Humans United States Aged Cross-Sectional Studies Medicare Part C
1.00
Humans Yoga Low Back Pain Female Male

Classifications MeSH