Male physical attractiveness in Britain and Malaysia: A cross-cultural study

By Viren Swami, Martin J. Tovee. 2005

234 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Two purported cues to perceived female physical attractiveness are body mass index (BMI) and body shape as measured by the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). This study examined the relative contribution of both cues in several culturally socio-economically distinct populations. Six hundred and eighty-two participants from Britain and Malaysia were asked to rate a set of images of real women with known BMI and WHR. The results showed that BMI is the primary determinant of female physical attractiveness, whereas WHR failed to emerge as a significant predictor. The results also showed that there were significant differences in preferences for physical attractiveness along a gradient of socio-economic development, with urban participants preferring images of women with significantly lower BMIs than their rural counterparts. The findings are discussed in terms of evolutionary psychological explanations of mate selection, and sociocultural theory, which emphasises the learning of preferences for body sizes in social and cultural contexts.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c745214b7f221f8c1ccf4dcc07984dbbf74a07b3

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Marketing

Citations in the corpus

The Effects of Thin and Heavy Media Images on Overweight and Underweight Consumers: Social Comparison Processes and Behavioral Implications (2010, background): “…from multiple cultures consistently identify a mean BMI level of 20.5–21.5 as “ideal,” suggesting that most people have some understanding of the distribution of BMI levels in the general population as well as which BMI levels are viewed as more positive than others (Swami and Tovée 2005).”
From Dating to Mating and Relating: Predictors of Initial and Long–Term Outcomes of Speed–Dating in a Community Sample (2011, background): “…to the health-fecundity effect, higher body mass is preferred in environments providing low resources, and lower body mass in resource-rich environments such as those usually found in currentWestern cultures, were it signals better health and fitness (Swami & Furnham, 2007; Swami & Tovée, 2005).”
Female physical attractiveness in Britain and Japan: a cross‐cultural study (2006, background): “Although the difference in peak BMI was relatively modest, previous studies have demonstrated that even small differences can be important in certain sociocultural settings (e.g. Swami & Tovée, 2005; Swami, Tovée, Furnham, &Mangalparsad, submitted).”
Muscularity and attractiveness as predictors of human egalitarianism (2011, unknown): “Second was waist–chest ratio (WCR, narrowest waist circumference divided by widest chest circumference); females tend to be attracted to male torsos with low WCRs (Maisey, Vale, Cornelissen, & Tovee, 1999; Swami & Toveé, 2005).”
Changing perceptions of attractiveness as observers are exposed to a different culture (2006, unknown): “This is consistent with previous studies that have shown similar high levels of intraclass reliability (e.g., Swami, Antonakopoulos, Tovée, & Furnham, 2006; Swami & Tovée, 2005; Tovée et al., 2002).”
Mating markets and bargaining hands: Mate preferences for attractiveness and resources in two national U.S. studies (2016, background): “Body mass index (BMI) is a particularly strong predictor of attractiveness rating, with women at the lower end of the “normal” range of body mass generally rated most attractive (Swami & Tovee, 2005; Tovée, Reinhardt, Emery, & Cornelissen, 1998).”