Increased stress in men is associated with a preference for heavier women, according to new surveys.
The work was led by psychologist Viren Swami of the University of Westminster in London and compared how stressed versus non-stressed men responded to pictures of female bodies varying from emaciated to obese. They found that the stressed group gave significantly higher ratings to the normal weight and overweight figures than the non-stressed group did, and that the stressed group generally had a broader range of figures they found attractive than the non-stressed group did.
These survey results, the authors write, are consistent with the idea that people idealize mature morphological traits like heavier body size when they experience an environmental threat such as stress.
In the study, men were randomly assigned to either an experimental group, in which they took part in a task that heightened stress (experimental group, n = 41) or in which they did not take part in such a task (control group, n = 40). Both groups rated the attractiveness of female bodies varying in size from emaciated to obese, completed a measure of appetite sensation, and had their body mass indices (BMIs) measured.
Between-groups analyses showed that the experimental group was matched with the control group in terms of mean age, BMI, and appetite sensation. Further analyses showed that men in the experimental group rated a significantly heavier female body size as maximally attractive than the control group. Men in the experimental group also rated heavier female bodies as more attractive and idealized a wider range of female figures than did the control group.
They concluded that the experience of stress was associated with a preference among men for heavier female body sizes. These results indicate that human attractiveness judgments are sensitive to variations in local ecologies and reflect adaptive strategies for dealing with changing environmental conditions.
Citation: Swami V, Tovée MJ (2012) The Impact of Psychological Stress on Men's Judgements of Female Body Size. PLoS ONE 7(8): e42593. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042593