A Critical Test of the Waist-to-Hip-Ratio Hypothesis of Female Physical Attractiveness

Abstract

Recent research has led to increasingly sophisticated conjectures as to the roles that genetic heritage, prior experience, and environmental context play in the production and maintenance of complex behaviors. The field of evolutionary psychology was born of such conjectures (Stanley, 1895) and now serves as a niche for a growing number of researchers (Buss, 1995; Kenrick, 1994). One of the more provocative lines of experimental research to emerge from this alembic derives from the linkage of evolutionary theories of human mate selection with definitions of physical attractiveness based on somatic characteristics that simultaneously signal attractiveness and predict reproductive potential (Buss, 1989). The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) has been purportedly demonstrated to be a robust example of just such an invariant perceptual cue (e.g., Henss, 1995; Singh, 1993a). Here, we report that judgments of attractiveness and fecundity can be either unrelated or related, positively or negatively, to the WHR depending on waist size, hip size, and weight, and are thus inconsistent with the evolutionary argument that human physical attractiveness is fundamentally a sign of mate value.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allgeier

E.R.

Wiederman

M.W.

(1994). How useful is evolutionary psychology for understanding contemporary human sexual behavior? Annual Review of Sex Research, 5, 218–256.

American Psychological Association. (1992). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 47, 1597–1611.

Arnoult

(1963). The specification of a social stimulus. In Sells

S.B.

, (Ed.), Stimulus determinants of behavior (pp. 16–30). New York: Ronald Press.

Brandon

R.N.

(1994). Theory and experiment in evolutionary biology. Synthese, 99, 59–73.

Brown

T.A.

Cash

T.F.

Noles

S.W.

(1987). Perception of physical attractiveness among college students: Selected determinants and methodological matters. The Journal of Social Psychology, 126, 305–316.

Buss

D.M.

(1989). Sex differences in human mate selection: Evolutionary hypothesis tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12, 1–49.

Buss

D.M.

(1995). Evolutionary psychology: A new paradigm for psychological science. Psychological Inquiry, 6, 1–30.

Chandler

A.R.

(1934). Beauty and human nature. New York: D. Appleton-Century.

Cowley

(1996, June 3). The biology of beauty. Newsweek, 61–69.

10.

Cronin

(1991). The ant and the peacock: Altruism and sexual selection from Darwin to today. New York: Cambridge University Press.

11.

Henss

(1995). Waist-to-hip ratio and attractiveness: Replication and extension. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 479–488.

12.

Kenrick

D.T.

(1994). Evolutionary social psychology: From sexual selection to social cognition. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 26, 75–121.

13.

Kirkpatrick

Ryan

M.J.

(1991). The evolution of mating preferences and the paradox of the lek. Nature, 350, 33–38.

14.

Perper

(1989). Theories and observations on sexual selection and female choice in human beings. Medical Anthropology, 11, 409–454.

15.

Perrett

D.I.

May

Yoshikawa

(1994). Attractive characteristics of female faces: Preference for non-average shape. Nature, 368, 239–242.

16.

Platt

J.R.

(1964). Strong inference. Science, 146, 347–353.

17.

Salusso-Deonier

C.J.

Markee

N.L.

Pederson

E.I.

(1993). Gender attractiveness in the evaluation of physical attractiveness ideals for male and female body builds. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 1155–1167.

18.

Singh

(1993a). Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: Role of waist-to-hip ratio. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 293–307.

19.

Singh

(1993b). Body shape and women's attractiveness: The critical role of waist-to-hip ratio. Human Nature, 4, 297–321.

20.

Singh

(1994a). Body fat distribution and perception of desirable female body shape by young black men and women. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 16, 289–294.

21.

Singh

(1994b). Ideal female body shape: Role of body weight and waist-to-hip ratio. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 16, 283–288.

22.

Singh

(1994c). Is thin really beautiful and good? Relationship between waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and female attractiveness. Personality and Individual Differences, 16, 123–132.

23.

Singh

Luis

(1995). Ethnic and gender consensus for the effect of waist-to-hip ratio on judgment of women's attractiveness. Human Nature, 6, 51–65.

24.

Singh

Young

(1995). Body weight, waist-to-hip ratio, breasts, and hips: Role in judgments of female attractiveness and desirability for relationships. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16, 484–507.

25.

Stanish

(1996, June 1). Hip deep in controversy: UT professor throws researchers a curve with study on waist-hip ratios. Austin American-Statesman, pp. C1, C12.

26.

Stanley

H.M.

(1895). Studies in the evolutionary psychology of feeling. London: Swan Sonnenshein.

27.

Tesser

Martin

(1996). The psychology of evaluation. In Higgins

E.T.

Kruglanski

A.W.

, (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 400–422). New York: Guilford Press.

28.

Tilley

A.R.

(1993). The measure of man and woman: Human factors in design. New York: Whitney Library of Design.

29.

Vaughan

G.M.

Corballis

M.C.

(1969). Beyond tests of significance: Estimating the strength of effects in selected ANOVA designs. Psychological Bulletin, 72, 204–213.

30.

Young

J.W.

Chandler

R.F.

Snow

C.C.

Robinette

K.M.

Zehner

G.F.

Lofberg

M.S.

(1983). Anthropometric and mass distribution characteristics of the adult female. Oklahoma City, OK: FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute. (NTIS No. FAA-AM-83–16)

31.

Zaadstra

B.M.

Seidell

J.C.

van Noord

P.A.H.

te Velde

E.R.

Habbema

J.D.F.

Vrieswijk

Karbaat

(1993). Prospective study of effect of body fat distribution on conception rates. British Medical Journal, 306, 484–487.