The Relationship of Female Physical Attractiveness to Body Fatness

Below:  Evolutionary model. (A) Epidemiological data linking all cause mortality to body fatness (BMI) for female subjects minus the mortality for the class with the lowest mortality (data from Whitlock et al., 2009 for Caucasians; (Zheng et al., 2011) for Asians and Cohen et al., 2012; Cohen et al., 2014 for African Americans). The curves are the fitted third order polynomials (see text for details) (B) probability of nulliparity over entire reproductive age annualized per 1,000 population (open symbols) and probability of not having a second child if one child has already been born annualized per 1,000 population (closed symbols) as a function of BMI at age 20. Data are subtracted from the class with the lowest probabilities (data from Jacobsen et al. (2013)). (C) Combined effects of infertility and all cause mortality in relation to BMI (effective mortality risk per 1,000 population) for each ethnic group. The minimum point of the curve is at BMI = 23.18 for Caucasians, 23.12 for Asians and 22.45 for African Americans (see text for derivation details). (D) Combined effects of infertility and all cause mortality (as in c) as well as the impact of fatness on famine survival on the relationship between mortality and Body mass index (effective mortality per 1,000 population). The minimum points of the curves are at BMI = 24.78 for Caucasians, 24.72 for Asians and 24.05 for African Americans (see text for derivation details).

Aspects of the female body may be attractive because they signal evolutionary fitness. Greater body fatness might reflect greater potential to survive famines, but individuals carrying larger fat stores may have poor health and lower fertility in non-famine conditions. A mathematical statistical model using epidemiological data linking fatness to fitness traits, predicted a peaked relationship between fatness and attractiveness (maximum at body mass index (BMI) = 22.8 to 24.8 depending on ethnicity and assumptions). Participants from three Caucasian populations (Austria, Lithuania and the UK), three Asian populations (China, Iran and Mauritius) and four African populations (Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal) rated attractiveness of a series of female images varying in fatness (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR). There was an inverse linear relationship between physical attractiveness and body fatness or BMI in all populations. Lower body fat was more attractive, down to at least BMI = 19. There was no peak in the relationship over the range we studied in any population. WHR was a significant independent but less important factor, which was more important (greater r2) in African populations. Predictions based on the fitness model were not supported. Raters appeared to use body fat percentage (BF%) and BMI as markers of age. The covariance of BF% and BMI with age indicates that the role of body fatness alone, as a marker of attractiveness, has been overestimated.

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