Assessment of Waist-to-Hip Ratio Attractiveness in Women: An Anthropometric Analysis of Digital Silhouettes

Below: Color (top) and black (bottom) versions of silhouettes representing women with typical body proportions but diversified in body mass: light (left), average (middle), and heavy (right), corresponding to body mass index of 18.5, 21, and 25. Each silhouette was further digitally manipulated to produce figures varying in WHR (Color figure online)

Below: Examples of stimuli silhouettes: color version of average-weight woman (body mass index equal to 21) with WHR being .60, .65, .70, .75, .80, and .85. Altogether, stimuli included six series (color/black × light/average/heavy), each containing 26 silhouettes varying in WHR from .60 to .85 by .01 (Color figure online)

Below: Analysis of female body shape. Left to determine depth-to-width proportions, rear- and profile-view horizontal dimensions of 22 real women’s silhouettes were measured at 100 levels, including 20, 30, 10, and 40 levels in breast-waist, waist-buttocks, buttocks-crotch, and crotch-knees segments. Right shapes of horizontal body sections at chest, waist, buttocks, crotch, and knees were obtained from an analysis of Victoria, a three-dimensional model of a woman’s figure (body fronts are upwards). Right bottom estimation of hip circumference with two half-ellipses and two line segments. Two ellipses, with one axis equal to hip depth and the second equal to half of hip width, were enlarged by 4 %, rotated to fit the lateral body outline and cut at their topmost and bottommost points. The total length of line segments in front and back of the body was 90 % of the hip width. The Peano’s formula for ellipse perimeter was applied:π × [1.5 × (width/2 + depth/2) − √(width/2 × depth/2)]

The low proportion of waist to hip size in females is a unique and adaptive human feature. In contemporary human populations, the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is negatively associated with women’s health, fecundity, and cognitive ability. It is, therefore, hypothesized that men will prefer women with low WHR. Although this prediction is supported by many studies, considerable disagreement persists about which WHR values are the most attractive and the importance of WHR for attractiveness of the female body. Unfortunately, the methods applied thus far are flawed in several ways. In the present study, we investigated male preferences for female WHR using a high precision assessment procedure and digitally manufactured, high quality, anthropometrically informed stimuli which were disentangled from body mass covariation. Forty men were requested to choose the most attractive silhouette consecutively from six series (2 levels of realism × 3 levels of body mass), each consisting of 26 female images that varied in WHR (from .60 to .85 by .01). Substantial inter-individual variation in the choices made was observed. Nevertheless, low and average WHR values were chosen more frequently than above-average values or values below the normal variation of the trait. This preference pattern mirrors the relationship between WHR and mate value, suggesting that the preferences are adaptive.

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