Cues of upper body strength account for most of the variance in men's bodily attractiveness (paywalled)

fifteentabsopen · 2018-05-17T01:13:56+00:00

Evolution equips sexually reproducing species with mate choice mechanisms that function to evaluate the reproductive consequences of mating with different individuals. Indeed, evolutionary psychologists have shown that women’s mate choice mechanisms track many cues of men’s genetic quality and ability to invest resources in the woman and her offspring. One variable that predicted both a man’s genetic quality and his ability to invest is the man’s formidability (i.e. fighting ability or resource holding power/potential). Modern women, therefore, should have mate choice mechanisms that respond to ancestral cues of a man’s fighting ability. One crucial component of a man’s ability to fight is his upper body strength. Here, we test how important physical strength is to men’s bodily attractiveness. Three sets of photographs of men’s bodies were shown to raters who estimated either their physical strength or their attractiveness. Estimates of physical strength determined over 70% of men’s bodily attractiveness. Additional analyses showed that tallness and leanness were also favoured, and, along with estimates of physical strength, accounted for 80% of men’s bodily attractiveness. Contrary to popular theories of men’s physical attractiveness, there was no evidence of a nonlinear effect; the strongest men were the most attractive in all samples.

Evolutionary psychologists studying women’s mate choice mechanisms have argued that both of these selection pressures, securing high-quality genes and securing investment from one’s mate, have been active in the hominid line [6,7,26]. Both of these potent selection pressures predict that physically stronger men should be attractive to women. Therefore, women’s mate choice mechanisms should evaluate the physical attractiveness of men’s bodies with a focus on features that indicate formidability (i.e. fighting ability), physical fitness, strength and general health. Indeed, research has shown that women are attracted to men with cues of physical formidability.

The results show that most male bodily attractiveness stems from cues of formidability and physical strength, and that strength increases attractiveness in a linear fashion. The rated strength of a male body accounts for a full 70% of the variance in attractiveness. Additional variance (up to 80%) can be explained by adding the premium women put on height and subtracting the penalty put on additional body mass unrelated to physical strength.

This effect of height and weight on attractiveness may be due to mate choice mechanisms responding to cues of health [50], or to the benefits that height and lean bodies have in protracted aggression, hunting and other aspects of fighting ability. Note, however, that ratings of strength themselves are known to privilege taller men and penalize obesity [47]. In other words, when rating physical strength, raters are known to treat taller men as physically stronger (independently of their actual weight-lifting strength), and yet even controlling for these ratings taller men are treated as more attractive.

Title	Cues of upper body strength account for most of the variance in men's bodily attractiveness (paywalled)
Author	oczymlody
Upvotes	24
Comments	3
Date	May 16, 2018 3:52 AM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/BlackPillScience
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/BlackPillScience/comments/8jrz6s/cues_of_upper_body_strength_account_for_most_of/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/BlackPillScience/cues-of-upper-body-strength-account-for-most-of.215685 https://theredarchive.com/post/215685

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