Men's preference for certain body types, evolutionary roots

[cronus]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 150749.htm

Men's preference for certain body types has evolutionary roots

A study from The University of Texas at Austin sheds new light on today's standards of beauty, attributing modern men's preferences for women with a curvy backside to prehistoric influences.

The study, published online in Evolution and Human Behavior, investigated men's mate preference for women with a "theoretically optimal angle of lumbar curvature," a 45.5 degree curve from back to buttocks allowing ancestral women to better support, provide for, and carry out multiple pregnancies.

"What's fascinating about this research is that it is yet another scientific illustration of a close fit between a sex-differentiated feature of human morphology -- in this case lumbar curvature -- and an evolved standard of attractiveness," said the study's co-author David Buss, a UT Austin psychology professor. "This adds to a growing body of evidence that beauty is not entirely arbitrary, or 'in the eyes of the beholder' as many in mainstream social science believed, but rather has a coherent adaptive logic."

This research, led by UT Austin alumnus and Bilkent University psychologist David Lewis, consisted of two studies. The first looked at vertebral wedging, an underlying spinal feature that can influence the actual curve in women's lower backs.
About 100 men rated the attractiveness of several manipulated images displaying spinal curves ranging across the natural spectrum. Men were most attracted to images of women exhibiting the hypothesized optimum of 45 degrees of lumbar curvature.

"This spinal structure would have enabled pregnant women to balance their weight over the hips," Lewis said. "These women would have been more effective at foraging during pregnancy and less likely to suffer spinal injuries. In turn, men who preferred these women would have had mates who were better able to provide for fetus and offspring, and who would have been able to carry out multiple pregnancies without injury."

The second study addressed the question of whether men prefer this angle because it reflects larger buttocks, or whether it really can be attributed to the angle in the spine itself.
Approximately 200 men were presented with groups of images of women with differing buttock size and vertebral wedging, but maintaining a 45.5-degree curve. Men consistently preferred women whose spinal curvature was closer to optimum regardless of buttock size.

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[laklak]

I like 'em with a pussy. Tits, ass, legs, etc are a nice to have, but a pussy is a hard requirement.

He he he he. I said "hard requirement" He he he he he.

[mistermack]

I don't see any great surprise in this. They seem to be proud of discovering the bleedin obvious.

Straight men are attracted to the bits on females that look different from males.

Like tits, hips, hair, small hands, a wiggle in the walk, a giggle in the talk, chantilly lace, a pretty face, ooh baby that's what I like.

So a girly angle in the bum department is just another noticeable difference, and male brains evolved to like it.

[JimC]

I had an evolutionary root once...

These days it's only imaginary roots...

[pErvinalia]

No surprises there (referring to the OP, not Jim).