| Title |
Body shape and women’s attractiveness
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Human Nature, September 1993
|
| DOI | 10.1007/bf02692203 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Devendra Singh |
| Abstract |
This paper examines the role of body fat distribution as measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) on the judgment of women's physical attractiveness. It presents evidence that WHR is correlated with a woman's reproductive endocrinological status and long-term health risk. Three studies were conducted to investigate whether humans have perceptual and cognitive mechanisms to utilize the WHR to infer attributes of women's health, youthfulness, attractiveness, and reproductive capacity. College-age as well as older subjects of both sexes rank female figures with normal weight and low WHR as attractive and assign to them higher reproductive capability. The study concludes that WHR is a reliable and honest signal of a woman's reproductive potential. The adaptive significance of body fat distribution and its role in mate selection is also discussed. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 121 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 4 | 3% |
| United States | 4 | 3% |
| Poland | 1 | <1% |
| Argentina | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 111 | 92% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 23 | 19% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 22 | 18% |
| Student > Master | 18 | 15% |
| Researcher | 11 | 9% |
| Professor > Associate Professor | 10 | 8% |
| Other | 21 | 17% |
| Unknown | 16 | 13% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 33 | 27% |
| Social Sciences | 14 | 12% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 13 | 11% |
| Computer Science | 9 | 7% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 7 | 6% |
| Other | 24 | 20% |
| Unknown | 21 | 17% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 August 2023.
All research outputs
#7,722,978
of 23,485,204 outputs
Outputs from Human Nature
#353
of 521 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,941
of 20,338 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Human Nature
#3
of 3 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,485,204 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 521 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 31.8. This one is in the 23rd percentile – i.e., 23% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 20,338 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 8th percentile – i.e., 8% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 3 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one.