The shape of beauty: determinants of female physical attractiveness

@article{Fisher2006TheSO,
  title={The shape of beauty: determinants of female physical attractiveness},
  author={Maryanne L. Fisher and Martin Voracek},
  journal={Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology},
  year={2006},
  volume={5},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:25660426}
}
The goal of this paper is to provide a highly necessary review of contemporary research on the female attractiveness, including an in‐depth examination of three proposed determinants of beauty: waist to hip ratio, body mass index, and curvaceousness.
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67 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
5
Background Citations
17
Methods Citations
4
Results Citations
2

67 Citations

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The image whose waist–hip harmony meets the golden ratio (1.61) is most often chosen as “the most beautiful,” by both men and women, and is also the preferred image for all age groups under 50.

Female genital modification: Untangling visual attractiveness of female genitalia from an Afrocentric perspective of male sexual partners

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Attractiveness of women with rectovaginal endometriosis: a case-control study.

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The results showed that women prefer slightly wider hips, a narrower waist, and longer legs than men (highly significant but small effects), and a clear difference was found with regard to the ideal bust size: 40% of men but only 25% of women preferred a large bust.

Sex Differences in Relative Foot Length and Perceived Attractiveness of Female Feet: Relationships among Anthropometry, Physique, and Preference Ratings

The sex difference in relative foot length and inter-relations among foot length, physique, and foot preference ratings in samples from Austria and Canada were investigated and women with small feet preferred small feet in women in general.

Evolved human male preferences for female body shape

The research literature largely supports the hypothesis that male mate preference for female body shape is variable and dependent upon local resource availability and the evolutionary processes that have acted to produce adaptive flexibility in human male mate preferences in accordance with the environment.
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37 References

Visual cues to female physical attractiveness

Evidence is presented that weight scaled for height (the body mass index (BMI) is the primary determinant of sexual attractiveness rather than WHR and how visual cues, such as the perimeter–area ratio (PAR), can provide an accurate and reliable index of an individual's BMI.

Some correlates of the thin standard of bodily attractiveness for women.

Historical analyses were used to test the hypothesis that the recent outbreak of eating disorders among women may be due, in part, to the slim standard of bodily attractiveness for women that has…

Optimum body-mass index and maximum sexual attractiveness

Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: role of waist-to-hip ratio.

It is suggested that WHR represents an important bodily feature associated with physical attractiveness as well as with health and reproductive potential that influences female attractiveness and its role in mate selection.

Men’s ratings of female attractiveness are influenced more by changes in female waist size compared with changes in hip size

The influence of age of the face and the waist to hip ratio on judgements of female attractiveness and traits

The Effect of Nonphysical Traits on the Perception of Physical Attractiveness: Three Naturalistic Studies

Predicting female physical attractiveness: Waist-to-hip ratio versus thinness

Introductory psychology students (120 females and 120 males) rated attractiveness and fecundity of one of six computer-altered female figures representing three body-weight categories (underweight,…

Involvement of body weight and shape factors in ratings of attractiveness by women: a replication and extension of Tassinary and Hansen (1998) §

Mating strategies of young women: Role of physical attractiveness

It is suggested that female attractiveness influences the type of mating strategies employed by women.