Sex Differences for Preferences of Shoulder to Hip Ratio in Men and Women: an Eye Tracking Study

Shoulder to hip ratio (SHR) is a sexually dimorphic trait in humans, yet no previous study has investigated the gazing behavior and perceived physical attractiveness of men and women in relation to men and women’s SHRs. Men and women are attentive to men’s upper body and consider higher SHRs as cues...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary psychological science 2019-12, Vol.5 (4), p.405-415
Main Authors: Pazhoohi, Farid, Garza, Ray, Doyle, James F., Macedo, Antonio F., Arantes, Joana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Disclaimers
Egalitarianism
Eye movements
Eye tracking
Females
Femininity
Formidability
Gender differences
Masculinity
Optometri
Optometry
Perceptions
Personality and Social Psychology
Physical attractiveness
Physical fitness
Psychology
Psykologi
Research Article
Sex differences
Shoulder
Shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR)
Telematics
Women
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Summary:Shoulder to hip ratio (SHR) is a sexually dimorphic trait in humans, yet no previous study has investigated the gazing behavior and perceived physical attractiveness of men and women in relation to men and women’s SHRs. Men and women are attentive to men’s upper body and consider higher SHRs as cues to masculinity, strength, and formidability. Moreover, while women’s shoulder width varies from one individual to another, to our knowledge no previous study has investigated perceived attractiveness and eye movement in relation to women’s SHR. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated attractiveness ratings and eye movements of both men and women to front- and back-posed male and female stimuli varying in SHR. Our results showed that men prefer more masculine ratios for men and less masculine ratios for women. However, the results also showed that women preferred an intermediate SHR for both men and women in the back view while their preference in the front view is not influenced by SHR. Eye movements showed that men viewed the chest region of other men in the front and back views of stimuli, and they had longer dwell time on chests of male stimuli with higher SHRs, while no significant difference was found for dwell time on chests of female stimuli varying in SHR. Also, no differences were observed for female participants in dwell time, for either chest regions of SHRs of male stimuli or for the chests of female stimuli. Altogether, the results of this study suggest that men more than women are attentive to variations in SHRs.
ISSN:2198-9885
2198-9885
DOI:10.1007/s40806-019-00198-w