Abstract
Evolutionary psychology suggests that a woman's sexual attractiveness might be based on cues of reproductive potential. It has been proposed that a major determinant of physical attractiveness is the ratio between her waist and hip measurements (the waist-to-hip ratio, or WHR): for example, a woman with a curvaceous body and a WHR of 0.7 is considered to be optimally attractive1,2,3, presumably because this WHR is the result of a fat distribution that maximizes reproductive potential4. It follows that the preference for a curvaceous body shape in women should be universal among men and not be culturally based, because natural selection presumably favours cues indicative of the most fertile body shape.
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Tovée, M., Cornelissen, P. The mystery of female beauty. Nature 399, 215–216 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/20345
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/20345
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