Men more attracted to larger women when under stress, study says

Published on 08/08/2012 14:24

MEN who are stressed are more likely to prefer heavier women, a study has found.

• Men tend towards heavier body traits in females when put under stress, study finds

• Slimmer females associated with increased incidence of ill health and reproductive deficiencies

Experts showed men pictures of women of all shapes and sizes and tested their reaction to the images.

They found men who were prone to getting stressed found larger ladies more attractive.

The experts, from London’s University of Westminster, said the study confirms people idealise mature body traits, like heavier body size’ when they experience an “environmental threat” such as stress.

Study leader Dr Viren Swami said: “The results provide the first experimental evidence that the experience of psychological stress shapes men’s judgements of female body size.

“In situations marked by resource uncertainty, individuals should come to idealise heavier individuals as fatness would be associated with access to resources.

“Conversely, thinness in such contexts may be associated with increased incidence of ill health and, for women, ovulatory irregularities and lower capacity to support pregnancy.”

He said the findings would be useful for future studies which looked at cultural differences in relation to body size, such as races which perceive larger ladies as more attractive.

A group of 81 men were split into groups for the study with one team had to carry out a stressful task, the other did not. Both teams were then shown the same images of different sized women, from very thin to morbidly obese, and asked to rate their attractiveness.

The experts discovered the stressed group gave significantly higher ratings to women considered “normal weight and overweight figures”, by UK standards, than the non-stressed group did.