2005/01/01 by Jason Weeden, John Sabini · 1 citation
Psychology · Business, Management and Accounting · Medicine · #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Eating Disorders and Behaviors #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification #Attractiveness #Physical attractiveness #Psychology #Social psychology #Waist #Waist–hip ratio #Developmental psychology #Medicine #Body mass index
paper · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.5.635
openalex publication_date 2005/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Evidence from developed Western societies is reviewed for the claims that (a) physical attractiveness judgments are substantially based on body size and shape, symmetry, sex-typical hormonal markers, and other specific cues and (b) physical attractiveness and these cues substantially predict health. Among the cues that the authors review, only female waist-to-hip ratio and weight appear to predict both attractiveness and health in the claimed manner. Other posited cues--symmetry and sex-typical hormonal markers among them--failed to predict either attractiveness or health (or both) in either sex. The authors find that there is some indication that attractiveness has an overall relationship with health among women, but little indication that male attractiveness relates to male health.