Beauty as a feature generally takes top billing when men look for a potential mate. As shallow as it may sound (like the squeaky belch of a child’s tricycle horn) men often gravitate towards the symmetrical and well endowed. Tits and ass are safe bets and are well documented features that typically capture the male gaze (his peripherals at the very least). But there is so much more to the female form than boobs and a butt, such as the oft neglected secondary sexual characteristic the waist to hip ratio (WHR), a feature that I would argue is just as potent a sign of femininity as any pair of globe like boobies or rotund backsides. Science seems to agree with me.
According to a recent neurological study that looked at the brain activity in men when assessing the physical attractiveness of women, the regions associated with reward were activated in response to images of nude women with an augmented hour glass figure. In order to control for such effects, MRIs were taken of male respondents who were asked to view and rate ‘before’ and ‘after’ images of nude women who underwent reconstructive surgery to obtain an optimal waist to hip ratio. Interestingly enough, the ‘after’ photos consistently triggered activation in the anterior cingulated cortex, a region of the brain closely associated with reward processing, social evaluation, and decision making.
Despite what Jason Alexander might tell you, BMI proved to be a false indicator of attractiveness, instead only triggering activity in the visual substrates of the brain. In other words, men may notice a smaller woman but will be less likely to make an aesthetic value judgment based on her size than they would her WHR. Women would do better to pack on a few pounds where it counts than to look waif thin.
