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Cross-Cultural Preferences for Women’s Waist to Hip Ratio and Men’s Shoulder to Hip Ratio: Data From Iran, Norway, Poland, and Russia

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Abstract

Objectives

Body size and shape are sexually dimorphic in humans, with men being characterized with larger upper bodies, while women typically having broader pelvises. Such sexually dimorphic traits, quantified as shoulder to hip ratio (SHR) in men and waist to hip ratio (WHR) in women, serve as cues of an individual’s genetic fitness, reproductive potential, health, and resource holding power, and, thereby, functioning as attractiveness cues to the opposite sex.

Methods

In the current study, we investigated men’s and women’s preference for the opposite sex body shape (WHR in women and SHR in men) in samples from Iran, Norway, Poland, and Russia. Women rated their preference for men’s SHR (1.20 to 1.50) and men rated their preference for women’s WHR (0.55 − 0.85).

Results and Conclusion

Our results showed that Iranian and Norwegian men preferred less feminine WHRs in women compared to Polish and Russian men. Moreover, Iranian women preferred less masculine SHRs in men than women from other countries. Altogether, the current research showed that there are variations in men’s preferences for women’s WHR and women’s preferences for men’s SHR among these countries.

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Funding

D.D. and D.G. were supported by the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University). Marta Kowal was supported by the National Science Center, Poland (2019/33/N/HS6/00054).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Farid Pazhoohi

  2. Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Reza Afhami

  3. PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Razieh Chegeni

  4. HSE University, Moscow, Russia

    Dmitrii Dubrov & Dmitry Grigoryev

  5. SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland

    Katarzyna Gałasińska

  6. Texas A&M International University, Laredo, USA

    Ray Garza

  7. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Nasim Ghahraman Moharrampour

  8. IDN Being Human Lab, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland

    Marta Kowal

  9. Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Ståle Pallesen

  10. Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Gerit Pfuhl

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  1. Farid Pazhoohi
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  2. Reza Afhami
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Contributions

F.P., conceptualization, data collection, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation; R.A., R.C., D.D., K.G., N.G.M., D.G., M.K., S.P., G.P., data collection, writing—review and editing; R.A., Stimuli preparation; R.G., writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Farid Pazhoohi.

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Each member of the team involved in data collection adhered to the ethical principles of their respective Institutional Review Boards and received approval. Data collection was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as it pertains to research with human participants.

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Pazhoohi, F., Afhami, R., Chegeni, R. et al. Cross-Cultural Preferences for Women’s Waist to Hip Ratio and Men’s Shoulder to Hip Ratio: Data From Iran, Norway, Poland, and Russia. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology 10, 1–17 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-024-00232-7

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