Bodily and Physical Cues
Women’s attractiveness indexes health, fecundity and successful mothering potential (the ability to most successfully raise offspring independent of the ability to become pregnant), femininity, and pathogen resistance (Buss and Schmitt 1993; Cunningham 1986; Cunningham et al. 1990, 1995; Henss 1992, 1995; Kenrick et al. 1994; Singh 1993, 1994, 1995; Singh and Luis 1995; Singh and Young 1995; Symons 1995; Wade 2000, 2003). Thus, men seek female partners based on facial and bodily cues and physical qualities that signal these characteristics. Singh and Luis (1995), Symons (1995), and Singh and Randall (2007) report that the most important and most visible physical cue for judging women’s attractiveness is the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). The WHR is related to crucial endocrine states associated with fecundity and successful mothering, and femininity is inferred from it (Singh 1993, 1994, 1995). Singh (1993, 1995) and Björntorp (1987a, b) report that gynoid fat is...
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Wade, T.J., Moran, J., Salerno, K. (2018). In-Pair Female Attractiveness. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1772-1
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