WAIST-TO-HIP RATIO AND JUDGMENT OF ATTRACTIVENESS AND HEALTHINESS OF FEMALE FIGURES BY MALE AND FEMALE PHYSICIANS

Sexual dimorphism in body fat distribution as measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is unique to humans. The WHR has been shown to be an accu rate predictor of risk for various diseases, premature mortality, degr ee of androgenicity/estrogenicity and fecundity of women, independent of overall body weight. This study investigated whether physicians wou ld be influenced by body size or WHR in assessing health, youthfulness , and reproductive capability of a woman. Line drawings of 12 female f igures representing three categories of body weight (normal, underweig ht and overweight) and four sizes of WHR (0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0) were ranked by male and female physicians for these qualities as well as fo r attractiveness and intelligence. Both males and females assigned hig her ranking for many of these qualities to normal weight figures with low WHRs (0.7 and 0.8). overweight figures were assigned low rankings for all these qualities except reproductive capabiity. Underweight fig ures, regardless of WHR size, were assigned low ranking for reproducti ve capability and those underweight figures that had high WHRs (0.9 an d 1.0) were assigned low ranking for healthiness. While there were min or sex differences in ranking of some attributes for some figures, gen erally both male and female physicians utilized the WHR in a similar m anner to infer healthiness, reproductive capability and attractiveness .