Muscles and girls

The intuitive answer would be YES, but does science really say the same?, let’s look at some studies.

A study published in 2010 with 333 participants, concluded “In general, overweight and underweight figures were rated as less healthy and attractive. However, overweight figures with high levels of muscularity were rated more highly on these dimensions than figures with less muscularity. “, so this one suggests that fit and muscular men look more healthy and attractive. [1]

Another old study from the 80’s showed that “Both subjects’ sexes rated broad shoulders as attractive in male physiques. Greater chest muscularity resulted in slightly higher attractiveness ratings; waist slimness was also judged attractive, particularly in female subjects.” [2]

Interestingly, a 2006 study showed that men and women rate attractiveness of the face and the body as separated and they both rate face as more important than the body. [3]

A 1993 study, showed that our “ideal” usually related to what the media and magazines say is an attractive body/face, being muscular men increasingly appearing in all type of media, making it the new ideal type of body perceived by the population. [4]

And last but not least, the (probably) most interesting study of the ones cited in here, was published in 2007, in this study the investigators showed women images of six body types and asked them to rate sexual desirability, physical dominance, commitment and volatility.

The study concluded: “As predicted, women rate muscular men as sexier, more physically dominant and volatile, and less committed to their mates than nonmuscular men. Consistent with the inverted-U hypothesis of masculine traits, men with moderate muscularity are rated most attractive. Consistent with past research on fitness cues, across two measures, women indicate that their most recent short-term sex partners were more muscular than their other sex partners. Across three studies, when controlling for other characteristics (e.g., body fat), muscular men rate their bodies as sexier to women and report more lifetime sex partners, short-term partners, and more affairs with mated women.” [5]

Next we show the graphic with the results and the images that were showed to the participants.

So there you go, muscles do get more girls, more sex, are more attractive but perceived as less committed and when looking for a long term relationship it doesn’t seem to play an important role.

Bibliography

1-. J Health Psychol. 2010 Oct;15(7):1039-48. doi: 10.1177/1359105309360426. Epub 2010 May 28. Perceptions of health and attractiveness: the effects of body fat, muscularity, gender, and ethnicity. Yanover T, Thompson JK.
(http://hpq.sagepub.com/content/15/7/1039.abstract )
2-. Arch Sex Behav. 1981 Feb;10(1):21-4. Physical attractiveness: the influence of selected torso parameters. Horvath T.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7212994 )
3-. Animal Behaviour, Volume 73, Issue 6, June 2007, Pages 937–942. Contributions of the face and body to overall attractiveness. Marianne Peters, Gillian Rhodes, Leigh W. Simmons
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347207000565 )
4-. Carol j. Salusso-deonier, nancy l. Markee, and elaine l. Pedersen (1993) gender differences in the evaluation of physical attractiveness ideals for male and female body builds. Perceptual and motor skills: volume 76, issue , pp. 1155-1167.
(http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pms.1993.76.3c.1155?journalCode=pms )
5-. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007 Aug;33(8):1167-83. Epub 2007 Jun 19. Why is muscularity sexy? Tests of the fitness indicator hypothesis. Frederick DA, Haselton MG.
(http://psp.sagepub.com/content/33/8/1167 )