An Evolutionary Theory of Female Physical Attractiveness by Devendra Singh - University of Texas at Austin Fields of Psychology

Physical attractiveness, despite sustained exhortations that beauty is only skin deep and that one should not judge the book by its cover, significantly impacts practically every aspect of interpersonal relationships. Physically attractive women are admired and handsomely paid to be models, glamorized as movie actresses, and blamed for being greatly responsible for widespread body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in young women. The argument that fairy tales and the media link physical beauty to positive attributes does not explain why children as young as 14 hours old gaze at adults judged to have attractive female faces longer than those who have unattractive faces. What is the basis for such allure and power of attractiveness? To understand the nature of physical attractiveness, the first step is to identify features that a majority of people find attractive and to search for a basis of consensus. Evolutionary psychologists use such an approach. Simply stated, evolutionary theorists argue that physical attractiveness reliably conveys biological information about a person's genetic quality, health, and reproductive potential. Being able to judge these attributes reliably would have enabled people in Stone Age environments to select healthy mates and be reproductively successful, as healthy mates would be better providers and protractors for the family unit. The problem is that the reproductive potential, capability, and genetic resistance to disease cannot be directly observed. Therefore, the selection process has shaped mental mechanisms to attend to those bodily features that are reliable indicators of health and fertility, and such features are judged to be desirable and attractive. Although people are not consciously aware of such a link, therein lies the power of physical attractiveness. Many evolutioninspired researchers have started to explore whether the facial features that are judged to be attractive, such as full lips, small chin, symmetry of bilateral facial features, and so forth, are indicators of sex hormone, reproductive potential, and healthiness (e.g., Johnston, Hagel, Franklin, Fink, & Grammer, 2001). Physical attractiveness depends on both facial and bodily features, but strangely, all the detailed analysis of what constitutes attractiveness and its link to genetic quality is restricted to faces. The attractiveness of the body, in spite of clear age-related change (e.g., prepubertal, postpubertal, and menopausal) is solely defined by body weight; skinny women are more attractive than normal weight women, who in turn are more attractive than overweight women. Fashion models are also defined by this criterion (Wow! How thin!) although most people are aware that two women of identical height and body weight do not look alike in their body shape. I believe that an attractive body defined by only body weight is due to the lack of theory about the body. The only theory that psychologists are exposed to is Sheldon's somatotype classification of endomorphs, mesomorphs, and ectomorphs. This classification gave rise to categories of fat or overweight (endomorphs), normal weight (mesomorphs), and thin (ectomorphs; cf. Jackson, 1992). In this paper, I will present evidence that body shape is determined by the nature of body fat distribution that, in turn, is significantly correlated with women's sex hormone profile, risk for disease, and reproductive capability. First, I will describe the anatomical location of body fat deposits and its effect on health, hormone, and some psychological variables. Then I will present data showing that systematic changes in the nature of body fat distribution systematically affect the judgment of female physical attractiveness. Finally, I will argue that body dissatisfaction, which is so prevalent in young women in our society, could be due not only to body weight but also to dissatisfaction with distribution of their body fat. If so, losing body weight by dieting may not lead to positive body image as weight loss does not significantly alter the nature of fat distribution.