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| Stressed men drawn to heavy wo men [Photo:Reuters] |
When placed under stressful situations, men rate larger wo men as more attractive, new research has shown.
British researchers found that men exposed to tasks that were designed to put them under pressure preferred a wider range of female body sizes.
They conclude that stress can act to alter judg ments of potential partners.
The work by a team from London and Newcastle is published in the open access journal Plos One.
"There's a lot of literature suggesting that our BMI (body mass index) preferences are hard-wired, but that's probably not true," co-author Dr Martin Tovee, from Newcastle University, told BBC News.
Dr Tovee and his colleague, Dr Viren Swami, have previously researched what factors could alter BMI preferences, including hunger and the influence of the media.
But through this new work they aimed to investigate whether known cross-cultural differences in body size preferences linked to stress were also mirrored in short-term stressful situations.
"If you look at environ ments where food is scarce, people's preferences for body size in a potential partner are shifted. [The preference] appears to be much heavier compared to environ ments where there's plenty of food and a much more relaxed atmosphere," he explained.
"If you're living a far more stressful, subsistence lifestyle, you're going to have higher stress levels."
To simulate heightened stress, a test group of men were placed in interview and public speaking scenarios and their BMI preferences compared against a control group of non- stressed men.
The results indicated that the change in "environ mental conditions" led to a shift of weight preference towards heavier wo men with the men considering a wider range of body sizes attractive.
Flexible preferences
