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Men’s Perceptions and Preferences for the Ideal Woman’s Body
Type: The Influence of Personality and Media Exposure
Erica Fung, M.A., Terece S. Bell, Ph.D., & Nicholas Noviello, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology PhD Program, Los Angeles
Introduction
Methods cont.
The current research extends previous studies about the ideal
woman’s body type by examining men’s perception of women’s
body type. Women tend to assume that men find thinner women
more attractive than women of average body weight (Bergstrom,
Neighbors, & Lewis, 2004). The mass media reinforces the idea
that thin women are more attractive. Advertisers on television, the
Internet, and periodicals market dieting pills and weight loss
techniques, while fashion magazines and couture designers
feature ultra-thin female models. This predilection towards the thin
model of beauty may lead some women to diet to achieve the
level of thinness thought to be most attractive to men. Taken to
extremes, some women may develop eating disorders such as
anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. This drive to attain a thin
body type may however be founded on misperception. Previous
research has shown that what women predict regarding men’s
perception of the ideal woman’s body type is not what men
actually prefer (Benninghoven, Raykowski, Solzbacher,
Kunzendorf, & Jantschek, 2007). Simply stated, not all
heterosexual men prefer a thin body shape for women. It is worth
examining what men actually perceive to be the ideal woman’s
body size and exploring the correlates of their preference.
Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1
Heterosexual men will have a higher preference for images of
women with an average body weight than they will for images of
women who are of a lower body weight.
Design
•This was a cross sectional design using a convenience sample.
•Predictor Variables: Ethnicity, Big Five personality
characteristics, and hours of TV viewing per week.
•Criterion Variables: Men’s selection of (1) the picture that
corresponded to their “ideal woman’s body size”, and (2) the
picture that corresponded to their preference for their “significant
other’s body size.”
Instruments
The Photographic Figure Rating Scale (PFRS; Swami et al.,
2008) consists of 10 frontal view photographic images of real
women with varying body types. These photographs were
presented simultaneously to the participants in order to see
which one they selected as the ideal female body shape and
which one they selected as the ideal for a significant other. All
women in the photograph wear the same leotards and leggings.
The photographic figures are taken at a fixed distance and the
women all are in the same pose; their faces are blurred in order
to control for facial bias (Swami et al., 2008). According to
Swami et al. (2008), the photographic figures are shown in grey
scale in order to control for both skin and hair color biases.
Swami et al. (2008) reported that the PFRS has strong construct
validity and test-retest reliability, r = .85.
Hypothesis Testing
Conclusions
•Hypothesis 1: More men selected average body sizes (Figures 4, 5,
and 6) significantly more often than thin body sizes (Figures 1, 2, and
3) for both their ideal woman (69.9% thin vs. 27.2% average) and
preferred significant other (73.8% thin vs. 22.3% average), all c2 tests
p < .001. Hypothesis 1 was supported.
• Personality factors were not significantly associated with men’s
preference for the ideal woman’s body size or their preferred size for
their significant other.
•Hypothesis 2: Using a Wilcoxon test to compare the figures that
men chose, results indicated that men significantly preferred a heavier
body size for their preferred significant other than their ideal woman, z
= -2.23, p < .01 (one-tailed). Although Hypothesis 2 was supported,
88/102 subjects chose the same figure for both questions.
•Hypothesis 3: There was no significant relationship between hours
of television watching and the size of either their ideal woman,
Spearman’s Rho (df = 100) = .07, p > .05, or preferred significant
other, Rho (df = 100) = .05, p > .05. Hypothesis 3 was not supported.
ADDITIONALLY,
•Men’s age was not related to either their ideal woman’s body size,
Rho (df = 100) = .03, p > .05, or the size of their preferred significant
other, Rho (df = 100) = .15, p = .07.
•Men’s body weight (controlled for height) was significantly correlated
with their preference for the ideal woman’s body size, Rho (df = 99) =
.24, p = .02, but not with their preferred significant other, Rho (df =
99) = .19, p = .06.
Results
Hypothesis 2
Heterosexual men will prefer their significant other to have a
heavier body size than the image they select of a woman’s ideal
body shape.
Hypothesis 3
There will be a negative relationship between the time that
heterosexual men report watching TV and their preference for
women’s body size.
Figure 1. Men’s choice of the ideal woman’s body size based
on their ethnicity .
• Many women assume that men prefer thinner women over women of
average body weight (Bergstrom et al., 2004), but this was not
supported in this study:
•
•
Men significantly preferred average body sizes over thin body
sizes by about 3:1 for both the ideal woman and preferred
significant other.
Heavier men tended to prefer heavier body sizes for their ideal
woman.
• Some differences emerged between ethnic groups (e.g., Asian/Pacific
Islander men tended to prefer thinner female body sizes than African
American and White men), but the men’s own body shapes and sizes
need to be accounted for in subsequent analyses.
Limitations
• Motivation and seriousness of participants, salience effect, and
participants’ bias could have had an effect on the results of the current
study.
• The present study was conducted through the use of online
questionnaire, an e-mail list, as well as through social networking
websites such as Facebook. It would be difficult to control participant
bias, especially when participants did not understand the rationale of
the questions, while they were participating in the study.
• The choice of words used for the questions in the questionnaire may
have encouraged the participants to choose the same pictures for
ideal woman body size and significant other’s body size. It is possible
that the way the questions were asked misled participants to use the
same answer for both questions. The actual body size of the men’s
significant other was not obtained.
Literature cited
Methods
Participants
•108 heterosexual male volunteers who were residents of the
United States, ages 18 and over (M age = 36.70; SD = 12.00).
•This study focused in Asian/Pacific Islander, African American and
White men due to the limited number of participants in Hispanic/
Latino and Other ethnic groups.
Hispanic/
Latino
Asian/Pacific
Islander
African
American
White
Other
N (% of sample)
2 (1.9%)
40 (37.4%)
22 (20.6%)
41 (38.3%)
2 (1.9%)
M age
(SD)
23.00
(7.07)
33.23
(9.75)
41.82
(10.35)
38.71
(13.73)
28.00
(1.41)
The Mini Markers (3M40; Saucier, 1994, 2002) asks the
participant to describe him/herself by responding to a list of 40
adjectives using a Likert-type scale of 1 (extremely inaccurate)
to 9 (extremely accurate). Each of the Big Five personality
factors (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to New
Experiences, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) is scored
from eight adjectives. Strong psychometric properties (e.g.,
internal consistency, construct validity, and orthogonality of the
factors) of the 3M40 have been established.
Benninghoven, D., Raykowski, L., Solzbacher, S., Kunzendorf, S., & Jantschek, G. (2007). Body
images of patients with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and female control subjects: A
comparison with male ideals of female attractiveness. Body Images, 4, 51-59.
Figure 2. The relationship between men’s preference for the
ideal woman’s body size and and their preference for their
significant other’s body size, grouped by ethnicity..
Saucier, G.(1994). Mini-markers: A brief version of Goldberg's unipolar Big-Five
markers. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63, 506-516.
Saucier, G. (2002). Orthogonal markers for orthogonal factors: The case of the Big Five Journal
of Research in Personality, 36, 1-31.
Swami, V., Salem, N., Furnham, A., & Tovée, M. J. (2008). Initial examination of the validity and
reliability of the female photographic figure rating scale for body image assessment.
Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1752-1761.
Procedures
After receiving IRB approval, volunteers were recruited through
various Internet websites and e-mail lists. Participants clicked
on the Qualtrics link, and completed the survey in about 10
minutes.
Bergstrom R., Neighbors C., & Lewis M. (2004). Do men find “bony” women attractive?
Consequences of misperceiving opposite sex perceptions of attractive body image. Body
Image, 1, 183–191.
Figure 3. The relationship between men’s preference for the
ideal woman’s body size and their own weight controlled for
height, grouped by ethnicity.
For further information
Please contact [email protected] for more information on this and
related projects.