Male physical attractiveness in Britain and Malaysia: A cross-cultural study
Introduction
Although a great deal of the research concerning physical attractiveness has focussed on the female body, researchers are increasingly paying attention to masculinity and the male body (e.g., Garrett, 1992, Stam, 1998). Much of this research has employed an evolutionary psychological perspective and considers different traits to be an indicator of genetic variability. This explanation assumes that a reliable connection exists between body attractiveness and male quality, that male attractiveness is an indicator or some component of fitness such as health and vigour and that females detect and use this indicator for choosing a mate (Shackelford et al., 2000, Singh, 1995)
The most obvious case of sexually selected characters in humans concerns features such as beards and body shape that differ conspicuously between the sexes (Barber, 1995). Thus, it has been argued that men with dominance- and masculinity-related facial and body characteristics are considered most physically and sexually attractive. Testosterone and areas of the body indexing testosterone are suggested to play key roles, as dominant males have higher testosterone levels (Ehrenkantz, Bliss, & Sheard, 1974). It has also been suggested that aspects of male body build, particularly the upper torso, might be sexually selected. The shoulders of men, their upper body musculature and biceps are all more developed than in women, even when differences in stature are accounted for (Ross & Ward, 1982), and these characteristics are influenced by testosterone levels (Björntorp, 1987).
Using silhouettes as stimuli, a number of studies have shown that females tend to prefer a moderately developed male torso than extremely muscular physiques (Barber, 1995). However, most of these studies have not looked explicitly at male bodily physique, but have used line drawings to focus on the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR; the ratio of the width of the waist to the width of the hips). These studies report a preferred WHR of 0.90–0.95 (Furnham, Tan, & McManus, 1997; Henss, 1995; Lynch & Zellner, 1999; Singh, 1995). However, more recent research using photographic stimuli shows that while the WHR, body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-chest ratio (WCR) are all significant contributors to male attractiveness, WCR was the principal determinant and accounted for 56% of the variance (Maisey, Vale, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 1999; see also Fan, Dai, Liu, & Wu, 2005). By contrast, BMI accounted for only 12.7% of the variance and the WHR was not a significant predictor of attractiveness. Maisey et al. (1999) concluded that women's ratings of male attractiveness can be explained by simple physical characteristics that measure body shape (in particular the WCR). Women are said to prefer men whose torso has an ‘inverted triangle’ shape, that is, a narrow waist and a broad chest and shoulders, which is consistent with physical strength and muscle development in the upper body. This finding is comparable with other studies using line drawings which show that women prefer men with a ‘V-shape’ (wider shoulders than chest, which was again wider than the hips; Frederick & Haselton, 2003; Furnham & Radley, 1989; Lavrakas, 1975).
In opposition to evolutionary psychological explanations, however, it has been suggested that society has expectations for ideal male body shapes (Hesse-Biber, 1996; Murray, Touyz, & Beumont, 1996) and that males increasingly compare their bodies to idealised media and cultural images (Davis & Katzman, 1997; Heinberg, Thompson, & Stormer, 1995; McCreary & Sasse, 2000). Although gender differences emerge in attitudes toward cultural ideals of attractiveness, with women more motivated to conform to these ideals than men (Cash & Hicks, 1990; Muth & Cash, 1997), socio-cultural pressures concerning male body image seem to be on the increase. For example, one content analysis found a consistency in the V-shaped standard of male bodily attractiveness presented in US men's magazines between 1960 and 1992 (Petrie et al., 1996). In a more recent study, Leit, Pope, and Gray (2001) examined centrefold models in Playgirl from 1973 to 1997, and found that the cultural norm for the ideal male body has become increasingly muscular, especially in the 1990s.
If judgements of attractiveness are an innate preference, as evolutionary psychology argues, then it might be suggested that these preferences should be consistent across cultures. Although there is now a growing body of evidence examining body type preferences for the male body, the literature examining these preferences cross-culturally remains limited (Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002). Using an undergraduate sample of Caucasian and Asian–American students, Mintz and Kashubeck (1999) found that males aspired for a large, muscular cultural ideal that does not differ between ethnic groups. However, while Mintz and Kashubeck (1999) explored satisfaction with specific body parts, they did not specifically investigate the interaction between ethnicity and gender on overall body figure preference. A more recent study suggests that Asian–American men are more invested in developing a large, muscular body (Barnett, Keel, & Conoscenti, 2001), but to date few studies have examined male physical attractiveness cross-nationally, using female participants.
This study therefore set out to explore judgements of male physical attractiveness among groups of female observers from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Previously, we reported that, because of unequal socio-economic transformation in recent decades, Malaysia furnishes a natural laboratory in which to examine preferences for physical attractiveness (Swami & Tovée, 2005a). In different parts of Malaysia, people live in industrialised and rural environments, and this allows us to explore the effect of industrialisation on standards of male attractiveness. Participants were, therefore, recruited from Britain (a relatively modern and developed sample), Kuala Lumpur (a culturally modern area of Malaysia) and from Sabah (a rural, relatively under-developed area of Malaysia). Importantly, the two Malaysian samples were ethnically similar to one another, whereas the two urban samples were culturally similar, reflecting shared cultural values of modernity.
Section snippets
Participants
The participants of this study were recruited from two countries, Britain and Malaysia, there being three groups reflecting a gradient of socio-economic development from industrialised (Britain and Kuala Lumpur) to rural (Kota Belud outskirts). The first group consisted of 30 female participants recruited from Kuala Lumpur, the largest city in Malaysia with a population of about 2 million. As the capital city of Malaysia and an independent federal territory, Kuala Lumpur is the heart of the
Results
A multiple polynomial regression was used to model the contributions of WCR, WHR and BMI to the attractiveness ratings. Fig. 2 shows plots of attractiveness ratings as a function of WCR for all three groups, with all sets being significantly explained by WCR (Britain, t(49) = −7.11, p < 0.001; Kuala Lumpur, t(49) = −7.57, p < 0.001; Sabah, t(49) = 2.87, p < 0.001). It is clear that there is a strong correlation of attractiveness and WCR, with even small changes in WCR significantly altering the
Discussion
The results of this study show that a woman's rating of male bodily attractiveness can be explained by simple physical characteristics, in particular the WCR and BMI. However, there are clear cross-cultural differences in the way these characteristics are used. In urban settings in Malaysia and Britain, the WCR is the primary component of attractiveness ratings, suggesting that upper body shape is more important for male attractiveness than body mass. Women prefer men whose torso has an
Acknowledgements
The first author was supported by an Overseas Research Student Award from Universities UK. The second author's research is supported by Wellcome Trust funding through the JIF initiative. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Dorothy Einon, Prof. Adrian Furnham, Dr. Alaistair McClelland and Prof. Thomas Cash, as well as four reviewers who made comments on earlier versions of this study.
References (70)
The evolutionary psychology of physical attractiveness: Sexual selection and human morphology
Ethology and Socio-biology
(1995)- et al.
Do representations of male muscularity differ in men's and women's magazines?
Body Image
(2005) - et al.
Sex differences in the perceptions of male and female body shapes
Personality and Individual Differences
(1989) - et al.
Waist-to-hip ratio and preferences for body shape: A replication and extension
Personal and Individual Differences
(1997) Waist-to-hip ratio and attractiveness. Replication and extension
Personality and Individual Differences
(1995)- et al.
Steroid use among adolescents: Findings from Project EAT
Journal of Adolescent Health
(2002) Female preferences for male physique
Journal of Research in Personality
(1975)Adolescent boys and the muscular male body ideal
Journal of Adolescent Health
(2002)- et al.
Dietary restraint and negative affect as mediators of body dissatisfaction and bulimic behaviour in adolescent girls and boys
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2001) - et al.
Female physical attractiveness in Britain and Malaysia: A cross-cultural study
Body Image
(2005)
How universal are preferences for female waist-to-hip ratios? Evidence from the Hadza of Tanzania
Evolutio & Human Behavior
The relationship between body shape satisfaction and self-esteem: An investigation of gender and class difference
Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Practical statistics for medical research
Diet versus shape content of popular male and female magazines: A dose–response relationship to the incidence of eating disorders?
International Journal of Eating Disorders
Body type preferences in Asian and Caucasian students
Sex Roles
Fat cell distribution and metabolism
For your health? The relationship between magazine reading and adolescents’ body image and eating disturbances
Sex Roles
An anthropological perspective of obesity
Annals of the New York Academy of Science
Being fat versus thinking fat: Relationships with body image, eating behaviours, and well-being
Cognitive Therapy and Research
Future challenges for body image theory, research, and clinical practice
Recognition accuracy, stereotypic preference, aversion and subjective judgement of body appearance in adolescents and young adults
Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Charting new territory: Body esteem, weight satisfaction, depression and self-esteem among Chinese males and females in Hong Kong
Sex Roles
Predicting female attractiveness: A second look at thinness and waist-to-hip ratio.
Sexualities, Evolution & Gender
Plasma testosterone: Correlation with aggressive behaviour and social dominance in man
Psychosomatic Medicine
Stiffed: The betrayal of the American man
Visual perception of male body attractiveness
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B
Visual perception of female physical attractiveness
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B
Peer, parent and media influences on the development of weight concerns and frequent dieting among preadolescent and adolescent girls and boys
Paediatrics
Muscularity as a communicative signal
Cross-cultural differences in the perception of female body-shapes
Psychological Medicine
Cross-cultural differences in the evaluation of male and female body shapes
International Journal of Eating Disorders
Eating disturbance, self-esteem, reasons for exercising and body weight dissatisfaction in adolescent males
European Eating Disorders Review
Fertile, plump and strong: The social construction of female body in low income Cairo
Monographs in reproductive health number 3
The eight Malaysia plan, 2001–2005
Cited by (117)
Rural-urban differences in body appreciation and associations with life satisfaction in adults from Sabah, Malaysia
2022, Body ImageCitation Excerpt :It is difficult to know exactly why loadings on these three items differentially contributed to the latent body appreciation construct across groups, but it may be that these items tap lower-order meanings that are less relevant to the rural sample. For instance, it is possible that Item #10 [“I feel that I am beautiful even if I am different from media images of attractive people (e.g., models, actresses/actors)] may be less salient to rural participants if they have lower media exposure than urban participants (cf. Swami, Coles, et al., 2010) or are less concerned about social comparisons with media ideals (Swami & Tovée, 2005a, 2005b). Nevertheless, unequal factor loadings likely have a negligible effect on mean differences (Steinmetz, 2013) and allowing the loadings for these items to vary allowed us to achieve partial metric invariance.
Body acceptance by others: Refinement of the construct, and development and psychometric evaluation of a revised measure – The Body Acceptance by Others Scale-2
2021, Body ImageCitation Excerpt :Finally, BAOS-2 scores were consistently and negatively associated with self-reported BMI across all three studies, which is consistent with the predictions derived from the acceptance model of intuitive eating (Avalos & Tylka, 2006). More specifically, this finding likely reflects the cultural valuation of female (e.g., Swami et al., 2010) and male (e.g., Swami & Tovée, 2005) leanness found in many socioeconomically developed settings. Individuals who more closely meet this cultural ideal may, therefore, be more likely to perceive greater body acceptance by others.
COVID-19-related stress and anxiety are associated with negative body image in adults from the United Kingdom
2021, Personality and Individual DifferencesSociocultural factors affecting drive for muscularity among male college students in Malaysia
2020, HeliyonCitation Excerpt :Unlike other Asian societies, Malaysia is an ethnically heterogeneous society. Although the fact that its prevalence of obesity is strikingly high among Asian countries and this public health issue is more problematic among females is in no dispute (Ng et al., 2014; NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, 2016), indeed, some researchers have argued that Malaysians, which represents Malays, Indians and Chinese that are the three principal ethnic groups in this country, have different optimal body mass indexes (BMIs) due to different body compositions (Deurenberg et al., 2002; Deurenberg-Yap et al., 2000), and this has led the scholars to propose that these cultural groups have different perceptions towards body weight and attractiveness (Ricciardelli et al., 2007; Swami and Tovee, 2005a, 2005b). For instance, Ismail et al. (2002) showed that Indian and Malay females had higher obesity prevalence than did Chinese females, whereas obesity prevalence was higher in Chinese males than in Malays and Indians.
Family weight teasing, ethnicity and acculturation: Associations with well-being among Latinx, Hmong, and Somali Adolescents
2019, Journal of Psychosomatic ResearchCitation Excerpt :This phenomenon occurs over time as well as across generations. Of relevance to the present inquiry, is how different body weights and shapes are valued in cultures around the world [25–29]; however, being overweight is highly stigmatized in mainstream U.S. culture. Negative societal attitudes about weight may be internalized by youth or adults who are more acculturated to U.S. cultural norms than those who remain deeply embedded in their heritage culture.