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Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?

Author

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  • Douglas W. Yu

    (Imperial College at Silwood Park)

  • Glenn H. Shepard

    (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

Why are some humans considered more beautiful than others? Theory suggests that sexually reproducing organisms should choose mates displaying characters indicative of high genotypic or phenotypic quality1. Attraction to beautiful individuals may therefore be an adaptation for choosing high-quality mates2,3,4,5,6. Culturally invariant standards of beauty in humans have been taken as evidence favouring such an adaptationist explanation of attraction3,4,5,6,7; however, if standards of beauty are instead no more than artefacts of culture, they should vary across cultures3,4,5,6. Here we show that male preference for women with a low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is not culturally universal, as had previously been assumed.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas W. Yu & Glenn H. Shepard, 1998. "Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?," Nature, Nature, vol. 396(6709), pages 321-322, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:396:y:1998:i:6709:d:10.1038_24512
    DOI: 10.1038/24512
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    Cited by:

    1. Weilong Bi & Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2020. "“Beauty” premium for social scientists but “unattractiveness” premium for natural scientists in the public speaking market," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Swami, Viren & Tovée, Martin J. & Furnham, Adrian, 2008. "Does financial security influence judgements of female physical attractiveness?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1363-1370, August.
    3. Jeanne Bovet & Michel Raymond, 2015. "Preferred Women’s Waist-to-Hip Ratio Variation over the Last 2,500 Years," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-13, April.
    4. Zaneta M Thayer & Seth D Dobson, 2013. "Geographic Variation in Chin Shape Challenges the Universal Facial Attractiveness Hypothesis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-5, April.

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