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Infants Prefer Female Body Phenotypes; Infant Girls Prefer They Have an Hourglass Shape
Gerianne M Alexander1, Laura B Hawkins1, Teresa Wilcox1
1Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station TX, USA.
Frontiers in Psychology
|July 5, 2016
Summary
Infants show early preferences for female body shapes, with girls preferring a specific waist-to-hip ratio. These findings suggest evolutionary influences on mate selection preferences emerge in early development.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Human behavior
Background:
- Adults exhibit preferences for specific body shapes linked to reproductive fitness.
- The emergence of these preferences during infancy is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate infant preferences for body shapes associated with reproductive success.
- To determine when preferences for specific waist-to-hip ratios and male body types emerge in the lifespan.
Main Methods:
- Tracking eye movements in 146 infants (3-18 months) viewing 3D human figures.
- Presenting figures that varied in secondary sex characteristics and waist-to-hip ratio.
- Analyzing visual attention to same-sex and opposite-sex figures with varying mate value characteristics.
Main Results:
- Infants looked longer at female figures than male figures.
- Infants preferred less masculine male body types (endomorphic) over more masculine ones (mesomorphic).
- Female infants showed a preference for high mate value female figures (0.7 waist-to-hip ratio), while male infants did not.
Conclusions:
- Infants do not universally prefer adult-defined attractive male body shapes.
- Early-emerging preferences for female waist-to-hip ratios in infant girls may indicate evolved mate selection mechanisms.
- These findings suggest evolutionary influences on body shape preferences begin in infancy.
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