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Waist-to-Hip Ratio Sensitivity in Early Infancy
Hannah White1, Alyson Chroust1, Rachel Jubran1
1Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
Infant and Child Development
|August 13, 2021
Summary
Female infants show early sensitivity to the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), preferring attractive body shapes. This preference, observed in 3.5-month-olds, suggests innate body knowledge development and sex differences in social processing.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Evolutionary psychology
- Human behavior
Background:
- The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is a key indicator of health, attractiveness, and age.
- Adults associate specific WHRs with desirable traits, but developmental origins are unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental emergence of sensitivity to WHR in human infants.
- To determine if infants exhibit preferences for WHRs associated with adult attractiveness.
Main Methods:
- Tested 71 3.5-month-old infants (both male and female) using visual stimuli depicting different WHRs.
- Measured infant looking time preferences between upright and inverted images with varying WHRs.
Main Results:
- Female infants preferred the WHR (0.7) associated with adult attractiveness over a less attractive WHR (0.9).
- This preference was evident only for upright stimuli, ruling out low-level visual cues.
- Male infants did not show a significant WHR preference.
Conclusions:
- Infants possess early sensitivity to WHR, potentially forming a foundation for later social and mate preferences.
- Findings highlight sex differences in early social information processing and body knowledge development.
