Composite bodies showing the average fat and muscle mass chosen as the most attractive for women (left) and men (right). Image courtesy of Dr Ian Stephen. 

New research from Macquarie University, published in the journal PLOS ONE, has found that both genders consider an unhealthily low body fat content for women as most attractive. Whereas the study found that both genders find men with a healthy level of body fat most attractive.

Using new techniques in a computer graphics program, participants in the study were asked to manipulate the apparent fat and muscle mass of real body photographs of Caucasian men and women aged 18 to 30, and indicate the shape that they thought looked the healthiest or the most attractive.

“In this study we found that both male and female participants chose significantly less fat mass to optimise the attractiveness of women’s bodies than to optimise the healthy appearance of women’s bodies,” explained lead author, Mary-Ellen Brierley from the Department of Psychology. “Whereas for men’s bodies, participants opted for a similar amount of muscle and fat mass to optimise attractiveness and healthy appearance,” she added.

According to previous health studies, the healthy body fat range for young Caucasian women is 21-33 per cent.

“Our participants optimised a healthy-looking body composition for women at around 19 per cent fat, and a most attractive-looking body type of just 16 per cent fat. However, there was no difference in the amount of muscle preferred for healthy-looking and attractive bodies. This suggests that while previous studies have found that smaller female body size generally corresponds to a greater perceived attractiveness, this observation is actually due to people’s preference for lower fat mass, rather than lower muscle mass or smaller body size in general,” explained research-group leader Dr Ian Stephen, also from the Department of Psychology.

Notably, the participants could have chosen even thinner bodies if they had wanted, but instead chose bodies just below the healthy range.

“Perceptions of face and body attractiveness are thought to reflect the health and fertility of the person, allowing us to identify healthy and fertile mates,” said Dr Stephen. “While this seems to be the case for men’s bodies, our study suggests that something else is also influencing the perceived attractiveness of women’s bodies. It could be that cultural ideas of the ‘thin ideal’ are driving down people’s perceptions of attractive body fat levels in women.”