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A new research points that perceived attractiveness is determined by how biological sex is linked to sexual cues (masculinity and femininity).
The research made by Kerri Johnson at New York University's Department of Psychology and Louis Tassinary at Texas A & M University's Department of Architecture focused on the way perceived attractiveness is connected to the compatibility of biological sex and sex cues as specified within the society. "These findings bolster our understanding of how and why the body is perceived attractive. Body cues bring about the basic social perceptions of sex and gender, and the compatibility of those basic percepts affects perceived attractiveness", said Johnson.
Previous studies have shown that in western societies the body shape (i.e., the waist-to-hip ratio--WHR) marks a women's attractiveness. Clearly, in western societies "hourglass" figures are preferred to "tubular" figures.
The team supposed that perceived attractiveness would be determined by the compatibility of basic social perceptions determined by sexual dimorphism (external differences between males and females): they supposed that some body cues will reliably trigger a sex categorization.
When this assessment is made, other sexually dimorphic cues will be regarded as either masculine or feminine and thus compatible or incompatible with the given sex of an individual. For example, a target assessed to be female should be found attractive when also perceived to be feminine, but not masculine, and vice-versa when a individual is perceived to be male.
In five experiments, the subjects watched a variety of stimuli (computer-generated animations, static line drawings, and dynamic line-drawings) and offered estimations about sex categorization and perceived masculinity, femininity, and attractiveness.
The sex of each target was specified differently across the five experiments (assessed by subjects, offered by the experimenter, or held constant in the stimuli).
The researchers found that perceived sex would bias the perception of other sexual dimorphic traits leading the other sex cues to be perceived as masculine or feminine, and not as sex determinants. Targets assessed as females were found more attractive when they were perceived to be feminine than when they were regarded to be masculine, and the opposite was true.
The researchers believe that this model varies across cultures in the particular combinations of body cues perceived to be attractive.