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Female waist-to-hip ratio preference among Chinese men

A study by Dixson et al.(1) reported that when shown line drawings of women from the back, varying in waist-to-hip ratios (WHRs) from 0.5 to 1.0, Chinese men (college students) most often preferred a WHR of 0.6.

The following image shows the number of Chinese men most strongly preferring a given WHR when asked to pick the most sexually appealing form.

The number of Chinese men most strongly preferring a given WHR when asked to pick the most sexually appealing form.

Legend: Dashed line represents expected number of men preferring a given WHR if the choices were made randomly.  ** p < 0.001, *** p < 0.001 (chi-squared tests).

The following image shows the number of Chinese men most strongly preferring a given WHR when asked to pick the form they would like in a long-term partner.

The number of Chinese men most strongly preferring a given WHR when asked to pick the form they would like in a long-term partner.

Legend: Dashed line represents expected number of men preferring a given WHR if the choices were made randomly.  ** p < 0.001, *** p < 0.001 (chi-squared tests).

There is a strong preference for hourglass figures among many Chinese men.

References

  1. Dixson, B. J., Dixson, A. F., Li, B., and Anderson, M. J., Studies of human physique and sexual attractiveness: sexual preferences of men and women in China, Am J Hum Biol, 19, 88 (2007).
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Comments

Interesting study. I live in Asia and must say, based on personal observation, that a whr of .6 among Chinese women would be extremely rare; at least more rare than in Europe or in the United States. Most Chinese women are slender with small waists but with correspondingly narrow hips, although of course there are exceptions. I would more generally see whrs of around .75-.8 here with smaller more petite frames and curves.

This is NOT to say that the women here are not feminine or attractive, just that genetically they would not have a waist/hip differentiation that I see in the West for example. Based on this, I wonder if young Chinese males have been influenced by the western "ideal" via the media, television, etc. or if this preference is inbred.

As an aside, I have read articles on Japanese women requesting buttocks implants to enlarge that area so that they will more closely resemble "western women".

Sandy: You are right that the extreme WHR preference among many Chinese men is surprising given the WHR distribution of Chinese women. The question is whether this is a Western influence or something intrinsic. If it is intrinsic and has been similar to that of European men over the past 20,000 years or so, then one would tentatively conclude that sexual selection acting on women has been weaker among the Chinese; there is evidence for stronger sexual selection among Northern Europeans over this time period.

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