ATTRACTIVENESS IN A BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT It was shown that the leg-to-body ratio (LBR) is one of the morphological traits that influences a person’s attractiveness. However, the results obtained in previous research in this field were contradictory and ambiguous. In the present study, participants from the United Kingdom (N=100) and Poland (N=102), rated the physical attractiveness of five male and five female, three dimensional silhouettes with different LBR. A non-linear relation between LBR and attractiveness was found – male and female silhouettes with short and excessively long legs were perceived as less attractive by both sexes across cultures. It is hypothesized that short and/or excessively long legs are unattractive for they might indicate a maladaptive biological condition, however, it is yet to be proved if this phenomenon is a culturally developed aesthetic preference