Perfectly formed? The effect of manipulating the waist-to-hip ratios of famous paintings and sculptures

Forty-three women and 45 men rated a series of images of selected paintings and sculptures for aesthetic appeal and originality. For each painting or sculpture, there were three versions: the original image and two manipulated images, one displaying a lower waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and the other displaying a higher WHR than in the original. The results showed that, in general, both male and female participants considered the original and, in some cases, the image with the higher WHR as the most aesthetically pleasing. The results also showed that participants were generally able to discern the undoctored image as being the original, although women were better at this task than men. Implications for the study of aesthetics and physical attractiveness are considered