Typically, observers are asked to rate a set of images that vary on a number of anthropometric dimensions. These studies have used line-drawings, photographs and, more rarely, video clips and 3D laser scans as test stimuli –. Previous studies that have attempted to define the importance of these physical cues have had a significant limitation.

However, there remains considerable debate over which cues are used to judge human physical attractiveness, their relative importance and whether these cues differ between men and women. As a result there should be a strong selective pressure to detect and accurately evaluate reliable cues to health and fertility in potential partners. In this context it is important that we are able to detect and accurately assess the physical cues that indicate that one individual is more attractive (i.e., fitter and with a better reproductive potential) than another, and then use these cues to choose the partner who is most likely to enhance our chances of successful reproduction –. What makes a human body attractive to the opposite sex? In evolutionary psychology terms it is a judgment of a potential partner’s health and reproductive potential. The results also suggest that both BMI and torso shape are important components for the creation of the ideal body. The results suggest a consistent preference for an ideal male and female body size and shape across both genders. This was a lower BMI than the actual BMI of roughly half of the men and a higher BMI than the other half. This was a lower BMI than the actual BMI of 39 of the 40 women. The ideal female body set by women (BMI = 18.9, WHR = 0.70, WCR = 0.67) was very similar to the ideal partner set by men, particularly in their BMI (BMI = 18.8, WHR = 0.73, WCR = 0.69). The volume (and thus the weight assuming a standard density) and the circumference of the bust, waist and hips of these 3D models can then be measured. In this programme the shape and size of a 3D body can be altered along 94 independent dimensions, allowing each participant to create the exact size and shape of the body they want.

1.66) set their own ideal size and shape, and the size and shape of their ideal partner using the DAZ studio image manipulation programme. Forty female and forty male heterosexual Caucasian observers (females mean age 19.10 years, s.d. What is the ideal body size and shape that we want for ourselves and our partners? What are the important physical features in this ideal? And do both genders agree on what is an attractive body? To answer these questions we used a 3D interactive software system which allows our participants to produce a photorealistic, virtual male or female body.

Female body visualizer 3d