Waist-to-hip ratio and judgment of attractiveness and healthiness of female figures by male and female physicians.

Sexual dimorphism in body fat distribution as measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is unique to humans. The WHR has been shown to be an accurate predictor of risk for various diseases, premature mortality, degree of androgenicity/estrogenicity and fecundity of women, independent of overall body weight. This study investigated whether physicians would be influenced by body size or WHR in assessing health, youthfulness, and reproductive capability of a woman. Line drawings of 12 female figures representing three categories of body weight (normal, underweight and overweight) and four sizes of WHR (0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0) were ranked by male and female physicians for these qualities as well as for attractiveness and intelligence. Both males and females assigned higher ranking for many of these qualities to normal weight figures with low WHRs (0.7 and 0.8). Overweight figures were assigned low rankings for all these qualities except reproductive capability. Underweight figures, regardless of WHR size, were assigned low ranking for reproductive capability and those underweight figures that had high WHRs (0.9 and 1.0) were assigned low ranking for healthiness. While there were minor sex differences in ranking of some attributes for some figures, generally both male and female physicians utilized the WHR in a similar manner to infer healthiness, reproductive capability and attractiveness.