Singh D
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin 78712.
Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1994 Nov;18(11):731-7.
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.
通过腰臀比（WHR）衡量的身体脂肪分布的性别差异是人类独有的。WHR已被证明是各种疾病风险、过早死亡、雄激素化/雌激素化程度以及女性生育能力的准确预测指标，与总体体重无关。本研究调查了医生在评估女性的健康、年轻程度和生殖能力时是否会受到体型或WHR的影响。12名女性人体线条图代表了三种体重类别（正常、体重过轻和超重）以及四种WHR尺寸（0.7、0.8、0.9和1.0），男性和女性医生对这些女性的这些特质以及吸引力和智力进行排名。男性和女性都将许多这些特质的较高排名赋予了WHR较低（0.7和0.8）的正常体重身材。超重身材在所有这些特质上的排名都很低，但生殖能力除外。体重过轻的身材，无论WHR大小，在生殖能力方面排名较低，而那些WHR较高（0.9和1.0）的体重过轻身材在健康方面排名较低。虽然在某些身材的某些属性排名上存在微小的性别差异，但总体而言，男性和女性医生以类似的方式利用WHR来推断健康状况、生殖能力和吸引力。
