Fear of Violence among Colombian Women Is Associated with Reduced Preferences for High-BMI Men.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies reveal that violence significantly contributes to explaining individual's facial preferences. Women who feel at higher risk of violence prefer less-masculine male faces. Given the importance of violence, we explore its influence on people's preferences for a different physical trait. Masculinity correlates positively with male strength and weight or body mass index (BMI). In fact, masculinity and BMI tend to load on the same component of trait perception. Therefore we predicted that individuals' perceptions of danger from violence will relate to preferences for facial cues to low-BMI. In two studies in Colombia, men and women from Bogota, Medellin, and surrounding communities were shown pairs of faces transformed to epitomize the shape correlates of men with high or low-BMI.

SUBMITTER: Borras-Guevara ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6698270 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature