Physical Attractiveness,Age and Body Type: Further Evidence

Abstract

It is known that a woman's age and her body type or size affect judgments of her physical attractiveness. In the U.S. thinness and youth are desirable characteristics in the 1990s in much the same way that physical attractiveness is a desirable characteristic. The current study was designed to test a functional analogy between age, body type or size, and physical attractiveness by ascertaining the degree of similarity between middle-aged subjects' attitudes and assumed attitudes of a variety of models. Middle-aged midwestern women viewed and rated black and white photos of women of various age and sizes. Data analyses provide no support for an analogy between age, size and physical attractiveness. However, these results (a) extend earlier research by underscoring the inextricability of age, size, and physical attractiveness and (b) confirm that a cultural ideal of thinness and youth is held by middle-aged women.