Female faces and bodies differentially contribute to ratings of physical attractiveness and sexual desirability
Abstract
Human mate choice research has mostly focused on determinants ofphysical attractiveness, whichhas highlighted the relative importance of the face.The purported functional role of attractiveness in human courtship has arguably led to conflation with the concept of sexual desirability. Research from visual attention paradigms indicate that the human body is the focal point in scenes depicting sexual content.
The present study therefore aimed to determine the relative contributions of female faces and bodiesto ratings of overall physical attractiveness and sexual desirability. 100 participants (50 male, 50 female) rated images of faces alone, bodies alone and faces plus bodies (in all cases the bodies were clothed) in a blocked experimental design.Face and body effects were determined for each rating scale independently using cross classified multilevel models. As expected , overall physical attractiveness and sexual desirability were strongly and positively correlated.
Face and body each significantly predicted ratings of face-body stimuli irrespective of rating scale. However, facescontributed proportionally moreto overall face-body attractiveness, whilst the body accounted for a greater proportion of overall face-body sexual desirability.
Liking faces may be an important factor of partner selection, but the body may be stronger indicators of sexual intention.