There are right ways, wrong ways, and really bad ways to talk about scientific studies. Sadly, an article in the lifestyle magazine AskMen about female attractiveness falls into that last category. I usually don’t expect much when a male author writes about men liking skinny women, but when phrases like “big, honking jugs” are used without any irony, it’s just gone too far.
To give Ian Lang, the author of this piece, some credit, the study he’s referring to is real, and its results are as he described. Based on data from 1,327 participants (both men and women) in 10 countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe, researchers found that men generally rate women with a lower Body Mass Index as more attractive. (The researchers themselves note that more investigation is needed due to the study’s limitations.)
This conclusion goes against the evolutionary theory that people are attracted to heavier partners because it suggests they’re more likely to survive when food is scarce. And the idea that our preferences might have changed is an interesting topic. People have been trying to figure out the “logic” of sexual attraction for decades and don’t seem ready to stop.