Women with a curvier backside are considered highly attractive to many men, but why? New research makes a strong case that evolution plays a major role in today’s standards for what’s considered beautiful.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin first examined the types of curves that men prefer most. Roughly 100 guys were presented with digitally enhanced photos of women. Some ladies had more vertebral wedging than others, meaning they had a greater degree of lumbar curvature. In simple terms, this means that the lower part of the spine curves out, creating a curvier backside.
The men were consistently more attracted to the women with greater lumbar curvature — a physical feature that researchers say would have made ancestral women better able to carry out and support multiple pregnancies.
It begs the question: does evolution have anything to do with why most men prefer curvier women?
To take it a step further, researchers then presented 200 men with photos of different types of women. The goal was to see if the guys were more attracted to greater spine angle or larger buttocks. Again, they overwhelmingly preferred women with greater spinal curvature, regardless of butt size.
Psychologist David Lewis, who led the research, says that the studies reveal two novel findings.
“First, men possess a previously undiscovered preference for specific spinal features in women that would have been evolutionarily beneficial,” he says. “Second, this is not simply a preference for large buttocks — in our second study, when men were forced to choose between a woman with larger buttocks and a woman with smaller buttocks but a curvier spine, they consistently preferred the woman with the curvier spine.”
Researchers add that the psychological preference toward this type of female figure has likely evolved over thousands of years.
