A cross-cultural investigation of the role of foot size in physical attractiveness

Disparate cultural practices suggest that small foot size may contribute to female attractiveness. Two hypotheses potentially explain such a pattern. Sexual dimorphism in foot size may lead observers to view small feet as feminine and large feet as masculine. Alternately, because small female feet i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inArchives of sexual behavior Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 267 - 276
Main Authors Fessler, Daniel M T, Nettle, Daniel, Afshar, Yalda, Pinheiro, Isadora de Andrade, Bolyanatz, Alexander, Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff, Cravalho, Mark, Delgado, Tiara, Gruzd, Bozena, Correia, Melissa Oliveira, Khaltourina, Daria, Korotayev, Andrey, Marrow, Jocelyn, de Souza, Lucineide Santiago, Zbarauskaite, Asta
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Springer Nature B.V 01.06.2005
Subjects
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Beauty
Body Constitution
Brazil
Cambodia
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Cultural Characteristics
Feet
Female
Foot
Humans
India
Interpersonal Relations
Iran
Lithuania
Male
Middle Aged
Papua New Guinea
Sexual behavior
Surveys and Questionnaires
Tanzania
United States
Papua New Guinea
Cambodia
Iran
United States
Tanzania
Brazil
Lithuania
India
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Summary:Disparate cultural practices suggest that small foot size may contribute to female attractiveness. Two hypotheses potentially explain such a pattern. Sexual dimorphism in foot size may lead observers to view small feet as feminine and large feet as masculine. Alternately, because small female feet index both youth and nulliparity, evolution may have favored a male preference for this attribute in order to maximize returns on male reproductive investment. Whereas the observational hypothesis predicts symmetrical polarizing preferences, with small feet being preferred in women and large feet being preferred in men, the evolutionary hypothesis predicts asymmetrical preferences, with the average phenotype being preferred in men. Using line drawings that varied only in regard to relative foot size, we examined judgments of attractiveness in nine cultures. Small foot size was generally preferred for females, while average foot size was preferred for males. These results provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that humans possess an evolved preference for small feet in females.
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ISSN:0004-0002
1573-2800
DOI:10.1007/s10508-005-3115-9