Why men find thin women attractive

Among other things, men seem to associate bigger women with old age

Men do find thinner women more attractive - and it’s because males associate slender bodies with youth and fertility. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen found that ‘evolutionary fitness’ guides what men find attractive.

According to Yahoo News, previous studies had suggested that men might be drawn to bigger women because they would be more likely to survive times of hunger.

The researchers ‘evolved’ images of women by asking 60,000 volunteers around the world which of 120 silhouettes they found most attractive.

The ‘’winning’ images were then used to evolve future generations - and the researchers were surprised to find that the ‘ideal’ image had a body mass index of 19.

The researchers found that the volunteers rated bigger women as being older, suggesting that fertility might be one reason men favour thinner mates.

Professor John Speakman of the University of Aberdeen said, 'What we wanted to investigate was the idea that when we look at someone and think they are physically attractive.’

'Are we actually making that assessment based on a hard-wired evolutionary understanding of their potential for future survival and reproductive ability?'