Michelangelo’s David statue is a classic in the world of art. Is part of what makes it so appealing simply the pose in addition to the artistry? A study published in Evolutionary Psychological Science suggests that despite previous research, an upright position may be more attractive for a male form.
A contrapposto pose is an asymmetric body pose featured in sculptures such as Michelangelo’s David. Many people feel that this pose elevates the work of art and adds a human touch to it. Research has tried to address how the contrapposto pose affects human perception and found that it is perceived as more attractive for women due to the low Waist-to-Hip ratio, which is an indicator of reproductive value. Despite this, the effect of this pose on attractiveness for the male form has yet to be studied.
Study author Farid Pazhoohi and colleagues ran three studies utilizing both 2D and 3D methods. Study 1 utilized 54 American adults recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were shown 5 contrapposto variations of 4 statues in varying degrees of position and rated each one on attractiveness, masculinity, dominance, dynamicity, and naturalness.
Study 2 utilized 47 students at the University of British Columbia. The same statues from Study 1 were presented in a 3-D VR environment. Participants were shown how to work the VR environment to explore the statues and evaluate them while looking at them. Study 3 utilized 50 American adult participants to engage with another 2-D version of this study to confirm results.
The results showed that while the 2-D studies revealed no evidence of the contrapposto pose having an effect on perceived attractiveness, the 3-D VR version of this research showed that the pose had significant effects on the participants’ ratings of attractiveness, masculinity, and dynamicity.
Specifically, the more erect the poses were in the male forms, the higher participants rated their attractiveness and masculinity. This was in line with hypotheses that despite previous research of this pose being more attractive for the female form, an upright male body is seen as more dominant and therefore more manly and attractive.
This study took steps in understanding the sex differences in the appeal of the contrapposto pose. One limitation is that the effect sizes for this study were small. Additionally, using a within-subject design and having participants rate many versions of the same statue could’ve caused participants to try to maintain consistency, therefore skewing the results.
The study, “Contrapposto Pose Influences Perceptions of Attractiveness, Masculinity, and Dynamicity of Male Statues from Antiquity“, was authored by Farid Pazhoohi, Oliver Lee Eric Jacobs, and Alan Kingstone.