New research reports that men and women hold inaccurate perceptions when it comes to what the opposite sex finds attractive in a partner. The study, published in the British Journal of Psychology, found that these misconceptions were magnified in the context of short-term compared to long-term relationships.
Western beauty standards dictate that thinness is the ideal for female bodies and that muscularity is the ideal for male bodies. Psychology literature suggests that men and women who believe their bodies do not meet these standards are at risk of developing unhealthy behaviors.
It also seems that body satisfaction is especially dependent on how men and women perceive the preferences of potential partners. As researchers Xue Lei and David Perrett report, “one study has shown that women’s misperception of men’s preference for thinness is associated with eating disorders (Bergstrom, Neighbors, & Lewis, 2004). Specifically, the higher the discrepancy between women’s estimate of men’s preference for women’s thinness and men’s actual preference, the more unhealthy eating attitudes women report.”
Study authors Lei and Perrett wanted to explore how misperceptions about opposite-sex preferences might fluctuate depending on relationship context. Given that physical attractiveness has been shown to be most important in short-term versus long-term relationships, the authors reason that misperceptions should be amplified in the context of short-term relationships.
A total of 169 heterosexual UK young adults between the ages of 17-26 took part in a study where they were asked to manipulate images of female and male bodies according to certain prompts. The images were generated using a mobile app and could be manipulated with a cursor to represent changes in body mass index (BMI) and fat percentages.
When presented with an image of an opposite-sex body, subjects were asked to manipulate the image to represent ideal attractiveness in a partner’s body in the context of a short-term relationship and then a long-term relationship. When presented with an image of a same-sex body, subjects were asked to adjust the image to fit their own body type and their ideal body type. Subjects also manipulated the same-sex body to fit their impression of what the opposite-sex perceives as the ideal body type for a short-term and a long-term partner.
Results revealed significant misperceptions when it came to opposite-sex body type preferences. When asked about women’s preferences for male bodies, men overemphasized the BMI preferred by women and underestimated their preferred fat percentage. When women were asked about male preferences, they underestimated the BMI that men preferred. In other words, women inflated the thinness that men desired and men inflated the muscularity desired by women. This was true for judgments in the context of both short-term and long-term relationships.
As the researchers predicted, it seemed that misperceptions were especially pronounced when it came to short-term relationships. Both sexes thought that the opposite sex preferred a lower fat percentage in a short-term partner than in a long-term partner. Women additionally thought that men preferred a lower BMI for a short-term versus a long-term partner. In actuality, neither men nor women showed significant differences in their opposite-sex body type preferences when comparing short-term versus long-term relationships.
Importantly, regression analysis revealed that misperceptions of opposite-sex preferences predicted both men’s and women’s body dissatisfaction. The researchers accordingly suggest that “correcting misperceptions of opposite-sex preferences might help to prevent and treat eating disorders or body dissatisfaction among young men and women.”
The authors conclude, “Future research on body image should evaluate the influence that misperceptions of opposite-sex preference have on body dissatisfaction and other body image related psychological problems.”
The study, “Misperceptions of opposite-sex preferences for thinness and muscularity”, was authored by Xue Lei and David Perrett.
