Are Muscular Men More Attractive?

Muscles. Hot or not?

UCLA professor David Frederick and colleagues have asked: Why is Muscularity Sexy? Conclusion:

[...] these studies suggest that men’s physical features are related not only to women’s expressed preferences for mates but also to men’s and women’s past mate choices and sex behaviors.

NOTE: Despite the many media reports - we need to understand that the subjects of the study were male and female undergraduates (aged 18-25) living in California, USA. Extrapolating that to all men and women everywhere is foolish.

One of the studies interviewed 99 male undergraduates about their sexual histories, and, to be honest - can you really believe they didn't "talk up" their exploits?

This fascinating paper actually includes 6 studies and is difficult to summarize. Here I will focus on just one of the studies:

1. 141 college women aged around 20 looked at 6 computer generated images of men (created with MyVirtualModel.com).
2. Note that only the images were shown to the women - not the labels (e.g. brawny, slender, etc).
3. The women rated the images against four factors: sexual desirability, commitment, physical dominance (over other males), and volatility (e.g. bad temper).

Okay, deep-breath guys...

* Attractiveness, sexual desirability? The built and toned guys came tops. The chubby guy was bottom of the heap. Brawny guy still desirable but not as much as built and toned guy.

* Physical Dominance? Brawny and built were tops, the slender guy bottom.

* Commitment? Chubby guy voted the best, brawny and built the worst.

* Volatility? Slender guy the least volatile, with brawny and built the most volatile.

http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/muscle.jpg