Methodological issues in studies of female attractiveness

Evolutionary models of mate choice predict that we should be sensitive to the cues in a potential partner that signal honest information about their mate quality (i.e., their health and reproductive potential). Individuals displaying cues indicative of high quality should be judged as more sexually attractive than those signalling lower quality. In recent years, much research in evolutionary psychology has focussed on applying this approach to understanding variation in the attractiveness of female body shapes. Several features of a body’s size and shape have been suggested as potential indices of mate quality based on biological data linking these indices to measures of health and fertility.