Men who are hungry find larger women more attractive, a study has found.
According to a team of psychologists from Newcastle and Liverpool universities, men’s tastes reverted to stereotype once they had eaten.
The scientists base their findings on testing 60 undergraduates to see if appetite is linked to sexual preference. Half had just eaten and described themselves as very full, while the rest had yet to eat and were either hungry or very hungry.
The test subjects had to look at pictures portraying women of different shapes and sizes and rate them on an ascending scale of beauty from one to nine. None of the images showed the women’s faces, to ensure they were judged on body shape alone.
"Hungry men are much more tolerant and rate obese women more positively than men who have eaten. They found them slightly more attractive, although the difference was very small between them and women in the normal weight range," Liverpool University’s Viren Swami said.
