The most attractive female body shape according to science – and it’s NOT about the waist–to–hip ratio

FOR years, an hourglass figure has been seen as the ultimate body type for women. If your hips and bust measurements were basically the same size, and your waist was significantly smaller, you were seen by many in society as having the ‘dream’ body. Katy Perry is one celebrity who is known for her hourglass figure Credit: Getty Sydney Sweeney is also known for her incredible figure Credit: Getty The likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Sydney Sweeney and Katy Perry all fit into this category. Now, however, scientists have suggested that this may not actually be the perfect body shape. Sign up for the Health newsletter Thank you! A study in Japan found that a woman’s waist-to-bust ratio could play a much bigger role in perceived attractiveness, rather than waist-to-hip ratio. Writing in the journal Japanese Psychological Research, researchers asked 398 Japanese men aged between 20 and 59 to rate computer-generated female silhouettes. They found that women with a lower waist–to–bust ratio – meaning they had larger breasts in comparison to their waist – were consistently rated as more attractive. And changes to waist-to-hip ratio – once seen as the pinnacle of female beauty – had little effect on men’s preferences. The most attractive female silhouettes had a waist-to-bust ratio of between 0.6 and 0.7, according to the study. The waist-to-bust ratio is calculated as waist circumference divided by the bust circumference, and lower values indicate a larger bust size. Most read in Health “In this study, waist–to–bust ratio had a greater impact on attractiveness ratings than waist–to–hip ratio,” the researchers wrote. They also referenced a previous study on this topic, which found that “larger breasts were rated as more attractive”. Sabrina Carpenter also has a ‘typical’ hourglass figure Credit: Getty The study found that women with larger breasts in comparison to their waist were consistently rated as more attractive, and Sydney Sweeney has this body type Credit: Getty Changes to waist-to-hip ratio had little effect in the study; Sabrina Carpenter is pictured here Credit: Getty Katy Perry is pictured here at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards Credit: Splash It noted, however, that “attractiveness ratings decreased when the [breast] size was excessively large”. Some researchers said this could be because having large breasts is a “sexual signal”. But others suggested it could be because they are signs of “reproductive value”. These findings challenge years of research that suggest the waist-to-hip ratio is the key feature men use when judging female attractiveness. According to the researchers, previous studies overestimated the importance of hip size. It is only natural that women with larger breasts sometimes look like they have a smaller waist, no matter the measurement. The study did acknowledge, however, that the computer-generated female figures it used are very uncommon in real life. Few women naturally have these sorts of proportions. The scientists, from Wayo Women’s University, wrote: “It is known that, to varying degrees, larger bust sizes are evaluated as more attractive overseas, which is also the case in Japan. “However, the bust size for a body shape with a waist-to-bust ratio value of 0.6 is quite large, and these individuals are rare. “It is possible that the standard of attractiveness has become distorted because of exposure to… biased media images.” Researchers also said that there were a number of limitations in their study. They acknowledged that the computer-generated silhouettes all had an “average range of body-mass-index (BMI)”. And they noted that only men were involved in the study, explaining that “the characteristics of each aspect of attractiveness mentioned above will become clearer if future studies consider female evaluations.” Comment now