(Samuel Borges, Fotolia.com)
From Frugivore:
In the latest edition of “throw a big girl a bone” news, a new study recently released by researchers from the University of Westminster in London has found that our tanking economy is actually good news for plus-size women. Apparently when men are stressed, they seem to be attracted to chubbier women, making this prime time for big girls to catch themselves a good man. *Insert sarcasm here*
The study, lead by Viren Swami, rounded up 81 young men whose ages ranged from 18 to 42 and raised the stress levels of 41 of the men by having them do some tough math and to participate in a simulated job interview — a situation that has been proven to significantly increase tension and anxiety, while the rest of the group got to relax in a quiet room. Afterwards, all of the participants were shown 10 photos of women whose weight ranged from emaciated to obese and were then asked to rate the attractiveness of the women on a scale of 1 to 10.
According to Swami:
Our results showed that men who were stressed rated female body sizes at higher BMI categories as more attractive than their control group counterparts. That is, men in the [stressed] condition rated women of normal weight, overweight, and partially, at least, obese BMI categories as more attractive than the control group.
Read the rest of this story on Frugivore magazine.
