I am always so proud when humanity expands the frontiers of knowledge. Scientific American reports the result of a new study:
The team took college men and had half of them perform a stressful task unrelated to food or money which raised their cortisol levels. They then asked the stressed and unstressed men to take a look at some images of women, and rate their attractiveness. The images varied in body size, from underweight to obese. Finally, they recorded the participants own weight, height, and hunger status, as controlling variables.
The results were clear. The stressed out guys preferred a larger body size than their relaxed counterparts – but that was not all. “Men experiencing stress not only perceive a heavier female body size as maximally attractive, but also more positively perceive heavier female body sizes and have a wider range of body sizes considered physically attractive.
There may be less to this than meets the eye, according to colleague Victor Payan:
Mas…Nasty Nalgas Research: Stressed out guys like big butts (with videos)