Hungry Men Love Big Boobs
A study found that when men are famished, they are more likely to gravitate towards busty women.
By Jessie Schiewe
Sexual attraction and hunger have more in common than you’d think. (Credit: Flickr/Mario A.P.)
Hungry men, it turns out, have more in common with each other than merely a desire for food. They also tend to prefer women with bigger chests. We know this thanks to science.
In 2012, over a six week period, a few hundred male students at the University of Westminster in London were stopped as they entered and exited the dining hall during the dinner hours of 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. They were asked to partake in a research study focusing on their health and eating habits. This wasn’t entirely true, as the study really focused on how their varying levels of hunger affected their breast preferences, but for the sake of impartial results, that’s what they were told.
The students who agreed to partake in the study were then asked to self-report their hunger on a 7-point scale (1 = Very hungry, 2 = Quite hungry, 3 = More hungry than full, 4 = More full than hungry, 5 = Quite full, 6 = Very full, 7 = Unsure). Those who selected 1 and 2 were considered as being hungry, and those who selected 5 and 6 were considered full. Only these students were asked to continue with the study, with the final sample consisting of 65 hungry participants and 58 satiated participants.
The final 123 male students were then taken to “a quiet, on-campus location” and shown 13” laptop computers. Five 3D animations of females wearing red bras and underwear scrolled across the screens, with each woman sporting increasingly larger breast sizes. Figure 1 had very small breast size while Figure 5 had the largest breast size of them all. The male students were asked to rate the female they found most physically attractive.
The five different breast sizes shown to the study’s participants. (Credit: NCBI)
The final part of the study asked them to rate their levels of hunger, satiety, or fullness one last time. It was only after this last step that the men were told the true intention of the study: to find out whether men’s breast size preferences fluctuated with their hunger levels.
As it turns out, they do. The hungrier male participants were more likely to select Figures 4 and 5 as being the most attractive female forms in the group, with 36.9% choosing the large breast size and 29.2% choosing the very large breast size. Amongst the satiated participants, Figures 2 and 3 were the most likely to be chosen, with 15.5% selecting the small breasts and 31% selecting the medium breasts. As the results of the study suggest, the hungrier a man is, the heavier he likes his women.
Related: “The Self-Quarantined Woman Painting Nudes of Friends — Then Mailing Them to Strangers”
Breasts are one of, if not the most objectified parts of a female’s body. Studies tracking eye-movements have found that when judging the attractiveness of a woman, both men and women spend more time looking at the breasts than at any other bodily region. Our preferences for breast sizes are dedicated by a number of factors: psychological, cultural, socioeconomic, advertorial, and so on.
But what most of us don’t consider is that our preferences for breast size are not set-in-stone. As the results of this study proved, they are likely to fluctuate, even when it comes to something as seemingly banal as one’s hunger level.
After eating a big bowl of fruitti di mare, this man’s breast size preference has probably shrunk. (Credit: Flickr/Thomas Lillis IV)
It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The authors of the study — Viren Swami and Martin J. Tovée, who, it should be noted, are both male — were actually trying to see how resource insecurity (i.e. a lack of food) affected males’ attraction to women. In other words, this wasn’t just a gratuitous “let’s look at boobs and rate them” study. It was actually trying to see how changes in one’s environment and financial status could influence their opinions about potential mates.
Barring plastic surgery, a woman’s breast size is linked to how much fat storage she has in her body. Though one’s cup size can be genetically determined, it can also be affected by diet and how much she eats. If hungry men are viewed as being without resources (if only for a brief period of time), women with big breasts can be viewed as having ample access to said resources. From a survival standpoint, it then makes sense that a male would be more likely to gravitate towards a woman who seems better fed and thus more healthy and able to provide.
In the same study, the researchers also examined breast size preferences among men of varying financial backgrounds. They questioned men in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo and found that those who were the most poor and isolated preferred the largest busts on women. Previous research conducted amongst men in Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and New Zealand has also led to similar findings.
The study also found that men who are poor are most likely to prefer larger busts. (Credit: Flickr/Slow Brook)
Though by no means groundbreaking, the results of this study come with one major takeaway: breast size preference is temporary and by no means steadfast and permanent. Where a man lives and what resources he has available to him on any given day will determine what cup size he gravitates towards more than anything.
So the next time you hear a man proclaim that he is a “big boob man,” don’t take it to heart. He might just be really hungry or short on cash.
More OK Whatever:
