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The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is an anthropometric measure of body shape. It is calculated by taking the distance around the waist at its narrowest point and by dividing the distance around the hips and buttocks at their widest points. In evolutionary theory of human mate preferences, WHR was suggested to have evolved via sexual selection as a cue of gender, health, and fertility in women.
Introduction
Almost 25 years ago, Devendra Singh (1993) proposed that the distribution of body fat in women evolved via sexual selection as an honest cue of youth, health, and fertility. This chapter revisits Singh’s iconic hypothesis in light of contemporary empirical findings and asks how sexual selection has shaped the evolution of body fat distribution in women and men.
Sexual Dimorphism in Human Body Composition
In comparison to nonhuman primates, differences between men and women in overall body size are not striking. While there...
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References
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Dixson, B.J.W. (2016). Waist-to-Hip Ratio. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3-1
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