Original scientific paper

Is Female Attractiveness Related to Final Reproductive Success?

Boguslaw Pawlowski
Lynda G. Boothroyd
David I. Perrett
Sylwia Kluska

Abstract

In order to test the assumption that female attractiveness relates to reproductive success, photographs of 47 rural
Polish women taken in their youth were rated for attractiveness, and BMI at age 18 was recorded; these measures of attractiveness
were then compared with their subsequent life histories. Facial attractiveness did not relate to number of
children or grandchildren. It also did not relate to age of marriage or husband’s education. It did relate to number of
marriages and husband’s height. BMI at age 18 did not relate significantly to any of the outcome variables. These results
suggest that although more attractive women may have married higher quality (taller) husbands and may in ancestral
population have achieved greater reproductive success this way, there is no evidence in a modern, European Catholic society
for their having greater reproductive success.

Keywords

attractiveness; BMI; reproductive success; height; faces

Hrčak ID:

27197

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/27197

Publication date:

7.7.2008.

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