Eye Fixations Indicate Men’s Preference for Female Breasts or Buttocks

Evolutionary psychologists have been interested in male preferences for particular female traits that are thought to signal
health and reproductive potential. While the majority of studies have focused on what makes specific body traits attractive—such
as the waist-to-hip ratio, the body mass index, and breasts shape and size—there is little empirical research that has examined
individual differences in male preferences for specific traits (e.g., favoring breasts over buttocks). The current study begins
to fill this empirical gap. In the first experiment (Study 1), 184 male participants were asked to report their preference
between breasts and buttocks on a continuous scale. We found that (1) the distribution of preference was bimodal, indicating
that Argentinean males tended to define themselves as favoring breasts or buttocks but rarely thinking that these traits contributed
equally to their choice and (2) the distribution was biased towards buttocks. In a second experiment (Study 2), 19 male participants
were asked to rate pictures of female breasts and buttocks. This study was necessary to generate three categories of pictures
with statistically different ratings (high, medium, and low). In a third experiment (Study 3), we recorded eye-movements of
25 male participants while they chose the more attractive between two women, only seeing their breasts and buttock. We found
that the first and last fixations were systematically directed towards the self-reported preferred trait.