--- title: Curvy Women: Men's Preference Has an Evolutionary Basis description: A new study says men prefer women with a pronounced back-to-buttock curve because such women are better able to carry out pregnancies canonical: https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-20T09:13:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:49:41.628Z article:section: Health og:title: Men Prefer Curves for Evolutionary Reasons, Study Finds og:description: And it's one curve in particular. og:url: https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd9684647c37441a/6987847b5f570f1f43b15d76/467173971.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 5242 og:image:height: 3494 og:image:alt: 467173971 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Men Prefer Curves for Evolutionary Reasons, Study Finds twitter:description: And it's one curve in particular. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd9684647c37441a/6987847b5f570f1f43b15d76/467173971.jpg?branch=production ---  # Men Are Totally Hardwired by Evolution to Prefer Curvy Women, Study Finds ## Video: A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now [Watch (HLS stream): A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2014-08-20. A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium._ by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Mar 20, 2015 9:13 AM CUT  Human Spine Human SpineGetty Images by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Mar 20, 2015 9:13 AM CUT A new University of Texas [study](http://www.utexas.edu/news/2015/03/19/men’s-preference-for-certain-body-types-has-evolutionary-roots/ "undefined") has found that men express a clear preference for women who have a pronounced back-to-buttock curve. After asking around 100 men to rank the attractiveness of images of various females, researchers found that men strongly preferred women with a back-to-buttock curve of 45.5 degrees, which they described as the “theoretically optimal angle of lumbar curvature.” They theorized that, in ancient times, such an angle meant that women were more likely to carry out successful pregnancies. “This spinal structure would have enabled pregnant women to balance their weight over the hips,” said researcher David Lewis. “These women would have been more effective at foraging during pregnancy and less likely to suffer spinal injuries. In turn, men who preferred these women would have had mates who were better able to provide for fetus and offspring, and who would have been able to carry out multiple pregnancies without injury.” Researchers conducted a second study to rule out if the spinal curvature preference was due to the buttock size rather than the spinal curvature angle itself. But they discovered that men repeatedly exhibited a preference for women with spinal-curvature angles closer to the optimum, even if the women had smaller buttocks. “Beauty is not entirely arbitrary, or ‘in the eyes of the beholder’ as many in mainstream social science believed, but rather has a coherent adaptive logic,” Lewis added. _Read next:_ [_This App Alerts You When You’re Near a Spot Where a Woman Made History_](http://time.com/3749312/womens-history-app-spark-google-field-trip/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") ### LIFE With Brigitte Bardot: Rare and Classic Photos of the Original 'Sex Kitten'  Brigitte Bardot on set with actor Michel Roux, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot on location in Spain in 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot photographed at the time she was making the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot photographed at the time she was making the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot on location for the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  French actress Brigitte Bardot photographed at the time she was making the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  French actress Brigitte Bardot photographed at the time she was making the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot photographed at the time she was making the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot photographed at the time she was making the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot plays the guitar while on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot (center) on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot checks her hair and makeup on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot (holding a copy of LIFE magazine) looks at a photographic slide on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot photographed between takes on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot with co-star Antonio Vilar on the set of the film, La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Sooner or later in most of her films, Bardot is seen lounging on a bed ... Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brigitte Bardot during break on location filming of La Femme et le Pantin, Spain, 1958. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/"},"headline":"Men Are Totally Hardwired by Evolution to Prefer Curvy Women, Study Finds","datePublished":"2015-03-20T09:13:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:49:41.628Z","description":"And it's one curve in particular","url":"https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/","keywords":["Research","beauty","study","Evolution","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd9684647c37441a/6987847b5f570f1f43b15d76/467173971.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd9684647c37441a/6987847b5f570f1f43b15d76/467173971.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"467173971","caption":"467173971","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/","name":"Men Are Totally Hardwired by Evolution to Prefer Curvy Women, Study Finds"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now","description":"A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uJFYIrvP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-20T13:40:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/","duration":"PT3M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3752142/curvy-women-men-prefer-curves-plus-size-evolution/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```