Australian researchers have discovered a depressing new trend: young males--and females-- are rating women as being the most attractive when the women are actually too skinny to be healthy. Researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney asked 63 students to manipulate images with a computer program to design the most attractive male body. The participants made figures with a healthy amount of fat and muscle--as the researchers predicted. But when the participants were asked to design the most attractive female body, they consistently created figures with levels of body fat lower than the healthy range. In an email to Health.com, study co-author Ian Stephen, PhD, said that from an evolutionary standpoint, that’s odd. And in terms of societal beauty standards, it’s depressing.
