Are men attracted to chubby women

Most men prefer leggy and lean women, Gisele Bündchen lookalikes, right? Not necessarily. In fact, the body type that a guy finds attractive can modify depending on his environment and circumstances, a modern study finds: when under stress, for instance, men prefer heavier women.

The explore, published in the journal PLoS ONE, reports that when men were placed in stressful situations, then asked to rate the attractiveness of women of varying body sizes, they tended to prefer beefier frames, compared with unstressed men whose tastes skewed thinner.

&#;This suggests that our body size preferences are not innate, but are flexible,&#; said study co-author Martin Tovée of Newcastle University in the U.K., in an email, noting that they may be influenced by our particular environment and resources.

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The findings drop in line with evolutionary theories that suggest when resources are scarce or unpredictable, a woman&#;s skinny physique may signal illness, frailty and the inability to reproduce. Indeed, Tovée and colleague Viren Swami of the University of Westminster in London possess previously found that men under trying conditio