Longer legs 'more attractive'
Friday, 18 Jan 2008 13:47
People with longer legs may be more attractive
Science In Focus
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The stereotype of a 'leggy blonde' being the most attractive type of person could be true, at least in part, a new study suggests.
Polish researchers found that people prefer legs a few inches longer than average.
Boguslaw Pawlowski and Piotr Sorokowski at the University of Wroclaw in Poland base their findings on the opinions of 218 male and female volunteers, the New Scientist reports.
They were asked to rate the attractiveness of seven male and seven female images, which were altered so that they were the same height but with leg lengths that varied five, ten and 15 per cent from the Polish national norm.
The researchers also measured the volunteers' proportions.
Regardless of the volunteers' height, the most popular image was the one with leg length five per cent longer than average.
Next best were deemed to be average length and then legs that were ten per cent longer.
"Long legs are signalling health," said Dr Pawlowski. He argues that short legs are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and type two diabetes.
Although the study was limited to Polish people the researchers say each culture would be likely to find people with longer legs more attractive.