Hungry men prefer big breasts: study

Researchers have found that hungry men find bigger breasts more appealing than men who have eaten well.

According to the paper, published in PloSone, the researchers hypothesised that due to the fact that larger breasts signify higher fat reserves, hungry men would find them more attractive than men who were satiated.

In order to test this, the researchers first took 266 men from varying economic strata in Malaysia and showed them animated figures with varying bust sizes.

"To assess attractiveness perceptions based on breast size, we followed previous work in creating three-dimensional (3D) animations of female figures that were allowed to rotate through 360° relative to the viewer," the researchers wrote.

They then presented the same figure with different sized breasts, and asked the men to rate them as to which one was the most attractive.

What the researchers found in this first study was that "men in relatively low socioeconomic sites rate larger breast sizes as more physically attractive than do their counterparts in moderate socioeconomic sites."

The researchers did a second study to check if it wasn't a difference in regional cultures they were seeing.

"For example, combining the findings that men who hold greater sexist attitudes show a preference for larger breast size and that patriarchal pressure may be greater in rural areas, it is possible that there was a natural confound in our design that limits the conclusions that can be made," the researchers wrote.

The second test sought to overcome this limitation by using British white male university students, and asking them to rate breast sizes before and after eating.

The students were asked to self-report on how hungry they were on a seven point scale (From 1 being very hungry to 6 being very full, and 7 being unsure).

This study ended up with 65 hungry participants (people who responded with a 1 or a 2) and 58 who were satiated (people who responded with a 5 or a 6.)

The researchers found that "examination of the breast size judgements indicated a greater skew toward larger breast size in the hungry group."

"The present set of results provides evidence that breast size may play a role in men’s assessments of female access to resources.

All things being equal, men from relatively low socioeconomic contexts and who experience temporary hunger rate women with larger breast size as more attractive than men from high socioeconomic contexts or are experiencing satiety," the researchers concluded.