Stressed Men Prefer Larger Women, Because You Were Wondering [Weighty Matters]

A study in England has found that men coping with stress more often prefer larger women than men who aren't stressed at all, an insight that builds on earlier findings about how experiencing stress affects body-size judgments, often leading people to be attracted to more "mature" body types.

Viren Swami from the University of Westminster in London along with Martin Tovee from Newcastle University cobbled together 81 white British men, randomly assigning them to be placed in either stressful or relaxing situations. The men who were to experience some stress in the name of science were subjected to a fake interview, while the men who were just going to chill out in the name of science were placed in a quiet room where they could just think about all the stupid things academics do with grant money.

After having their disparate sit-downs, the subjects were asked to look at rate the attractiveness of photographed women ranging from emaciated to obese. The men who'd been subjected to a stressful situation rated larger women more favorably than the men who weren't stressed, though the study authors didn't say whether the stressed men exclusively preferred larger women or were simply more amenable to body types deviating from a certain cultural "ideal."

Previous research into body-type preference has figured that people in stressful situations, i.e. times when money or other resources are scarce, prefer heavier partners because if someone's carrying around extra weight, it probably means that they have access to a steady supply of food and are consequently healthy. Similarly, when someone is dealing with emotional stress of the sort that subjects in this latest study experienced, a larger, more mature body may indicate that a prospective partner is better equipped to deal with tough times. In other words, from this very limited study, science has taught us that we're all just looking for that special person with shoulders broad enough and backs sturdy enough to help share the heavy burden of our overloaded stress knapsacks.

Stress Makes Men Appreciate Larger Women [LiveScience]

Image via laschi/Shutterstock.

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World's First Weight Loss Perfume Smells Like Depressing Bullshit [Weighty Matters]

New fragrance Prends-Moi, which claims to be the world's first slimming perfume (but probably won't be the last, since we love spending money on bizarre weight loss scams), promises to "slim with pleasure" thanks to notes of caffeine, carnitine, and spirulina. Mmmmm.

From the Fragrance Shop website (which lists the perfume's "gender" as "female," because perfumes totally have genders and sellers obv think only women would be crazy enough to try and slim down via sniffing dietary supplements):

Designed to ‘slim with pleasure' PRENDS-MOI is based on extensive aromatherapeutic and ‘neurocosmetic' research and contains active ingredients including ‘Betaphroline' which when it comes in to contact with keratinocytes (cells found in the outer layer of the skin) will induce the release of B-endorphins present in the skin. A ‘pleasure message' is transmitted through the neurotransmitters (impulse from a nerve cell to another nerve, muscle, organ or other tissue) to the hippocampus (the ‘odour brain') triggering an immediate sensation of well being, a reduction in stress and an increase in contentment reducing the need to overeat and the scents slimming action is activated.

You're supposed to spray the perfume on in the morning and then whenever the need for snacking arises; apparently, "further results can be achieved by very lightly massaging into targeted areas, morning and night to help sculpt and slim the contours of the body." But get this: French lab BIO-EC ran a trial study that found 75% of non-dieting women ages 18-70 felt the perfume made them stop snacking. 73% also reported "pleasurable feelings." Unless the "targeted area" is the mouth and this perfume tastes like fancy cheese, we refuse to believe these findings and demand more information. Alternate theory: the perfume is actually crack.

It's on sale for £29.99, and apparently there are already 6,000 U.K. customers waiting to spray caffeine on their cellulite. We wish them the best of luck with that.

The world's first 'weight loss fragrance' revealed [Daily Mail via Refinery 29]

(Image via The Fragrance Shop.)

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