New Scientist is reporting a Polish study which has concluded that long legs are attractive in both sexes. Long legs are sexy .The study was carried out by Boguslaw Pawlowski and Piotr Sorokowski at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. It has been known for some time that taller people are more attractive but this study has gone into more detail and shown that the ratio of the legs to the rest of the body is a factor. They have quantified it, and it turns out that legs that are 5% longer than average relative to body size are the most attractive. Interestingly this applied to both genders: women favoured men with longer legs.
The researchers put forward the idea is that long legs show that you have good genes and are well nourished.
Well this site is devoted not only to keeping you up to date with the latest research on beauty, but also with offering tips on how you can turn this knowledge to your advantage. Growing longer legs is probably not an option for most of us, so what we need to do is to find ways that make our legs look longer when compared to our overall size.
High heels are an obvious idea if you are female. (And for men in theory, but cultural factors might negate its effects). Another suggestion would be to keep your dress as short as you can so your legs have a bigger impact. Baggy trousers are a bad idea for either sex. In fact the tighter fitting the garment on your legs the better.
Nothing very surprising in that list – but at least you now know that there is some science behind it.
Pingback: Longer legs, you can have them | Colin's Beauty Pages
According to Dr. David Carrier biologist at the University of Utah, short legged men are better fighters in hand to hand combat. Carrier concludes that “with short legs, your center of mass is closer to the ground. It’s going to make you more stable so that you can’t be knocked off your feet as easily. And with short legs, you have greater leverage as you grapple with your opponent”. He claims humans were short-legged for a long time, since it advantaged men when they fought other men in hand to hand combat. When humans developed weapons, the advantage shifted. Running became essential to win weapon-based fights, so longer legged men were favored.
Since long-legs are disadvantageous in hand to hand combat, they are seen as feminine while their converse is seen as masculine. Viren Swami et al. of the University of Liverpool found that longer leg-to-body ratio was considered attractive in women (leggy women) whereas a shorter leg-to-body ratio was considered attractive in men (gorilla legged men).
Toy makers know proportionately long legs look more feminine. Just look at your local toy isle to see that this is relationship is built into our evolutionary psyche. Boy action figures have proportionately short legs. Girl dolls have proportionately long legs.
I agree with boov, I am a male & live in the UK. I have 36″ long legs @ 6ft1″ tall. I have a longish neck and short torso. European women love me, but here in the UK I may aswell be an alien. Asain women raised here dont seem to like long legs but asian,,,,asian women do. I also noticed that friends my age (37) are usually taller then our older & younger siblings, which makes me think there WAS something in the water or the SMA powdered milk we where all raised on. The worst thing, worse then women looking at me funny, is trying to find trousers I like in my size!
PS & shoes/trainers!
PPS & flying econamy!
PPPS & those stupid boths in MCDonalds!
PPPPS & especially low desks that kneecap me!!!!!