Oh.
My. God. Becky, look at her butt.
It's so big. Ugh. She looks like,
one of those stressed guys' girlfriends.
But, you know, who understands those stressed guys?
They only talk to her, because,
her body fat is a predictor of food availability
I mean, her butt, is just so big.
I can't believe it's so round, it's like,
out there, I mean - rubenesque. Look!
In the immortal words of Sir Mix-a-Lot, stressed men like big butts and can not lie, you other scientists can't deny ...
“A primary function of adipose tissue is the storage of calories, which in turn suggests that body fat is a reliable predictor of food availability,” explain co-authors Viren Swami and Martin J. Tovée in their PLoS ONE paper released today. “In situations marked by resource uncertainty, therefore, individuals should come to idealise heavier individuals.” [...]
Why did the stressed-out guys prefer weightier women? Because, evolutionarily, more weight means better able to survive in tough times. “In contexts marked by prolonged stress as a result of resource deprivation, individuals may idealise larger body sizes because such body types are associated with better ability to handle environmental threat.” These results are consistent with cross-cultural studies on attractiveness, which found that ideal body size varies by socioeconomic status and resource scarcity. In other words, our evolutionary past has affected why different cultures throughout the world have very different ideals when it comes to beauty.
Christie Wilcox of Scientific American's Science Sushi explains: Link
1) Men get stressed out when they're unemployed.
2) Unemployed men are poor.
3) Attractive, slim women (in America) are attracted to money and won't talk to poor, unemployed men.
4) That leaves the fat women with fat bums.