New research reveals that six-month old babies can already distinguish between body types, and may prefer chubby tummies and soft male bodies to muscular or lean frames, the Daily Mail reports.
Researchers from U.K.'s Sheffield and Exeter University showed dozens of photographs to infants of men in their underwear and watched to see if the child preferred one photo over another. In each case, one man shown was a muscular male model, while the other was an average-looking Joe that the researchers knew, deemed less attractive than the model by the research panel.
As the children were too young to respond verbally, their reactions to the photographs were video-taped, and both girls and boys spent more time looking at the photos of normal men than the buff model. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, concluded that the children had a preference for average-looking men.
When younger children were given the same test, they did not appear to be preferential, but by six-months the babies were capable of distinguishing between male body types.
Researchers claim that the babies learned preference by experience rather than being born with an innate sense of attractiveness, and perhaps the normal-looking men reminded them more of their own fathers. In all cases, the men's faces were obscured so the focus remained on the male physique.
"It may be that infants' vast experience with unattractive bodies, in contrast to their relatively limited exposure to attractive or athletic individuals, drives preference towards unattractive male bodies," Dr. Michelle Heron-Delaney of Sheffield University told the Daily Mail. As two-thirds of British men are overweight or obese, it makes sense that the babies were more interested in what they likely knew.
Dr. Alan Slater of Exeter University told the Daily Mail that it may be that well-rounded male bodies are seen by babies as more feminine, and thus may remind them of their mother if they spend most of the time in her care.
The researchers concluded by warning that children viewing overweight and obese parents as the norm could further contribute to the obesity epidemic.
