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There is a concern that our estimated gender-asymmetric role of physical
attractiveness may stem from female BMI and weight being better measures of physical
attractiveness for women than for men. In this respect, we would like to refer to the
following evidence in the literature. Both body shape and body size are important
determinants of physical attractiveness. The literature review on body shape, body size
and physical attractiveness by Swami (2008) seems to point to BMI being the dominant
cue for female physical attractiveness, with WHR (the ratio of the width of the waist to
the width of the hips) playing a more minor role. However, for male physical
attractiveness, the WCR (waist-to-chest) plays a more important role than either the
WHR or BMI, although the latter is correlated with the male attractiveness rating by
women Wells, Treleaven and Cole (2007) confirm this positive relationship between
BMI and body shape and size, suggesting that BMI reflects information on both
physique (the form or structure of a person's body, i.e., physical appearance) and fatness
for both men and women. This evidence seems to suggest that BMI is a good proxy for
male physical attractiveness. Thus, in our empirical analysis, we use BMI as our
measure of physical attractiveness, for both men and women. This approach is also
consistent with Gregory and Ruhm (2009), who suggest that BMI may serve as a proxy
for socially-defined physical attractiveness. However, we would like to acknowledge
that Wada and Tekin (2007) argue that BMI-based measures do not distinguish between
body fat and fat-free body mass and that BMI does not adequately control for nonhomogeneity
inside human body. Instead they develop measures of body composition –
body fat (BF) and fat-free mass (FFM) – using data on bioelectrical impedance analysis
(BIA) that are available in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III.
Unfortunately, these measures are not available in the PSID.
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