Edited by Marino Macchio
What are the body's most worrying characteristics of love rivals according to men and women?
I WATCH YOU AND FEEL YOU
According to a study by two Dutch psychologists (researchers), Pieternel Dijkstra and Bram Buunk, shoulders, chest and abdomen are the parts of the body of rivals in love most observed and feared by males.
Previous studies established that jealousy comes "when people perceive some threat to the relationship with their partner, due to imaginary or real rivals". Studies have also suggested that "people tend to compare the qualities of rivals with their own".
With the intent to follow up on these findings, the two researchers took information on a sample of 100 men and 100 women.
The questionnaires included schematic drawings of human figures and written questions. Women had to watch women, while men had to look at men. The drawings, all with "identical facial and bodily characteristics", presented variously broader or narrower shoulders, hips and waistlines.
Both men and women were asked to look at each drawing, to then say "how jealous they would have felt if that individual had been interested, from the point of view of love, in their partner". They were also asked to rate how attractive each of the outlined figures was, and how attractive they would be to their partner, real or imagined.
Finally, to conclude, the last question was to list the characteristics of the bodies represented in the figures on which they had concentrated most in answering the questions.
The women wrote that they looked at rivals' waist, hips and legs .
The men of having watched shoulders, chest, and abdomen, always rivals.
For women the "rivals" with thin waist and wide hips were "more socially dominant and attractive".
For men the "rivals" with broad shoulders, developed pectorals and above all a narrow waist were "more attractive to the other sex and socially dominant"
Since 2001 Dijkstra and Buunk have gone on with a vast research activity with related publications on various assorted aspects of the relationship jealousy-thin waist-wide shoulders-wide hips. Their last monograph of 2005, is titled " Thin waist against broad shoulders: differences due to sex and age in the ability to cause jealousy of the body constitution of rivals ".
