The symptoms of resource scarcity: judgments of food and finances influence preferences for potential partners.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Level assigned by design analogy for experimental behavioral studies.
PubMed 15686584 · doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00798.x
What was done
Across four studies with a total of 1,176 participants, researchers examined whether individual-level experiences of resource scarcity influence male preferences for female body weight within a single culture. Resource scarcity was operationalized through situational feelings of caloric dissatisfaction (hunger) and financial dissatisfaction (feeling poor vs. feeling rich or full).
What was found
The abstract reports no exact numerical statistics or effect sizes. It states qualitatively that men who felt either poor or hungry preferred heavier women compared to men who felt rich or full.
Why it matters
The study proposes a social-cognitive mechanism suggesting that broad cross-cultural variations in body weight preferences can be mirrored at the individual level through temporary psychological states of resource scarcity.
Limits
The abstract does not provide exact numerical effect sizes, p-values, or confidence intervals. Specific participant demographics, exact manipulation protocols, and individual sample sizes across each of the four distinct studies are not described in the abstract. Generalizability beyond the tested cultural context remains unquantified.
Cited by
- supports When men are primed with scarcity, such as acute hunger, poverty, or local famine, their preferences shift toward larger women.