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High heels as supernormal stimuli: How wearing high heels affects judgements of female attractiveness
... This has already been investigated in exaggerations of the human form (Barrett, 2010), in particular, Doyle and Pazhoohi (2012) found that the most desired augmented breast size and shape was actually not a natural but an exaggerated shape. Others have examined facial features (Costa & Corazzo, 2006), cosmetics (Etcoff, Stock, Haley, Vickery, & House, 2011), and the effect of high heel shoes (Morris, White, Morrison, & Fisher, 2013). To investigate these supernormal stimuli, the markers that are exaggerated to create hypersexualized and markedly different bodies need to be delineated. ...
... In addition, even when the women were not wearing shoes, they were drawn as walking on the balls of their feet, creating the look of high heels without wearing them. Interestingly, researchers have already argued that women in high heels could be regarded as supernormal stimuli (Morris et al., 2013). The irony of this is that these are imaginary women, and can be drawn with accentuated hip and buttock curvature without 'wearing heels'. ...
... Applying these findings onto comic book faces would be particularly interesting. In addition, although much of this work has been done on female supernormal stimuli (Costa & Corazzo, 2006;Doyle & Pazhoohi, 2012;Etcoff et al., 2011;Morris et al., 2013), little work has been done on the creation of male supernormal stimuli. What neurological response would be elicited by these dramatically exaggerated male comic book bodies (like Platek & Singh, 2010)? ...
We examined the visualization of male and female superheroes, paying attention to physical dimensions and costuming that accentuated hyper-masculine or hyperfeminine features such as shoulder-to-waist ratio, jawlines, upper body muscularity, waist-to-hip ratio, and breast morphology. Body mass index (BMI) data were collected for 3,752 Marvel comic characters. Males were on average "obese" whereas females averaged at the low end of normal weight. The male higher body mass was caused by extreme upper body muscularity, with male shoulder-to-waist ratios far above human limits. This is in stark contrast to low weight female superhero bodies with far lower waist-to-hip ratios than average humans. The endocrine markers that are exaggerated in these depictions create supernormal sexual stimuli for each sex.
Postural changes, related to increased heel height and its chronic effects, were investigated for many years. However, its relation to low back pain and lumbar vertebra damages may is still controversial. This study aims to determine lumbar kinematic adjustments as high height increase and the contribution of its surrounding muscles to ensure balance and stable motion. In this study, a standard motion capture protocol is used to collect 3D motion data for healthy young females waking with a stiletto shoes with 8.5 cm of heigh. Then a generic full body lumbar model (Rabee 2016) was adjusted to our female subject’s anthropometric parameters (weight and height). Joint kinematics, muscle activations, and muscle forces were calculated for each gait cycle using Opensim software package. Preliminary results showed that wearing high-heeled shoes decrease lumbar joint flexion and the increase of axial rotation and lateral bending and induce a higher amount of spine muscle activities to propel legs during locomotion and to maintain spine balance. Consequently, muscular equilibrium changes around inter-vertebral joints engender higher compressive forces, which may cause discomfort, joint damages, and consequently low back pain. As conclusion, musculoskeletal modeling is a challenging tool to investigate biomechanical effects of altered gaits and predict joint damages in relation to footwear.
Studies of human locomotion have found that male and female walkers differ in terms of lateral body sway, with males tending to swing their shoulders from side to side more than their hips, and females tending to swing their hips more than their shoulders. Experiments reported here demonstrate that naive viewers can identify the gender of the figure in a biological motion display very reliably when the display contains gender-specific lateral body sway. Sensitivity to gender is high even for displays containing only a fraction of a step cycle. This dynamic cue dominates structural cues based on torso shape (`centre-of-moment') when the cues are set in opposition. It is mediated by gender-specific differences in the velocity of shoulder and hip dots, not by positional differences in shoulder and hip dots during the step cycle.
Viewers can recognize themselves and others in an abstract display of their movements. Light sources mounted on joints prominent during the act of walking are sufficient cues for identification. No other information, no feedback, and little practice with such a display are needed. This procedure, developed by Johansson, holds promise for inquiry into the dimensions and features of event perception: It is both naturalistic and experimentally manageable
Contemporary mate preferences can provide important clues to human reproductive history. Little is known about which characteristics people value in potential mates. Five predictions were made about sex differences in human mate preferences based on evolutionary conceptions of parental investment, sexual selection, human reproductive capacity, and sexual asymmetries regarding certainty of paternity versus maternity. The predictions centered on how each sex valued earning capacity, ambition— industriousness, youth, physical attractiveness, and chastity. Predictions were tested in data from 37 samples drawn from 33 countries located on six continents and five islands (total N = 10,047). For 27 countries, demographic data on actual age at marriage provided a validity check on questionnaire data. Females were found to value cues to resource acquisition in potential mates more highly than males. Characteristics signaling reproductive capacity were valued more by males than by females. These sex differences may reflect different evolutionary selection pressures on human males and females; they provide powerful cross-cultural evidence of current sex differences in reproductive strategies. Discussion focuses on proximate mechanisms underlying mate preferences, consequences for human intrasexual competition, and the limitations of this study.
The sex of human walkers can be recognized without familiarity cues from displays of pointlight sources mounted on major joints.
Static versions of these abstract displays do not permit accurate recognition of sex. Variation in the degree of armswing
or in walking speed generally interferes with recognition, except that faster speeds are associated somewhat with improved
recognition of females. Lights on upper-body joints permit more accurate guesses than do Lights on lower-body joints, but
identification is possible even from minimal displays, with lights placed only on the ankles. No feedback was given to observers.
Confidence judgments of sex relate to the accuracy of responses in a manner that suggests that viewers know what they are
doing.
Research on the perception of faces has focused on the size, shape, and configuration of inherited features or the biological phenotype, and largely ignored the effects of adornment, or the extended phenotype. Research on the evolution of signaling has shown that animals frequently alter visual features, including color cues, to attract, intimidate or protect themselves from conspecifics. Humans engage in conscious manipulation of visual signals using cultural tools in real time rather than genetic changes over evolutionary time. Here, we investigate one tool, the use of color cosmetics. In two studies, we asked viewers to rate the same female faces with or without color cosmetics, and we varied the style of makeup from minimal (natural), to moderate (professional), to dramatic (glamorous). Each look provided increasing luminance contrast between the facial features and surrounding skin. Faces were shown for 250 ms or for unlimited inspection time, and subjects rated them for attractiveness, competence, likeability and trustworthiness. At 250 ms, cosmetics had significant positive effects on all outcomes. Length of inspection time did not change the effect for competence or attractiveness. However, with longer inspection time, the effect of cosmetics on likability and trust varied by specific makeup looks, indicating that cosmetics could impact automatic and deliberative judgments differently. The results suggest that cosmetics can create supernormal facial stimuli, and that one way they may do so is by exaggerating cues to sexual dimorphism. Our results provide evidence that judgments of facial trustworthiness and attractiveness are at least partially separable, that beauty has a significant positive effect on judgment of competence, a universal dimension of social cognition, but has a more nuanced effect on the other universal dimension of social warmth, and that the extended phenotype significantly influences perception of biologically important signals at first glance and at longer inspection.
The authors classified 1,760 heterosexual pornographic magazines according to the imagery of the cover photographs. Covers depicting only a woman posed alone predominated in 1970 but constituted only 10.7% of the covers in 1981. Bondage and domination imagery was the most prevalent nonormative imagery and was featured in 17.2% of the magazines. Smaller proportions of material were devoted to group sexual activity (9.8%), tranvestism and transsexualism (4.4%), and other nonnormative imagery. The authors suggest that pornographic imagery is an unobtrusive measure of the relative prevalence of those paraphilias associated with preferences for specific types of visual imagery and for which better data are lacking.
When running indoors on a treadmill, the lack of air resistance results in a lower energy cost compared with running outdoors at the same velocity. A slight incline of the treadmill gradient can be used to increase the energy cost in compensation. The aim of this study was to determine the treadmill gradient that most accurately reflects the energy cost of outdoor running. Nine trained male runners, thoroughly habituated to treadmill running, ran for 6 min at six different velocities (2.92, 3.33, 3.75, 4.17, 4.58 and 5.0 m s-1) with 6 min recovery between runs. This routine was repeated six times, five times on a treadmill set at different grades (0%, 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%) and once outdoors along a level road. Duplicate collections of expired air were taken during the final 2 min of each run to determine oxygen consumption. The repeatability of the methodology was confirmed by high correlations (r = 0.99) and non-significant differences between the duplicate expired air collections and between the repeated runs at 0% grade. The relationship between oxygen uptake (VO2) and velocity for each grade was highly linear (r > 0.99). At the two lowest velocities, VO2 during road running was not significantly different from treadmill running at 0% or 1% grade, but was significantly less than 2% and 3% grade. For 3.75 m s-1, the VO2 during road running was significantly different from treadmill running at 0%, 2% and 3% grades but not from 1% grade. For 4.17 and 4.58 m s-1, the VO2 during road running was not significantly different from that at 1% or 2% grade but was significantly greater than 0% grade and significantly less than 3% grade. At 5.0 m s-1, the VO2 for road running fell between the VO2 value for 1% and 2% grade treadmill running but was not significantly different from any of the treadmill grade conditions. This study demonstrates equality of the energetic cost of treadmill and outdoor running with the use of a 1% treadmill grade over a duration of approximately 5 min and at velocities between 2.92 and 5.0 m s-1.
Testosterone-dependent secondary sexual characteristics in males may signal immunological competence and are sexually selected for in several species. In humans, oestrogen-dependent characteristics of the female body correlate with health and reproductive fitness and are found attractive. Enhancing the sexual dimorphism of human faces should raise attractiveness by enhancing sex-hormone-related cues to youth and fertility in females, and to dominance and immunocompetence in males. Here we report the results of asking subjects to choose the most attractive faces from continua that enhanced or diminished differences between the average shape of female and male faces. As predicted, subjects preferred feminized to average shapes of a female face. This preference applied across UK and Japanese populations but was stronger for within-population judgements, which indicates that attractiveness cues are learned. Subjects preferred feminized to average or masculinized shapes of a male face. Enhancing masculine facial characteristics increased both perceived dominance and negative attributions (for example, coldness or dishonesty) relevant to relationships and paternal investment. These results indicate a selection pressure that limits sexual dimorphism and encourages neoteny in humans.
Biological motion contains information about the identity of an agent as well as about his or her actions, intentions, and emotions. The human visual system is highly sensitive to biological motion and capable of extracting socially relevant information from it. Here we investigate the question of how such information is encoded in biological motion patterns and how such information can be retrieved. A framework is developed that transforms biological motion into a representation allowing for analysis using linear methods from statistics and pattern recognition. Using gender classification as an example, simple classifiers are constructed and compared to psychophysical data from human observers. The analysis reveals that the dynamic part of the motion contains more information about gender than motion-mediated structural cues. The proposed framework can be used not only for analysis of biological motion but also to synthesize new motion patterns. A simple motion modeler is presented that can be used to visualize and exaggerate the differences in male and female walking patterns.
The research hypothesis was that healthy adults would walk differently according to their gender when walked barefoot at their comfortable speed. The aim of this study was to prove the hypothesis in healthy Korean adults.
Between-gender statistical comparisons of the gait analysis data including spatiotemporal, three-dimensional joint kinematic and kinetic data.
There have been few attempts to identify the significant gender differences in gait pattern and to explore their possible causes.
Healthy 98 Korean adults (47 females and 51 males) volunteered. Gait analysis data was obtained with opto-electric system and force plates. Normalization was used to avoid the body size effect. Gender difference was tested with independent t-test, ancova, and two-way repeated anova.
Females were shorter, both in height and leg length ( P < 0.05 ). The cadence and pelvic width were as great as in males. They walked slower than males due to shorter stride length ( P < 0.05 ). The females had still shorter stride length and narrower step width ( P < 0.05 ), and they walked as fast as the males. Females walked with their pelvis tilted more anteriorly and more up and down oblique motion, hip joints more flexed-adducted-internally rotated, knee joint in more valgus angles ( P = 0.05 ).
The gait analysis data had significant gender differences. We assume that the difference is due to gender features of the gait-related anatomy and habits. Comparison with other research shows some evidence for racial differences.
We examined whether it is possible to identify the emotional content of behaviour from point-light displays where pairs of actors are engaged in interpersonal communication. These actors displayed a series of emotions, which included sadness, anger, joy, disgust, fear, and romantic love. In experiment 1, subjects viewed brief clips of these point-light displays presented the right way up and upside down. In experiment 2, the importance of the interaction between the two figures in the recognition of emotion was examined. Subjects were shown upright versions of (i) the original pairs (dyads), (ii) a single actor (monad), and (iii) a dyad comprising a single actor and his/her mirror image (reflected dyad). In each experiment, the subjects rated the emotional content of the displays by moving a slider along a horizontal scale. All of the emotions received a rating for every clip. In experiment 1, when the displays were upright, the correct emotions were identified in each case except disgust; but, when the displays were inverted, performance was significantly diminished for some emotions. In experiment 2, the recognition of love and joy was impaired by the absence of the acting partner, and the recognition of sadness, joy, and fear was impaired in the non-veridical (mirror image) displays. These findings both support and extend previous research by showing that biological motion is sufficient for the perception of emotion, although inversion affects performance. Moreover, emotion perception from biological motion can be affected by the veridical or non-veridical social context within the displays.
pAnimate motion contains not only information about the actions of a person but also about his or her identity, intentions and emotions. We can recognize a good friend by the way he or she moves and we can attribute age, gender and other characteristics to an unfamiliar person. How is such information encoded in visual motion data and how can it be retrieved by the visual system? We present an algorithm that transforms visual motion data such that they can be successfully approached with linear methods from statistics and pattern recognition. The transformation is based on a linear decomposition of postural data into a few components that change with sinusoidal temporal patterns. The components repeat consistently across subjects such that linear combinations of existing motion data result in smooth, meaningful interpolations. Examples are presented how this model can be used to discriminate between different types of motion (here: walking vs. running) and how it can be used to classify instances of the same type of motion (e.g. walking) in terms of characteristics of the actor (here: gender classification). Since the transformation is reversible the model can also be used for synthesis and modeling of animate motion. Therefore, it serves not only as a model for biological information processing but has also implications for both computer vision and computer graphics./p
Hinde & Barden (1985, Anim. Behav., 33, 1371–1373) suggested that the teddy bear has evolved to match sign stimuli that release nurturant behaviour. Bears are usually bought for infants and young children. From an evolutionary perspective it seems paradoxical that young children who themselves require intensive nurture should exhibit a preference for objects that afford nurturing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the origin of the preference for nurturant sign stimuli. The preference for baby-featured bears was examined in three age groups: 4, 6 and 8 year olds. The 6 and 8 year olds significantly preferred baby-featured bears: however, the 4 year olds did not. The evolution of the teddy bear is thus apparently not driven by the ostensible consumer, the young child; the preference for baby features may be part of a wider, relatively late development of nurturant feelings towards young.
Female threespine sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus from a marine population were presented simultaneously with two dummy males that differed in size. When the dummies were moved with a carousel apparatus in a way that roughly simulated a male courtship activity (circling) females responded to the dummies with following behaviour normally directed to courting males. Female sexual response was elicited more effectively by the larger (supernomal) dummy, even though it exceeded by 25% the length of the largest males in the study population. Females did not show complete preference for the larger dummy but allocated courtship effort in proportion to the sizes of the two dummies (Fig. 3). The relative projection areas of the two dummies provided the best predictor of how courtship was allocated between them, suggesting a perceptual basis on which females might select mates. This pattern of partial preference for the supernormal dummy occurred in females that exhibited either high or low amounts of following behaviour and is apparently independent of female responsiveness. Supernormality may therefore provide a mechanism whereby secondary sexual traits can be elaborated, even without evolutionary change in preference for those traits by the opposite sex.
Experimental work using coagulated masturbatory seminal emissions from nine adult male chacma baboons (Papio ursinus)as a dependent variable revealed that males show a greater sexual arousal response to female conspecifics exhibiting exaggerated
perineal swellings. The menstrual cycles of the “superswollen” females did not differ in length or patterning from the controls.
Since additional experimental work, including behavioral observations on females with normal and supersized swellings, failed
to reveal differences in female proceptivity, the male’s increased arousal response appears dependent upon the perineal size per se.The males’ responses suggest that the supersized swellings may be an example of an operational visual supernormal stimulus
and response interaction.
The classic book on human movement in biomechanics, newly updated. Widely used and referenced, David Winter's Biomechanics and Motor Control of Human Movement is a classic examination of techniques used to measure and analyze all body movements as mechanical systems, including such everyday movements as walking. It fills the gap in human movement science area where modern science and technology are integrated with anatomy, muscle physiology, and electromyography to assess and understand human movement. In light of the explosive growth of the field, this new edition updates and enhances the text with: Expanded coverage of 3D kinematics and kinetics. New materials on biomechanical movement synergies and signal processing, including auto and cross correlation, frequency analysis, analog and digital filtering, and ensemble averaging techniques. Presentation of a wide spectrum of measurement and analysis techniques. Updates to all existing chapters. Basic physical and physiological principles in capsule form for quick reference. An essential resource for researchers and student in kinesiology, bioengineering (rehabilitation engineering), physical education, ergonomics, and physical and occupational therapy, this text will also provide valuable to professionals in orthopedics, muscle physiology, and rehabilitation medicine. In response to many requests, the extensive numerical tables contained in Appendix A: "Kinematic, Kinetic, and Energy Data" can also be found at the following Web site: www.wiley.com/go/biomechanics.
High-heeled shoes cause postural changes, a loss in foot function, and increased shock loadings during gait, which must be compensated by accommodations in the kinematics of body segments proximal to the feet. The hypothesis tested in this study was that there are differences in the three-dimensional kinematics of the tibia, knee, hip, pelvis, trunk, and upper trunk between low-heeled and high-heeled gait. Gait analysis of 14 subjects showed that during high-heeled gait subjects walked more slowly (p less than .001), had shorter stride lengths (p less than .001), and had higher stance time percentages (p less than .05). Kinematically, high-heeled gait compared to low-heeled gait, was characterized by significantly increased knee flexion at heelstrike (5.4 degrees vs 2.1 degrees, p less than .05) and during stance phase (22.6 degrees vs 19.2 degrees, p less than .05). During swing phase, high-heeled gait, compared to low-heeled gait, resulted in significantly lower knee flexion (66.1 degrees vs 72.1 degrees, p less than .05) and hip flexion (33.5 degrees vs 34.8 degrees, p less than .05). The range of motion of the pelvis in the sagittal plane was slightly lower in high-heeled gait than in low-heeled gait (7.0 degrees vs 7.9 degrees, p less than .05). No significant differences between low-heeled and high-heeled gait were found in the motions of the pelvis and trunk in the frontal and transverse planes. Statistical tests of intrasubject variability of angles of gait showed that five repeated trials were adequate for analysis of the tibia and knee in all planes of motion and for the hip in frontal and transverse planes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The effect of gender on specific joint biomechanics during gait has been largely unexplored. Given the perceived, subjective, and temporal differences in walking between genders, we hypothesized that quantitative analysis would reveal specific gender differences in joint biomechanics as well. Sagittal kinematic (joint motion) and kinetic (joint torque and power) data from the lower limbs during walking were collected and analyzed in 99 young adult subjects (49 females), aged 20 to 40 years, using an optoelectronic motion analysis and force platform system. Kinetic data were normalized for both height and weight. Female and male data were compared graphically and statistically to assess differences in all major peak joint kinematic and kinetic values. Females had significantly greater hip flexion and less knee extension before initial contact, greater knee flexion moment in pre-swing, and greater peak mechanical joint power absorption at the knee in pre-swing (P < 0.0019 for each parameter). Other differences were noted (P < 0.05) that were not statistically significant when accounting for multiple comparisons. These gender differences may provide new insights into walking dynamics and may be important for both clinical and research studies in motivating the development of separate biomechanical reference databases for males and females.
For 250 years medical scientists have propagandized about the health hazards of high-heeled shoes, which originated four centuries ago. Physicians, however, largely unaware of their own profession's tradition, keep reinventing the diagnostic wheel. This professional amnesia has held back the momentum of the process of educating the public. Consequently, despite these warnings, millions of women continue to wear high-heeled shoes. This article describes the history of the medical profession's recognition of this worldwide health problem and the current understanding of the deleterious and often irreversible biomechanical effects of high-heeled shoewear. The article emphasizes that the reemergence of high heels and of medical interest in them in the third quarter of the 19th century, following their disappearance in the wake of the French Revolution, was associated with increasing pressure by employers to wear such shoes for long hours at work. Although medical scientists have recognized this specifically occupational phenomenon for more than a century, full-scale epidemiological studies may be necessary to bring about substantial social-behavioral change.
EDITORIAL COMMENT
This new section of the journal has been added to provide readers with a broader contact with specific information. In many cases, information which is of interest to the reader but does not conform to the strict peer review guidelines is available. We welcome submissions from our readers with opinions, ideas, or essays that are of interest to the readers of Foot & Ankle International. Lowell D. Lutter, M.D. Editor-in-Chief Foot & Ankle International
Common maxims about beauty suggest that attractiveness is not important in life. In contrast, both fitness-related evolutionary theory and socialization theory suggest that attractiveness influences development and interaction. In 11 meta-analyses, the authors evaluate these contradictory claims, demonstrating that (a) raters agree about who is and is not attractive, both within and across cultures; (b) attractive children and adults are judged more positively than unattractive children and adults, even by those who know them; (c) attractive children and adults are treated more positively than unattractive children and adults, even by those who know them; and (d) attractive children and adults exhibit more positive behaviors and traits than unattractive children and adults. Results are used to evaluate social and fitness-related evolutionary theories and the veracity of maxims about beauty.
The analysis of lower limb movements has been well established in biomechanics research and clinical applications for a long time. For these studies, powerful and very advanced tools have been developed to measure movement parameters and reaction forces. The main focus of interest aims towards gait movements while the understanding of the basic concepts is supported by numerous models. Definitions of physiological ranges and detection of pathological changes in movements open an increasingly valuable clinical field of application. If, however, the primary function of the upper extremities as highly variable and adaptive organ for manipulating tasks is the subject of interest, the situation becomes considerably more complex. The nature of free arm movements is completely different from being restricted, repeatable or cyclic as compared to gait. Therefore, the transfer of the knowledge and experience gained in lower extremity movement analysis to the analysis of upper extremities turns out to be difficult. A proposal for how to proceed in measurements, e.g. where to place the markers and how to calculate movements and angles of segments involved, will be discussed which results in the description of the joint movements of wrist, elbow and shoulder joint. The definition of the motion is a specific step in upper extremity motion analysis which is important in terms of repeatability and significance of the results. An example of assessing movement disorders in children with plexus lesion will illustrate the implications and the potential of upper extremity movement analysis in clinical applications.
Point-light displays of human gait provide information sufficient to recognize the gender of a walker and are taken as evidence of the exquisite tuning of the visual system to biological motion. The authors revisit this topic with the goals of quantifying human efficiency at gender recognition. To achieve this, the authors first derive an ideal observer for gender recognition on the basis of center of moment (J. E. Cutting, D. R. Proffitt, & L. T. Kozlowski, 1978) and, with the use of anthropometric data from various populations, show optimal recognition of approximately 79% correct. Next, they perform a meta-analysis of 21 experiments examining gender recognition, obtaining accuracies of 66% correct for a side view and 71% for other views. Finally, results of the meta-analysis and the ideal observer are combined to obtain estimates of human efficiency at gender recognition of 26% for the side view and 47% for other views.
How to walk in high heels
- C Morton
Morton, C. (2005). How to walk in high heels. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Survival of the prettiest: The science of human beauty
- N L Etcoff
Etcoff, N. L. (1999). Survival of the prettiest: The science of human beauty. New York:
Random House Inc.
Fashion: The key concepts
- J Craik
Craik, J. (2009). Fashion: The key concepts. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Spiritual tattoo: A cultural history of tatooing, piercing, scarification, branding, and implants
- J A Rush
Rush, J. A. (2005). Spiritual tattoo: A cultural history of tatooing, piercing, scarification,
branding, and implants. Berkeley Ca: Frog Ltd.