Avatars Used For Australian Online Sex Appeal Study

An anonymous reader writes "Australian scientists are seeking volunteers online to help them better understand sexual attraction. At a specially created website — www.bodylab.biz — users can go online and make their own ratings of computer-generated avatar images of men and women of greatly varying shapes, sizes, and proportions. The bodyLab team will analyse and compile the results and each month will cull about half of the images — those that are least popular — and virtually 'breed' new body shapes from parent avatars with features rated as most attractive by people taking part in the experiment. Over time, the scientists hope thousands of users will help them work through six or more generations of avatars to narrow down the special combinations of features that make up the 'ideal' body — although they're keeping an open mind about whether several combinations will emerge."

Comments

Well that was obnoxious

[senorbum]

Its honestly quite difficult to tell which grey cartoon body model is more attractive. I tried doing it, but I really just felt like I was making the ratings up...There are a few that looked like ogres that I could tell weren't attractive to me, but honestly that was about it.

Re:Well that was obnoxious

[Fluffeh]

so what would the point be?

Yeah, I did it too, what a horrible bunch of models. It seems as if the whole thing only has one sliding scale for inflating the model.

Also, the site just timed out three times when I tried to get their "overall progress" stats due to a sql timeout error. Stay classy bodylab.

Re:Well that was obnoxious

[Shadow of Eternity]

Well that solves it then. We're all grading overweight titless hobbits with scoliosis.

Re:Slashdotted.

[kainosnous]

And so now there are a ton of nerds going off to see if they can remember what a real woman looks like. I think we may have just spoiled their test. After a few days the results will show that the ideal woman is a Japanese cat-like alien creature with a built in modem and touchscreen. I guess the next questions would be "Does she run Linux?"

Misleading

[Anonymous Coward]

The test really was seeing how attractive fat women are to most people. None of the figures were what I'd consider thin and only one wasn't obviously fat. They were various shapes of fat but still fat. There are lots of body types that aren't fat. They'd save 10 minutes of the testers time to first find out do you find fat women attractive. If yes proceed otherwise you are now finished with the test.

That's not how men work

[AftanGustur]

A normal guy wouldn't rate a woman 0-10 in his head, but rather a "yes" or a "no",
Also. this "experiment" while interesting doesn't count for men getting horny, looking at pictures of naked women makes us horny, after a while our "reptilian brain" takes over and almost everything looks attractive.

It would be interesting to measure that in the data ... How after 5-8 clicks, every fat blob gets increased sex appeal.

Re:That's not how men work

[kramerd]

I would assume because most of us have seen existing things and because of alcohol or inability to determine the differences at a glance (because the girlfriend was there and staring is unacceptable under such circumstances), we actually believe that digitally enhanced model is not only possible, but exists at the local pub.

By the way, you don't have to be married to find unattractive people as such. Most husbands didnt choose to get married because their wives rivaled models (in fact, relationships based on looks alone are either quite empty or about to end, or both).

On the other hand, when couples watch adult content, it often improves relationships. I don't know how to explain that, it must be biological. It even works if the heterosexual couple watches two girls go at it (I can't speak for whether watching two guys go at it helps a relationship, as I have neither scientific study nor personal experience).

I have no idea why you get depressed by the fact that technology allows us to create images of more perfect beings than ourselves...personally, I enjoy it.

Re:That's not how men work

[goose-incarnated]

You seem to have no idea about what people find attractive beyond your own opinion. I find slightly overweight or fat girls more attractive than skinny girls, especially those stereotyped "pretty" girls generally found in advertisement. My gf is slim but has fatty skin which I find extremely attractive.

Firstly, I don't need to have any idea about what you, personally, find attractive. What I know is what the majority of people find attractive. Of course there are outliers, but outliers don't invalidate the phrase "What most people find attractive"

Secondly, it's not actual weight or fat that makes a certain body unattractive, it's the general shape. Women need to have some sort of hourglass-sh figure. Last I checked, for women the ideal ratio of chest:waist:hip was 1:0.7:1 (or similar). There is a similar ratio that applies to men (shoulders:hip).

Basically, feel free to be any shape you want, but don't dare bitch that fewer people find that shape unattractive. It takes work and willpower to look good, and if you have neither don't bitch that the people who do expend the effort don't find you attractive. If you want to be attractive to a larger portion of the population, hey, then do the fucking work.

Skin quality is a factor

[TheLink]

Grey matte skin = bad. I won't be surprised if most human males don't find grey matte "plastic" mannequins super sexy, no matter how wonderfully shaped they are.

Skin appearance does help in determining the fertility: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4396230.stm