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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."

35 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Well that was obnoxious by senorbum · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Well that was obnoxious by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Informative

      They were all unattractive to me. Maybe they're starting from the bottom and working their way up but it seems to me that would indicate they didn't randomly choose the initial parameters of the models, so what would the point be?

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:Well that was obnoxious by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

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    3. Re:Well that was obnoxious by InfoJunkie777 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      I think you may have proved the point of the study. It is a study of body type perception. Many DID look similar, but I tried my best to be honest and rate it according my preference. Whether that is a general perception, the study will no doubt determine over time.

      --
      Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin. -- Robert A. Heinlein
    4. Re:Well that was obnoxious by mwvdlee · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The results of this experiment will be a perfectly statistical model of the ideal female for 20-30 year old guys living in their parents' basement who could only dream of even the ugliest of those bodies.

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    5. Re:Well that was obnoxious by pushf+popf · · Score: 3, Funny

      I like a woman with curves, but everybody they showed me looked like "Land of The Giants" or The Thing That Ate The Buffet. I didn't give anybody more than zero.

      The last few looked big enough to pick up the Volkswagen and toss it like a Tonka toy.

    6. Re:Well that was obnoxious by Illogical+Spock · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Rating females, the only real differences I could spot was the proportion between waist and hip and the overall chubiness in each model. I couldn't spot any breast size differences, nor any other detail that could led me to prefer this or that model.

      I could rate them in a logical way, but based only in these two characteristics. But, in the real world, I can say that sometimes I see women that would be rated +3 if they were just a grey body in my screen, but due to her face, lack of charm, etc, In fact don't arouse me at all. And, in the other hand, I can remember some slightly-to-moderate chubby girls that drove me crazy for being beauties, or very sexy, or just plain sexual.

      That said, I really believe this experiment will only work if they have ther phases where we can rate complete models, not just outlines. And where breats sizes and ass sizes change. ;-)

      --
      --- Illogical Spock
    7. Re:Well that was obnoxious by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Funny
      Vote for the ugliest, most unattractive, most disgusting. Lets see them analyze THAT!

      It's easy. If it's too fat or too skinny, click on the +2. If it's decent, click on the -2. throw in some -3 and +1/-1 at random. If it looks like the prototypical slashdotter or Steve Balmer, click on +3.

    8. Re:Well that was obnoxious by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 2, Interesting

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

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
  2. Desperately seeking Rosanne Barr Aliens by linzeal · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think what is happening is that the grey aliens are getting older, fatter and more lonely since being captured at Area 51 and exposed to a high fat and sedentary American superspy lifestyle. With this study they hope to find the ip addresses of those attracted to grey blobs and abduct you later tonight for a little probing.

  3. The posture makes all the models unattractive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I tried rating 4 different sets of models and I just couldn't find any that I could honestly rate above a 0. No matter what sized model I was shown, it seemed like there was something decidedly strange, disproportionate unattractive about their characteristics.

    Then it hit me: It's the posture. The "blender pose" is just not a way that real humans go around holding their body. It seems fake, shows off all the wrong parts of the body, and exaggerates features of the model that would appear normally proportioned in a regular standing pose.

    Given that (imo) gaping flaw in the dataset, I predict this will turn out to be another junk project that spawns CNN headlines like "Scientists find the perfect bodytype, and it's not what you expect!".

  4. Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Okay ladies, whose more attractive? Fudd or Sam? What would their kids look like? A cartoon Hot or Not. Is this for some masters student's thesis?

    1. Re:Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam by wvmarle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well coming to think of it, they may get better results by showing two models each time, and then to ask you to choose which one is the more attractive of the two.

  5. Dang... by flyingfsck · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where did they get those pics of me???

    --
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    1. Re:Dang... by What+the+Frag · · Score: 5, Funny

      Full-body scanners from the airport?

    2. Re:Dang... by linzeal · · Score: 2, Funny

      Are they all of TSA employees? The male genitalia looks to be of interest mostly to medical journals, freak shows and collectors of diminutive Japanese male penis Polaroids.

  6. Re:Slashdotted. by kainosnous · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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?"

    --
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  7. Re:All the feet were messed up. by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think the car was to give you a sense of height.

  8. Re:All the feet were messed up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    On some models, also width.

  9. Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  10. That's not how men work by AftanGustur · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
    1. Re:That's not how men work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Since when is there a no?

    2. Re:That's not how men work by kramerd · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

    3. Re:That's not how men work by goose-incarnated · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

      --
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  11. Re:All the feet were messed up. by linzeal · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought it was to check if you could fuck the person you were looking at in the back of a VW bug.

  12. Women run OpenBSD by linzeal · · Score: 3, Funny

    Women are far more arcane than Linux, I would wager many of my ex-gfs ran OpenBSD because by default their ports were all closed.

  13. They are doing it wrong by DeadboltX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You should be shown 2 or more models at a time and be asked to choose the best looking one. Rating each one individually on a scale is worthless.

  14. Bah. You all got it wrong. by Anachragnome · · Score: 3, Funny

    Bah. You all got it wrong.

    If you look closely, you can see a watermark-like image of a Volkswagen Beetle behind the models.

    This made things much easier. I simply imagined trying some heavy-petting in the back seat with each model. That instantly ruled out the models with gigantism, the Ogres and left exactly one model with a snowballs chance in hell...and she still got a -1.

    In all seriousness, the second time I tried it I got different results. I actually rated one of the models a +1 on the second time. Probably because she didn't look like she was on a diet of pure corn-syrup and might actually fit in the car.

  15. Where are the /b/rothers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You all know what will happen.
    Some Anonymous Coward will post this to 4chan.

    And then the hambeast will be chosen as the most beautiful body type.

  16. that was fugly by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Funny

    God, only one time there was a 0 rating from me, everything else was -3, -2 and -1 and honestly, I did not like a single one of them, how do they come up with these models, did they take the LOTR Orcs or something?

  17. Gosh, I think I can predict the outcome by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The final figure will be of a women of normal enough proportions not to give serious artifacts in the base model being stretched but as slim as possible.

    That is the problem with trying to use base model for all body types you want to create. You can't because the curves don't curve. It is why TES (Fallout 3) has whole body replacers and 3d renders have a lot of different body types made by third parties. Because you can't just take a full figured body and turn it into a slim one with things looking odd.

    It is also known that standing straight up like this is both unnatural and unattractive. There is a reason Playboy never uses a pose like this and only the most hardup jack-off to medical/photograph reference books.

    The ideal "western" body type is already well known. Bar the fatty lovers, on the whole men tend to prefer women that do not get harpooned when they go swimming in the sea. What a suprise.

    this experiment would be a whole lot more intresting if they had generated better bodies, not just stretch one base model into freaks (some of the builds are impossible, I seen several females with a inward crotch where as even slender women tend to curve out there).

    You would get a better result with displaying all the playmaters from Playboy, then you could get a real feeling for how tastes changed. But that study already has been done by the editors, you can see the body shape changing over the years. Tit size has also gone down. When they could show more of the rest, the size of the tits got less important and since big tits are basically fat, this means the body weight could go down as well.

    Don't they have Playboy in Australia? Would explain a lot.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  18. Skin quality is a factor by TheLink · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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

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  19. Broader implications by gillbates · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I guess that beauty isn't really in the eye of the beholder anymore. I'm reticent to rate anyone in this study because I don't see anything good coming of it.

    In the first place, science has no place rating attractiveness. Beauty is *supposed* to be subjective, not objective. Imagine, for a moment if how someone might feel if their body shape had been *scientifically proven* unattractive. Nothing good can come of this.

    Speaking of nothing good, we've seen how women are especially sensitive to body image. Normally, it's been an anecdotal thing, but this could be a cosmetic marketer's wet dream come true. The entire cosmetics industry - including cosmetic surgery - relies heavily on women being unable to see themselves as naturally beautiful; if there was some ostensibly *objective* way of showing a woman to be, shall we say, less-than-optimally-attractive, there would of course arise a large demand for whatever product or service "corrected" the problem. Instead of seeing the natural variety in body shape, they'd all appear about the same. Which would frustrate the many men and women who find society's idea of an attractive body, well, rather plain and uninteresting.

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    1. Re:Broader implications by evilviper · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I guess that beauty isn't really in the eye of the beholder anymore.

      It never was. You're buying into a myth, and claiming we shouldn't do anything to up-end that same myth.

      Scientists have known for many years that beauty is directly related to body proportions, and symmetry. While we get examples of overweight people, or those with massive rings in their lips being attractive, that is really an example of wealth being attractive, and unrelated to beauty.

      Imagine, for a moment if how someone might feel if their body shape had been *scientifically proven* unattractive.

      I fail to see why some teen-aged girl is going to logically evaluate a scientific study, and then have some extremely emotional reaction, stronger than she would about her peers laughing and whispering about her... Your premise makes no sense, and your political correctness/think of the children circuit has gone haywire.

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  20. the faces did it for me by ciaran_o_riordan · · Score: 2, Funny

    > I couldn't pick out any attractive ones because their faces were all pixelated!

    And? I'm into that. I gave them all 3s.