Do Men Actually Prefer Big Butts?

Regardless of the size of your rump, you may wonder why men love big butts (or at least they do according to Kardashian fans and Sir Mixalot. Well, science has somewhat of answer, and it may be a little surprising (like, more about their hard-wired DNA and less about the ubiquity of Nicki Minaj). Certainly there’s a predisposition for the “ideal” body type to fluctuate with the times, as evidenced by BuzzFeed recent “Ideal Body Types Throughout History,” but there’s actually no inherent favoritism for larger derrieres — yes, even despite whatever your guy friends tell you.

In a study published by Evolution and Human Behavior, researchers at University of Texas at Austin decided to test their theory that men’s preferences have evolutionary roots. To do this, they presented about 100 men with silhouettes of women with varying lumbar curvature and asked them to choose the one they most preferred. Overwhelmingly, the men chose the silhouette of a woman whose curvature slanted at 45 degrees. The 45 degree, of course, creates the illusion of a larger behind (though in a separate study, they presented men with silhouettes of varying butt sizes and they, again, chose the ones with 45 degree curvatures despite the actual size).

But what the heck does spinal curvature have to do with anything?

“This spinal structure would have enabled pregnant women to balance their weight over the hips,” said lead researcher and Bilkent University psychologist David Lewis in a statement. “These women would have been more effective at foraging during pregnancy and less likely to suffer spinal injuries. In turn, men who preferred these women would have had mates who were better able to provide for fetus and offspring, and who would have been able to carry out multiple pregnancies without injury.”

Better gatherers, and therefore healthier children. Survival of the fittest...lumbar curve. Think about it like this: when you stick your butt out and bend your back, it kind of seems bigger, no? But the good news is that dudes -- despite our weird social conditioning to like certain body characteristics over others -- are more inclined to prefer optimal back curves over actual curves. Because science.