It’s a debate that splits the nation – do men prefer bums or boobs?
Many blokes are drawn towards women’s busts, with a preference for celebrities such as Sydney Sweeney and Scarlett Johansson.
But others tend to focus on women’s backsides, showing more attention to stars like Kim Kardashian and Cardi B.
Now, a study has revealed exactly how men prioritise these physical features in romantic partners.
Scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology asked almost 400 men about how important they consider buttocks and breasts in a partner.
And the results revealed a clear preference for bums.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, lead author Professor Mehmet Mehmetoglu said: ‘In our study, buttocks clearly came out on top.
‘Men rated buttocks higher overall than breasts and, more importantly, we consistently found a distinct group of men who strongly preferred buttocks, but no equivalent group who strongly preferred breasts alone.’
‘Highly Body–Oriented’ men reported high ratings for both breasts and buttocks, while ‘Moderarely Body–Oriented’ men showed moderate interest in both features. ‘Buttocks–Oriented’ men had a clear preference for buttocks over breasts, while ‘Body–Unoriented’ men gave low ratings to both
For decades, it’s been known that buttocks and breasts are salient to men across diverse cultural contexts.
However, until now, men’s preferences for one or the other have remained unclear.
To get to the bottom of it, the researchers enlisted 395 men, who were quizzed about their preference.
The results revealed that men fall into four key groups.
‘Highly Body–Oriented’ men (53 per cent) reported high ratings for both breasts and buttocks, while ‘Moderarely Body–Oriented’ men (20 per cent) showed moderate interest in both features.
‘Buttocks–Oriented’ men (18 per cent) had a clear preference for buttocks over breasts, while ‘Body–Unoriented’ men (nine per cent) gave low ratings to both.
Surprisingly, the researchers did not find that any men had a marked preference for breasts over buttocks.
Professor Mehmetoglu said: ‘What surprised me most was what we didn’t find.
Scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology asked almost 400 men about how important they consider buttocks and breasts in a partner. And the results revealed a clear preference for bums (stock image)
‘I had expected that we might also find a distinct “breasts–oriented” group, but we didn’t.
‘Across all the models we tested, a buttocks–oriented group consistently emerged, whereas men who rated breasts highly also tended to rate buttocks highly.
‘This suggests that buttocks may play a more central and independent role in male physical attraction, while breasts may play more of a complementary role.’
While the reason for this preference remains unclear, the researchers suggest that an attraction to buttocks has ‘deeper roots’.
‘The buttocks and surrounding body region may already have served as a visual cue in our pre–human ancestors, long before modern humans appeared,’ Professor Mehmetoglu explained.
‘With the transition to upright walking, however, face–to–face interaction became increasingly important, and one idea is that permanently enlarged female breasts evolved, at least partly, as a sexual signal that was highly visible from the front.’
So, if men prefer women’s bums, what do women like in men?
According to Professor Mehmetoglu, women also pay attention to men’s buttocks and upper bodies.
‘You can get an informal hint of this by looking around a gym,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘Men and women often put different amounts of effort into developing particular parts of their bodies, and some of that may reflect what they believe the opposite sex finds attractive.
‘Of course, the gym is not a scientific experiment, but it gives us an interesting starting point for thinking about which physical characteristics men and women tend to emphasize.’
