Environmental Security Hypothesis

As the credit crunch bites, I naturally turn to Terry F. Pettijohn, II and Brian J. Jungeberg in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 9, 1186-1197 (2004) and their groundbreaking "Playboy Playmate Curves: Changes in Facial and Body Feature Preferences Across Social and Economic Conditions":

Past research has investigated ideals of beauty and how these ideals have changed across time. In the current study, facial and body characteristics of Playboy Playmates of the Year from 1960-2000 were identified and investigated to explore their relationships with U.S. social and economic factors. Playmate of the Year age, body feature measures, and facial feature measurements were correlated with a general measure of social and economic hard times. Consistent with Environmental Security Hypothesis predictions, when social and economic conditions were difficult, older, heavier, taller Playboy Playmates of the Year with larger waists, smaller eyes, larger waist-to-hip ratios, smaller bust-to-waist ratios, and smaller body mass index values were selected. These results suggest that environmental security may influence perceptions and preferences for women with certain body and facial features.

Key Words: facial features • body features • physical appearance • physical attraction • environmental security.

Smaller eyes?! Beachcomber! thou shoulds't be living at this hour: England hath need of thee.

Pamela Anderson is probably undergoing ocular reduction surgery as we speak, though I retain a suspicion that Pettijohn and Jungeberg pledge Delta Tau Chi.