A scientific study has found that men who experience hunger or financial insecurity are more likely to find larger female breasts attractive.
The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, was conducted by psychologists Viren Swami and Martin J. Tovée. It explored whether breast size may act as a visual cue linked to fat reserves or access to resources, and whether men facing resource scarcity show stronger preferences for larger breast sizes.
Two separate studies were carried out in Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
In the first study, 266 men from rural, semi-urban, and urban areas in Malaysia—representing low, middle, and high socioeconomic backgrounds—were shown computer-generated images of women with varying breast sizes. Participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of each image.
Results revealed a clear socioeconomic trend: men from low-income rural areas preferred larger breasts, and those from middle-income towns preferred medium to large sizes. In contrast, men from high-income urban areas favoured smaller to medium sizes.
The researchers concluded that lower financial security was associated with a stronger preference for larger breast size.
The second study examined hunger rather than income. In the UK, 124 male university students were divided into two groups—those who were hungry and those who had recently eaten. Under identical conditions, hungry participants consistently rated larger breast sizes as more attractive than those who were satiated.
According to the researchers, both short-term hunger and long-term economic conditions influenced attraction, suggesting that perceptions of physical attractiveness are flexible and shaped by social and environmental factors rather than being fixed
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