Men do not tend to negatively judge other men who are heavier, however they do view heavier women as being less attractive, a new study has found.

UK researchers set out to assess the relationship between body mass index (BMI), attractiveness and gender.

They found that overall, women tend to be judged harsher by both men and women if they are heavier. However, women also tend to judge others more harshly.

In general, women judged both men and women with higher BMIs as less attractive. Men also tended to judge women with higher BMIs as less attractive, but when it came to their own gender, they were less harsh.

"This is the first study that looks at the relationship between BMI and attractiveness from both gender's perspective. When it comes to ‘beauty', being an overweight woman is judged negatively by both sexes, whereas men are a lot more forgiving towards each other," commented Prof Sonia Oreffice of the University of Surrey.

She noted that a lot of research suggests that beauty ‘is related to socioeconomic detriment, from schooling to crime to wages'. For example, more attractive people have been shown to have a higher earning potential.

"Similar research also explores the negative correlation with BMI, but what we have shown is that weight is intrinsically linked to attractiveness and that women are the harshest judges and most harshly judged.
"While we are not entirely surprised with the results that correlate BMI and attractiveness, what is remarkable is that gender of the interviewer makes a difference," Prof Oreffice added.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Economics and Human Biology.