Why a glimpse of curvy women is like a drug for men

MEN have been handed the perfect excuse for admiring a curvy woman – they can’t help themselves.

Men are hard wired to enjoy looking at women like Kelly Brook Men are hard-wired to enjoy looking at women like Kelly Brook

Male brains are programmed to find shapely women attractive, according to scientists. In fact, the curves of a woman such as actress Kelly Brook have the same effect on them as alcohol or drugs.

When scientists studied the part of the brain associated with reward, they found men had an in-built desire to find curvier women more attractive, and this gave them a naturally “addictive” high.

This could help explain the enduring appeal of voluptuous sex symbols – from Marilyn Monroe in the Fifties to Jennifer Lopez and Katherine Jenkins today.

Researchers measured a group of men’s responses to images of seven shapely women. They tested them again after the women had cosmetic surgery to remove fat from their waists and add it to their bottoms.

The men, who had an average age of 25, showed raised levels of brain stimulus when looking at photographs of the women after the surgery. While they had the same amount of body fat, the women’s new figures displayed the classic hourglass low waist-to-hip ratio, which is associated with fertility and overall health.

The post-surgery images activated a region in the men’s brains associated with positive reward responses to drugs and alcohol.

The pre-surgery pictures did not activate these areas, suggesting that women with the optimum figure stimulate brain centres that drive male desire.

The results may explain why men enjoy pictures depicting women with hourglass figures, such as those commonly used in adult magazines.

Dr Steven Platek, co-author of the research, said the findings showed “boys’ brains go bananas over bootylicious bodies”. A bio- psychologist at the Georgia Gwinnett College in America, he said: “We discovered a key secret to sexual attraction and why men can sometimes not help themselves from looking at a woman – their brains are programmed that way.

“The number of zeroes in Hugh Hefner’s bank account show that men enjoy looking at women’s bodies. But there’s more to it than buying Playboy, Maxim or FHM.

“The results indicate that men’s brains may be literally hard-wired to be more attracted to the specific waist-to-hip ratio that more likely offers a healthy mate with high fertility and who can produce healthy children.

“This is the first evidence of a neurobiological basis for this attraction.” The findings, published in the journal PLoS One, could help scientists explain why some men develop addictions to pornography, and why others have affairs.