No Time to "Waist:" Low Waist-to-Hip Ratios Pop Out in Visual Search

Previous research demonstrates that evolutionarily relevant stimuli (e.g., snakes, angry faces) "pop-out" of visual arrays, leading to faster and more accurate identification compared with stimuli that do not impact fitness as strongly. The present study investigated the identification of low (vs. high) waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) using a visual search paradigm: participants searched for a discrepant female torso in matrices of otherwise identical female torsos. Participants viewed 3 x 3 and 5 x 5 matrices of female torsos with low (.70) or high (.90) WHRs and indicated whether a torso with a discrepant WHR was present or absent via a button press. As predicted, participants were faster and more accurate in detecting a low WHR among high WHRs than the reverse; however, results failed to support the predicted interaction whereby matrix size would more strongly affect participants' ability to detect a torso with a discrepant WHR of .90 than .70. These results suggest that female torsos with low WHR readily capture attention but still require serial processing.