Cross-Cultural Investigation of Male Gait Perception in Relation to Physical Strength and Speed

Frontiers in Psychology. 2017. Vol. 8. No. 1427. P. 1–6.

Butovskaya M.

Previous research documents that men and women can accurately judge male physical
strength from gait, but also that the sexes differ in attractiveness judgments of strong
and weak male walkers. Women’s (but not men’s) attractiveness assessments of strong
male walkers are higher than for weak male walkers. Here, we extend this research
to assessments of strong and weak male walkers in Chile, Germany, and Russia. Men
and women judged videos of virtual characters, animated with the walk movements
of motion-captured men, on strength and attractiveness. In two countries (Germany
and Russia), these videos were additionally presented at 70% (slower) and 130%
(faster) of their original speed. Stronger walkers were judged to be stronger and more
attractive than weak walkers, and this effect was independent of country (but not
sex). Women tended to provide higher attractiveness judgments to strong walkers, and
men tended to provide higher attractiveness judgments to weak walkers. In addition,
German and Russian participants rated strong walkers most attractive at slow and fast
speed. Thus, across countries men and women can assess male strength from gait,
although they tended to differ in attractiveness assessments of strong and weak male
walkers. Attractiveness assessments of male gait may be influenced by society-specific
emphasis on male physical strength.

Keywords: physical attractiveness, physical strength, handgrip, male