Women are attracted to men with longer legs, apparently

Bridget Jones may have been intimidated by 22-year-old women with “legs up to here”, but according to new research, it’s long legged men who are the real heart breakers.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found that to women, the perfect man owns a pair of legs that make up almost half of his height.

That’s a little longer than average, but only a little, mind you; Jack Skellington isn’t about to become the new Tom Hardy.

Over two studies, the scientists asked 186 American women to mark computer-generated male figures of different proportions out of seven.

The findings published in Royal Society Open Science revealed that those rated as most attractive happened to have legs slightly longer than average.

Why? Because while “averageness” is thought to be a sign of good health, the study’s authors noted, long legs could indicate “reserve capacity”, aka resilience, and fitness.

Very long limbs, on the other hand, “may indicate harmful genetic conditions”, and shorter ones health issues such as heart disease and diabetes.

The researchers concluded “the optimally-attractive leg-to-body ratio is slightly greater than the population average”.

They did, however, see flaws in the kinds of images they showed the women; relatively abstract pictures rather than more natural, 3D body scans.

So they reckoned that their conclusions still were “tentative” and could use backup from other studies.

Which is likely a relief for shorter-legged guys out there.

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