Podbit · Modern Wisdom
When men are hungry, economically poor, or in famine conditions, they shift toward preferring heavier women. Fat is a caloric bank account — in scarcity, a heavier woman signals fertility reliability and resource access. In abundance, thinness signals youth and nulliparity instead.
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At 48:00 · chapter starts 44:18
Building on the PNAS study, the group examines a well-replicated finding: men primed with scarcity — through hunger, economic hardship, or famine conditions — shift toward preferring heavier women. Macken Murphy frames fat as a caloric bank account and fertility signal: in a famine, a heavier woman can definitely get pregnant while a starving one cannot. Steve Stewart-Williams pushes back, questioning why preferences switch so rapidly with something as minor as being hungry leaving a dining hall. Murphy clarifies these within-person shifts are small (about 10 pounds of preference shift); it's the cross-cultural differences that are dramatic, with some cultures — Jamaica, South Africa's Zulu, St Kitts — finding BMIs in the 30s beautiful. The panel discusses the 'fattening hut' custom in Mauritania, where women before marriage restrict movement and increase caloric intake as a beautification practice, and men reportedly spied on these women as a coveted spectacle. Rob Henderson floats an elegant theory: in any environment, the rarer body type signals conscientiousness — thinness in abundance signals impulse control; heaviness in scarcity signals industriousness.
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