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The last decade has witnessed an exciting change in our understanding of what makes the human body beautiful, and why certain bodies are idealised over others. The traditional idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, with preferences varying idiosyncratically from person to person, has been challenged by evolutionary psychologists, who argue that human beings share an eye for an attractive body. Yet, not everyone is in agreement: cross-cultural evidence suggests that there may indeed be differences in what is termed an attractive body. Moreover, social psychologists stress that preferences emerge early in development, with children as young as four or five years old mirroring core cultural assumptions about what is an attractive body. These findings raise intriguing questions about bodily attractiveness; just what are these preferences, why do we have them, and how did we get them? This volume brings together seminal work from evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives, to explore these questions in a fresh perspective.