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These researchers stay abreast of breasts.
A new study reveals symmetry may matter more than size when it comes to boob appeal.
While many a plastic surgeon has benefitted from the belief that bigger is better, a team of researchers from the University of Passo Fundo in Brazil found that the “perfect boob” is less about size and more about distribution.
Researchers asked 239 medical students to review a series of three images and select their preferred shape.
The holy trinity of tit pics included different ratios between the upper and lower portions, or poles of the breast: 40/60, 50/50, and 60/40, respectively.
A scant 10% of those surveyed preferred the 60/40 ratio, which boasts a more voluminous upper half and thus the beefiest breast of the lot.
28.9% of respondents gravitated toward the low-hanging fullness of 40/60.
Conversely, 61.1% of students preferred the 50/50 ratio, suggesting a partiality for equal distribution.
These results contradict a 2023 study from New York University that found moderately sized breasts with greater volume in the top half earned higher attractiveness scores among both men and women.
Researchers in this earlier study noted that these tip-top, top-heavy teets had more contour, upper-pole fullness and perk.
In this latest study, researchers found that respondents also had preferences about nipple placement, as nearly 60% of those surveyed opted for a centrally located nip.
Regarding the size difference between the areola and nipple, the largest percentage of research participants (83.68%) preferred a small areola and nipple size.
“The results demonstrated a preference for symmetry patterns compared to those with some pole deviation or angulation,” the researchers wrote in the Brazilian Journal of Plastic Surgery.
The team notes that responses were largely the same across genders, suggesting something of a unified take on breast aesthetics.
“A predominant appreciation for harmonious proportions was observed, especially the 50/50 ratio between the upper and lower poles, the central location of the areola-nipple complex, and the reduced size of the areola and nipple.”
The team is hopeful these results could aid plastic surgeons and inform patient requests, potentially leading to techniques and procedures that prioritize symmetry.
These results also echo larger trends in plastic surgery, as patients increasingly seek a more understated, decidedly less inflated look, exhibited by the uptick in requests for “sweater boobs.”
“Patients used to provide us with inspiration pictures of [well-endowed] women in bikinis or topless, but we’ve noticed a trend of women asking for smaller, more elegant implants,” board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Ryan Neinstein previously told The Post, noting that large implants had been in high demand for the last decade.
“Now women are only going up about one cup size, whereas [in the 2010s] they were going up three and four sizes.”
Still, the preference for petit teets may also serve as a safety measure.
A 2024 study from Texas A&M University revealed that women with larger breasts were more likely to face verbal and indirect aggression from other women.
Researchers reasoned that women with large breasts register as a threat.
“It has been suggested that women have psychological mechanisms that prompt them to compete with other women, primarily in the mating arena,” the team wrote in the study.
“Given the strong importance men place on women’s breast morphology, most notably size, women, in general, are attentive to this factor,” they continued.
“Breast size contributed to rival derogation towards other women, with women with larger breast sizes more likely to be the victims of verbal and indirect aggression.”
Tough titty indeed.
On that tip, a small number of women suffer from symmastia, a real medical condition that can alter the natural shape of the chest, sometimes merging what are typically two distinct breasts into a single, continuous mound.
Also known as “bread-loafing,” it’s a condition where the breasts meet or fuse in the center of the chest, leaving little to no cleavage and creating the appearance of a single “uniboob.”
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