Body Trait Preferences: Breasts vs. Buttocks

Summary (Plain English)

This report looks at what people prefer more — breasts or buttocks — and how interested they are in bodies in general. Here are the main takeaways:

• Singles slightly prefer breasts over buttocks. People who are in a relationship, married, or other slightly prefer buttocks.
• Married people are the most likely to be "Highly Body-Oriented" (very interested in bodies). People in a relationship are most likely to be "Moderately Body-Oriented".
• The statistical model shows that the "Sexy" (valuing sexiness in a partner) factor hugely increases the chance of being Highly Body-Oriented (+229%). Being Aged 22–25 increases the chance of belonging to body-oriented groups. Being in Asia decreases the chance of belonging to body-oriented groups. Being in the Americas increases the chance of being Buttocks-Oriented.
• Materialistic values are linked to higher interest in bodies overall. Intellectual values increase the chance of being Moderately Body-Oriented but slightly decrease the chance of being Highly Body-Oriented. Egalitarian values have little consistent effect.
• In specific subgroups (excluding unknown regions/ages), Europeans aged 31+ show the strongest breast preference. Americans aged 26–30 show the strongest buttocks preference.
• When we group people by their answers (profiles), Asia has a big group that likes both but leans toward breasts. Age 31+ has two big groups: one moderate with a breast lean, and one high on both with a buttocks lean.
• Important: These are patterns in the data, not proof of cause and effect. Some groups are very small, so take those numbers with a grain of salt.

Detailed Findings

1. Trait Preferences by Relationship Status

People rated breasts and buttocks on a scale of 1 to 5 (higher = more preferred). The table shows the average ratings and the difference (breasts minus buttocks). A positive difference means a slight breast preference; a negative difference means a slight buttocks preference.

Interpretation: Singles are the only group that prefers breasts on average, though the difference is tiny. Married people give the highest ratings to both traits overall, meaning they are generally more body-oriented.

2. Class Distribution by Relationship Status

People were grouped into four categories based on their answers: Body-Unoriented (low interest), Buttocks-Oriented (prefer buttocks), Highly Body-Oriented (strong interest), and Moderately Body-Oriented (medium interest). The table shows the percentage of each relationship group that falls into each category.

Interpretation: Married people are the most likely to be "Highly Body-Oriented" (41.1%) and the least likely to be "Body-Unoriented" (6.8%). People in a relationship are most likely to be "Moderately Body-Oriented" (37.5%). The "Other/Unspecified" group has a high "Highly Body-Oriented" share, but there were only 26 people, so this is less reliable.

3. What Increases or Decreases the Chance of Being in Each Group?

A statistical model estimated how much various factors change the chance of being in each body-oriented group compared to the "Body-Unoriented" baseline. The numbers are percentage changes. Positive means more likely, negative means less likely. For example, +50% means the chance is 50% higher.

3.1 How Personal Values Affect Preferences

The model also looked at four personal values. Here is what each means and how they change the chance of being in each body-oriented group (compared to being Body-Unoriented).

Interpretation: Valuing sexiness has by far the strongest effect, especially for the Highly Body-Oriented group (+229%). Materialistic values also increase the chance of being in any body-oriented group. Intellectual values increase the chance of being Moderately Body-Oriented (+33%) but slightly decrease the chance of being Highly Body-Oriented (−8%). Egalitarian values have small and mixed effects.

Note: These are associations, not proof of cause and effect. Large percentages can come from small groups.

4. Subgroups with the Strongest Breast vs. Buttocks Preference

This table shows subgroups (with at least 10 people) where breasts were rated higher than buttocks. A positive "Breast Dominance" means a breast preference; negative means a buttocks preference. Unknown/Unspecified regions and ages have been removed.

Interpretation: Europe 31+ has the strongest breast preference (+0.50). Asia 22–25 and Europe 22–25 also lean breast. The strongest buttocks preference is in Americas 26–30 (−0.69), followed by Europe 26–30 (−0.36) and Africa 26–30 (−0.21).

5. Subgroup Profiles (Latent Profile Analysis)

This method groups people into "profiles" based on their ratings. It helps see natural clusters in the data.

Asia Sub-sample (26 people)

Interpretation: Most people in the Asia sub-sample (17 out of 26) are high on both traits with a slight breast lean. A small group (3 people) is strongly buttocks-oriented. Because the sample is small, these profiles are exploratory.

Age 31+ Sub-sample (106 people)

Interpretation: Among people aged 31+, the largest profile (51 people) is moderate with a breast lean. Another large profile (41 people) is high on both with a buttocks lean. This shows that older adults are not all the same — there are at least two distinct patterns.

6. Caveats and Limitations

Before taking any of the numbers above at face value, it is important to understand how this data was collected and what that means for interpretation.

• Small groups: Some groups have very few people (e.g., Asia N=26, Other/Unspecified N=26, one profile N=3). Their numbers can be unstable.
• Not necessarily causal: These are patterns in the data, not proof that one thing causes another.
• Model numbers: The percentage changes are not the same as probabilities. Large values can come from small groups or the model's starting point.
• Many comparisons: Testing many subgroups increases the chance of finding random patterns.

7. How This Compares to the Original Study

The original study (Mehmetoglu, 2026) surveyed 395 Norwegian men (average age 22.8, mostly single). This replication uses a broader, multi-region sample of about 401 people recruited mostly online through Reddit, Facebook, and survey-exchange sites. That difference matters: the original was one country only; this study is more diverse. So we should expect some differences — and the similarities we do find are more meaningful.

7.1 Class Distribution: Similar Shape, Different Proportions

What this means: Both studies found the same four types of people. That is a strong result — it suggests the four-group pattern is real and not a fluke of one sample. But the exact split differs. The original Norwegian men were mostly "Highly Body-Oriented"; this broader sample is more spread out, with more people in the middle and buttocks-focused groups.

7.2 What Predicts Belonging to Each Group

What this means: The two strongest findings from the original study — that valuing sexiness and valuing material things push people toward body-oriented groups — held up well. The weaker findings did not. In particular, the original study's claim that egalitarian values make people less body-oriented was not supported here. That could be because the samples are so different (Norwegian university men vs. a broader online group) or because the effect was never very strong to begin with.

7.3 Breasts vs. Buttocks: The Central Question

What this means: The original study made a bold claim: that buttocks are the "primary" trait and breasts are "complementary" — because no group ever preferred breasts without also liking buttocks. This replication mostly supports that, but adds a wrinkle. Yes, buttocks-focused groups are stable and easy to find. But this broader sample also reveals breast-leaning profiles in specific places — especially older Europeans and young Asians. That suggests the original's "buttocks first" conclusion may be specific to young Norwegian men, not a universal rule.

7.4 Bottom Line

• What replicated well: The four-class structure, the importance of "Sexy" as a predictor, the link between materialism and body orientation, the stability of a Buttocks-Oriented group, and the general tendency for buttocks to matter more than breasts.
• What did not replicate: The strong negative effect of egalitarianism, and the claim that no breast-oriented group exists.
• Why the differences? The original was 395 Norwegian men from a university; this study is a broader online sample recruited mostly via Reddit, Facebook, and survey-exchange sites — different people with different backgrounds.
• Overall: The core findings of the original study hold up. The four "types" of body preference are real and appear in both samples. The details — how big each group is, and which values push people into them — shift depending on the sample.

Note: This comparison is limited by differences in sample composition, size, and measurement. Direct numerical comparisons should be read with care.

Raw Data

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