Public Perception of Ideal Breast Shape

Abstract

Abstract Background In the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in trends related to body-shaping procedures. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, nearly 300,000 breast augmentation procedures were conducted in 2019. Learning the ideal shape of a breast and which esthetics lead to public perception of the most attractive breast is beneficial to properly performing these procedures. Objectives The authors aimed to quantify the public’s perception of attraction to breast shape by measuring public opinion for various esthetic elements of breast anatomy and linking this to various demographic factors. Methods Survey responses were collected from 1000 users of Amazon Mechanical Turk to collect demographic data and ask users to rank preferences for randomized image panels of breast proportions. Results 960 responses were used for analysis. A majority of respondents were male (60%), with a plurality being 25 to 34 years old (49.3%). The most notable preferences between all groups were breast projection proportion and nipple direction, with preferences of 1.0 and frontal nipple direction, respectively. Breast width to shoulder width ratio also had a clear preference among the crowd, with 105% being the preferred percentage, and the 25 to 34 age group having a very strong preference for this. Conclusions The authors used a crowdsourcing survey technique with randomized image panels to analyze ideal breast preference using images of various anatomical traits of the female breast. It was concluded that crowdsourcing can be a favorable technique for learning ideal overall preferences for specific anatomy.