Most girls dream of that handsome stranger who will come in and sweep them off their feet, but if new studies are to be believed, it may not be that good an idea.
It turns out that women with attractive husbands are more likely to develop an eating disorder.
The research by Florida State University found out that wives who crash-diet to slim down are mostly driven to do so because they feel that their better-halves are better looking than them.
On the other hand, the men are rarely motivated to do the same, regardless of how attractive they might consider their wives to be.
"The results reveal that having a physically attractive husband may have negative consequences for wives, especially if those wives are not particularly attractive," said Tania Reynolds, a post doctoral student at Florida State University in the US.
According to Reynolds, understanding how women’s relationships affect their dietary decisions and reasons behind unhealthy eating habits would help them better assist such women.
Researchers examined 113 newly-wed couples - married less than four months, average age late 20s, living in the Dallas area in the US - who agreed to be rated on their attractiveness.
Each participant answered a questionnaire focusing in part on their desire to diet or have a thin body.
A full-body photograph was taken of every participant and rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Two teams of undergraduate evaluators studied the photos: one focused on spouses' facial attractiveness, while another looked at body attractiveness.
Previous research has shown that women tend to over- perceive just how thin their partners want them to be and, as a result, may inappropriately pursue dieting and a thin body.
"If we understand how women's relationships affect their decision to diet and the social predictors for developing unhealthy eating behaviours, then we will be better able to help them," Reynolds said.
The study was published in the journal Body Image.
