Congruency and accuracy of body build perceptions in dating couples

Sixteen dating couples gave body build profiles for self, date, and the expected view of self by date along Sheldon's three physique components of endomorphy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy. Correlations of these body build profiles indicated that daters had a greater need for the partner to support their own body build concept than they did that the partner match their body build concept. In comparison to social judgments, makes had distorted perceptions of the endomorphy component in self and date. Females had very accurate self-perceptions, although they erred in the direction of perceiving their partner as matching a male ideal body build. Body build perceptions also related to several measures of dating attraction.