When it comes to assessing how attractive a person is, women are the harshest judges - judging their overweight peers more acutely than men do

When it comes to assessing how attractive a person is, women judge their overweight peers more harshly than men, a study has revealed.

Furthermore, while men do not judge their heavier peers negatively, they still see overweight women as less attractive.

The first study of its kind set out to assess the relationship between gender, a person's BMI and the notion of 'attractiveness'.

Professor Sonia Oreffice, of the University of Surrey, said: 'When it comes to "beauty", being an overweight woman is judged negatively by both sexes whereas men are a lot more forgiving towards each other.'

Her team, working with researchers at the University of Oxford, noted their findings provide insight into associated wage inequality.

When the findings are applied to wage trends, there is evidence that a person's size plays a significant role in wages - with those deemed less attractive likely to earn less.

The researchers note body size cannot be dismissed as a simple component of beauty.

They found female interviewers would judge both men and women with higher BMIs as being less attractive.

In contrast, men would judge their fellow gender much less harshly.

'There is a wealth of research that shows how beauty is related to socioeconomic detriment, from schooling to crime and wages,' said Professor Oreffice.

'Similar research also explores the negative correlation with BMI.

'But what this new study has shown is that weight is intrinsically linked to attractiveness and that women are the harshest judges, and the most harshly judged.

'Perhaps BMI is not able to distinguish fat from muscular mass, and this is particularly important for male BMI.'

The researchers took this relationship between body size and beauty, and applied it to patterns of wages.

Body size, height for both men and women, and BMI for men only helps explain wages above and beyond beauty, even when other factors were taken into consideration.

Professor Oreffice said: 'While we are not entirely surprised with the results that correlate BMI and attractiveness, what is remarkable is that gender of the interviewer makes a difference and that body size matters for wages not simply as proxy for beauty.'

Researchers said they hope their study prompts future studies to consider and account for the gender of the interviewer in any beauty analysis.

The study was published in the journal Economics and Human Biology.