The “trophy wife” trope has been given a modern twist. New research shows that after the wedding, beauty-for-status becomes a two-way street, with both husbands and wives adjusting their looks as income power shifts.
Many would be familiar with the popular culture concept of a “trophy wife,” where a (usually) older man with lots of money, social status, or both weds a (usually) younger, physically attractive woman who serves as a status symbol to enhance his value and masculinity.
A new study by Joanna Syrda, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the School of Management at the University of Bath in the UK, has investigated how changes in one partner’s income compared to their spouse’s – known as relative income – are linked to changes in the other partner’s body mass index (BMI) and physical activity over time. The results might be a little surprising.
“This research shows that the marriage ceremony does not freeze that [trophy wife] bargain in place,” said Syrda. “It continues into the marriage, and both partners do it. When a wife’s share of income rises, her husband slims down. When a husband earns more, she does. The beauty-status exchange lives on – but it has evolved and now it is equal.”
The study builds on the “beauty-status exchange” concept, in which physical attractiveness and social status, often measured by income, can act as “tradeable assets” in relationships. Previous studies have mostly examined this at the start of a relationship – that is, the trophy wife idea – but the current study investigates whether the exchange continues during marriage.
Syrda analyzed 20 years’ worth of data from 3,744 heterosexual, dual-earner married couples aged 18 to 65. The key measures were the wife’s relative income, BMI calculated from both partners’ self-reported height and weight, and self-reported physical exercise frequency. Relative income means one person’s income compared to someone else’s. For example, if a wife earns $60,000 and her husband earns $40,000, her relative income is 60% (she earns 60% of the couple’s total income of $100,000). It differs from absolute income, which is the actual amount of money a person earns. Here, the wife’s absolute income is $60,000. So, while absolute income measures how much money you have, relative income measures how much you have compared to someone else.
The data was examined at two stages: at marriage formation (the “static” beauty-status exchange), and during marriage (the “dynamic” exchange). Syrda found that the trophy wife pattern holds true. That is, wives’ BMI was negatively associated with husbands’ relative income – wealthier men tend to marry slimmer women. Husbands’ BMI is not related to wives’ income, showing a gendered pattern of exchange at the start.
However, during marriage, the pattern became symmetrical. When one spouse’s relative income rose, the other spouse’s BMI fell. This applied to both men and women. It suggests that when one partner gains economic status, the other may consciously or subconsciously increase fitness or weight control to maintain balance in attractiveness and perceived value within the relationship. These effects weren’t explained by changes in absolute income; only relative income mattered.
Syrda observed that when one partner’s relative income increased, the other exercised more often. This supports the idea that changes in BMI were driven by deliberate behavioral adjustments (in effect, more physical activity) rather than just stress or chance. College-educated women showed a stronger link between their income and higher BMI, possibly because high-income professional jobs leave less time for fitness. College-educated men showed a weaker or reversed link: when their wives earned more, they sometimes gained weight, perhaps focusing more on work to reassert status rather than on physical appearance.
“As incomes rise or fall, people respond not just financially but physically, subtly reshaping themselves to preserve what feels like fairness or desirability within the relationship,” Syrda said. “What was once a gendered, one-sided exchange, becomes a mutual process of balance, maintained in part through deliberate changes in fitness routines. These effects are symmetrical and statistically robust – they hold for both men and women.
“And significant shifts in one spouse’s status can destabilize the relationship if the couple fails to adjust accordingly. In that respect, marriage can be modeled as a repeated game in which, at each stage, both partners decide whether to remain married or pursue divorce.”
The study had some limitations. Because the data, which was taken from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), was collected every two years, short-term changes can’t be captured. The sample of newlyweds was smaller, so results about early marriage dynamics might be less precise. BMI is only a rough proxy for attractiveness, it doesn’t account for muscle mass, body shape, or subjective appeal. And, the study only examined straight dual-earner couples, so results might not generalize to other relationships.
Nonetheless, the findings suggest that marriage is a dynamic exchange, in which partners continually rebalance contributions of status and attractiveness over time, not just at the beginning. While the trophy wife stereotype still exists at the marriage stage, within marriages, these exchanges have become more equal, with both men and women responding to income shifts. There are also social shifts to consider.
“The rise of male grooming markets, celebrity fitness influencers, and the normalization of skincare and body image conversations among men all signal a shift: men now invest far more in how they look than previous generations did – economic parity is matched by a new form of aesthetic parity, where both men and women feel motivated to maintain attractiveness,” said Syrda.
The study was published in the journal Economics & Human Biology.
Source: University of Bath
