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Physical attractiveness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Features such as a symmetrical face, full lips, and low waist-hip ratio, are commonly considered physically attractive because they are thought to indicate physical health and high fertility to a potential mate.
Physical attractiveness is the perception of the physical traits of an individual human person as pleasing or beautiful. It can include various implications, such as sexual attractiveness, cuteness, and physique. Judgment of attractiveness of physical traits is partly universal to all human cultures, partly dependent on culture or society or time period, and partly a matter of individual subjective preference.
Despite the existence of universally agreed upon signs of beauty in both genders, both heterosexual and homosexual men tend to place significantly higher value on physical appearance in a partner than women.[1] This can be explained by evolutionary psychology as a consequence of ancestral humans who selected partners based on secondary sexual characteristics, as well as general indicators of fitness (for example, symmetrical features) enjoying greater reproductive success as a result of higher fertility in those partners, although a male's ability to provide resources for offspring was probably signalled less by physical features.[1]
Physical attractiveness can have a significant effect on how people are judged, in terms of employment or social opportunities, friendship, sexual behavior, and marriage.[2] In many cases, humans attribute positive characteristics, such as intelligence and honesty, to attractive people without consciously realizing it. Physical attractiveness is distinct from, but can include, sexual attractiveness. For example, humans often regard children and young individuals — both human and animal — as being highly attractive or "cute" for various reasons, but without sexual attraction.
Contents
* 1 Universal correlates of beauty
* 2 Determinants of male physical attractiveness
o 2.1 Physique
o 2.2 Facial features
o 2.3 Height
* 3 Determinants of female physical attractiveness
o 3.1 Signals of youth
o 3.2 Proportion of body mass to body structure
o 3.3 Waist-hip ratio
o 3.4 Height
o 3.5 Prototypicality as beauty
o 3.6 Skin tone
* 4 Social effects of attractiveness
* 5 See also
* 6 Notes
* 7 References and bibliography
Universal correlates of beauty
Strong correlations between attractiveness and particular physical properties have been found across cultures. Despite significant variation, there nonetheless exists a tremendous degree of agreement among cultures as to what is perceived as attractive when it is associated with human health. Healthier looking skin is universally associated with attractiveness. Infants, who presumably have not yet been affected by culture, tend to prefer the same faces considered attractive by adults.[3] These findings are used to imply that a large part of attractiveness is determined by inborn human nature - not nurture.
[edit] Determinants of male physical attractiveness
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Signals of youth
Actress Karina Bacchi's youthful features, such as full lips and clear skin, add to her physical attractiveness.
Actress Karina Bacchi's youthful features, such as full lips and clear skin, add to her physical attractiveness.
Since a woman's reproductive value declines steadily with age after twenty, evolutionary selection has favored men who are attracted to youth in a mate. One study across 37 cultures showed men desire, on average, a woman 2.5 years younger than themselves for a wife with men in Nigeria and Zambia at the far extreme, desiring their wives to be 6.5 to 7.5 years younger.[12] As men age, they also desire a larger age gap from their mates.
This preference for youth has also lead to a preference of neotenic and youthful-appearing features. Full lips, clear, smooth skin, clear eyes, lustrous hair, and good muscle tone are all viewed as attractive in women.[12] Large breasts have also been shown to be attractive to men in Western societies, with the explanation that larger breasts will more explicitly show the aging process, hence an "honest" indicator of fertility.[18]
Proportion of body mass to body structure
The Body Mass Index (BMI) is another important universal determinant to the perception of beauty.[15] The BMI refers to the proportion of the body mass to the body structure. However, the optimal body proportion is interpreted differently in various cultures. The Western ideal considers a slim and slender body mass as optimal while many historic cultures consider an embonpoint or plump body-mass as appealing. [19] [20] Men don't seem to have evolved to hold a particular build as more attractive, but rather to be drawn to whichever build associates with social status.[20]
However, it should be noted that, in the United States, women overestimate men's preferences for thinness in a mate. In one study, American women were asked to choose what their ideal build was and what they thought the build most attractive to men was. Women chose slimmer than average figures for both choices, though when American men were independently asked to choose the female build most attractive to them, they (the men) chose figures of average build, indicating that women are misled as to how thin men prefer women to be.[20]
The attraction for a proportionate body also influences an appeal for erect posture.[21]
Waist-hip ratio
Main article: waist-hip ratio
Notwithstanding wide cultural differences in preferences for female build, scientists have discovered that the waist-hip ratio (WHR) of any build is very strongly correlated to attractiveness across all cultures.[20] Women with a 0.7 WHR (waist circumference that is 70% of the hip circumference) are usually rated as more attractive by men from European cultures. Such diverse beauty icons as Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and the Venus de Milo all have ratios around 0.7.[22] In other cultures, preferences vary,[23] ranging from 0.6 in China,[24] to 0.8 or 0.9 in parts of South America and Africa,[25][26][27] and divergent preferences based on ethnicity, rather than nationality, have also been noted.[28][29]
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Prototypicality as beauty
See also: Koinophilia
Besides biology and culture, there are other factors determining physical attractiveness. The more familiar a face seems, the more highly it is usually judged to be attractive, an example of the mere exposure effect. Also, when many faces are combined into a composite image (through computer morphing), people usually view the resulting image as more familiar, attractive, and beautiful than the faces that were combined to make the composite.[32] One interpretation is that this shows an inherent human preference for prototypicality. That is, the resultant face emerges with the salient features shared by most faces, and hence becomes the prototype. The prototypical face and features is therefore perceived as symmetrical and familiar. This reveals an "underlying preference for the familiar and safe over the unfamiliar and potentially dangerous".[16] However, critics of this interpretation point out that compositing computer images also has the effect of removing skin blemishes such as scars, and generally softens sharp facial features.
Classical conceptions of beauty are essentially a celebration of this prototypicality. This shows the importance of prototypicality in the judgment of beauty, and also explains the emergence of similarity of the perception of attractiveness within a community or society, which shares a gene pool.
[edit] Skin tone
Another feature is skin color on the spectrum of dark to light. As with most determinants of attractiveness, there are cultural differences: lighter tones are preferred by some cultures, while in others, tanned or darker skin is preferred.[citation needed]
For some time after the Victorian era, lighter skin was preferred, as it was considered a marker of a more "cultured" individual or "gentlewoman" who did not have to engage in outdoor labor.[citation needed]
In the 20th and 21st century Western world, tanned skin has often been considered highly attractive for both men and women. Here, the tan has come to carry with it connotations of having an active outdoor lifestyle or frequent holidays in the sun, thus better (implied) physical health or wealth.[citation needed]
In eastern parts of Asia, including Southeast Asia, this preference for lighter skin remains prevalent. In East Asia in particular, fair skin is associated with youth, since skin darkens with exposure to the sun and aging. This conflation of youth and beauty is not exclusive to East Asia, and can be linked to the phenomenon of neoteny. Thus, sales of skin whitening cosmetic products are popular in East Asia. A preference for fair skin however is not a recent development, and in China, for example, can be traced back to ancient drawings depicting women and goddesses with fair skin tones. In those periods, Chinese brides were often described and praised to suitors as being fair-skinned, a trait usually only associated with girls from royalty or nobility who could afford to stay indoors most of the time.
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