Beauty and Attractiveness

1. Beauty and Attractiveness Overview of The Day What influences how we perceive human beauty and attractiveness? Honest signals, handicaps, and asymmetry Facial beauty--theories and controversies Height-to-Head Ratio

2. Approaches to thinking about attractiveness and beauty • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder • Idiosyncratic. What is one person’s passion is anther’s poison • Beauty is culturally determined • Standards of beauty are arbitrarily defined by cultural standards • Beauty is based on evolved psychological mechanisms • All people perceive the same beauty-cues because they are signals of health, fertility and/or good genes

3. What makes someone attractive? • How important is physical appearance? • What are important aspects of physical appearance? • How important is health, robustness, vigor? Why? • How important is socio-psychological similarity (religion, background, interests)? Why? • How important is kindness? Why? • How important is being conscientious & responsible? • How important is intelligence? Why? • How important are wealth and status (potential or current)?

4. Attractiveness Issues in “Stories of Betrayed Love” • Passages regarding what Analia thought Luis Torres might look like, his appearance • Intimacy that developed with the letters • Luis Torres’ character • Would she have fallen in love with the crippled school teacher when she was a young women? • Because she was independent and wealthy, did that affect her perception of what would make a desirable mate? That she already had a child? • Will she and the school teacher get married and have children? • How realistic is this story about attractiveness?

5. Honest Advertisements of Mate Quality • Honest advertisements • Traits that distinguish one same-sex organism from another, that “honestly” advertise good genes and cannot be feigned (or are difficult to feign). • Handicaps • Asymmetry

6. Handicaps • Handicaps are biologically costly traits--they require significant energy to produce and maintain and may reduce pathogen resistance • In human males: large body size and musculature • In females: breast size

7. Handicaps are related to: • Biological robustness • Pathogen resistance • Sex hormone levels • Same-sex competition (for access to members of the opposite sex)

8. Fluctuating Asymmetry (FA) • Morphological traits for which the signed differences have a mean of about zero • foot, ankle, hand, wrist, elbow, ear width, ear and pinky length • Asymmetry results from developmental instability (environmental stress, primarily from pathogens, during development) • Symmetry (lack of FA) signals robustness, resistance to parasites and other pathogens

9. FA is related to • IQ (low FA related to slightly higher IQs) • In men, body mass, physicality, social dominance, and metabolic rate • In women, breast asymmetry is related to number of offspring, having children later in life, marital status; ear symmetry is related to left-side infant cradling • Not related to facial attractiveness

10. Manning’s Theory of Breast Size and Symmetry • Size • Breast size is influenced by fat levels and estrogen • Estrogen and other sex steroids have been implicated in immunosuppression (suppresses immune system) • Less-robust individuals cannot afford large quantities of immunosuppressants (e.g., estrogen)

11. Manning’s Theory of Breast Size and Symmetry • Symmetry • Rapid breast growth during puberty can generate asymmetry • More robust individuals will be able to maintain symmetry during puberty • Breast size and symmetry are honest signals

12. FA and Sexual Behavior • Experiment with barn swallows (tail symmetry) • Men with low FA have: more sexual partners, more extra-pair sex, are chosen more often by women in extra-pair affairs • Not found with women • Women are more likely to have orgasms with low FA men

13. Question for women? • If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, better make an asymmetric man your husband. • Less likely to fool around • Less attractive to other women • More likely to invest in you and your children

14. Controversies • Kalick, et al. study • correlated ratings of photos (facial) with health data. • Facial attractiveness was unrelated to health • Is this evidence debunking the FA theory?

15. What Makes a Face Beautiful? • “Averageness” of features • Symmetry of features • Uniqueness of features • Feminine qualities • fuller lips, larger eyes, shorter length, and rounder jaw

16. Some Theories about Facial Attractiveness • Average features • desirable in women because easier to identify paternity • Unique features • desirable in men because easier to identify paternity • Feminine features • desirable in women--signals high estrogen and fertility • desirable in men--signals a more investing man

17. Height-to-Head Ratio:Another Honest Signal? • Average H-t-H ratio is about 6.5 to 7.0 • NBA stars, 8.6; Top female models, 8.0 • Propaganda art • favorable, 10.0; unfavorable, 5.5 • Reasons why H-t-H ratio is a marker: • honest signal of genotype • height and status • height and maturity

18. Summary • What influences how we perceive human beauty and attractiveness? • Honest signals, handicaps, and asymmetry • Facial beauty--theories and controversies • Height-to-Head Ratio