1 / 18

Beauty and Attractiveness

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. Approaches to thinking about attractiveness and beauty.

mabli
Télécharger la présentation

Beauty and Attractiveness

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  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

More Related