I recently read “Setting Free The Crabs” by Barbara Kingsolver and was left wondering what it is about pretty objects that humans find so appealing. There are a handful of other animals and birds like weasels and magpies who are attracted to shiny, pretty things too, but most animals don’t seem to care one way or the other. What is it about us - and those few other species - that makes us covet pretty things? Is there a psychological explanation? Or one for why we perceive things as attractive in the first place?
For one thing, we are a lot smarter than everything else when it comes to higher perception. I think it’s more accurate to say things to which we are attracted are pretty–i.e. the prettiness is not an attribute independent of our perception.
In the animal world color and physical flamboyance seem to be prominent in choosing a mate, so I’m not sure I’d be too dismissive of non-human ability to perceive “pretty.” With respect to decorative objects at least, we associate pretty with precious, precious with special, and the drive to be special seems a part of our genes–perhaps related in some way to successful reproduction.
>I think it’s more accurate to say things to which we are attracted are pretty–i.e. the prettiness is not an attribute independent of our perception.
Yes. I’m with Chief. Substitute its near synonym “attractive” and you’re asking why we are attracted by things that are attractive.
It’s another question why the attributes that seem attractive to us do so. I suspect there are various evolutionary reasons.
I just read about an ingredient in some fruits - an antioxidant or a vitamin or an amino acid or something - which is high in fruits having a certain ultraviolet color. Birds that need this ingredient find that color attractive.
There are probably a zillion mechanisms like that at work, for all of us.
Define “pretty”.
OG knows I can’t.
But I bet you know it when you see it.
Like the saying goes, pretty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.
Just speculating, but it could be a self-propogating phenomenon. For example, in a world where people value shiny things, it’s arguably to one’s advantage to value shiny things - for example by picking up a trinket that one finds lying around.
Are we attracted to pretty things or do we define the things we are attracted to as “pretty”?
I have often pondered on this. Why do we find things, some that are quite common, such as sunsets or butterflies, more appealing than spiders or muddy puddles?
I don’t know. Some may argue aesthetics need balance or rhythm, but there are always examples that run counter to that.
It certainly isn’t humans alone. We tend to judge this critter rather elegant - but so does a female loon. And that we find this flower appealing is probably less important (though perhaps not less interesting) than the fact that certain insects do.
When I was younger, I was attracted to “pretty things” because I wanted to have sex with them. 
It is because of that human beings can think the good and bad side of every things.If a good thing find they will be more attracted towards it.I think animals also have the same habit.
I think the ‘prettiness’ must represent something in the mind of the viewer.
Health, evolutionarily speaking for animals including us. And perhaps more than the animal aspect of our humanity when you figure in social stuff, fantasies, Freudian urges, etc.
Stay the hell away from my roses. 
I think we define the things we are attracted to as “pretty”.
Because if we are attracted to pretty things. If there was an object that was “pretty” then everyone should find it that way. But people tend to each have a different perception of what is pretty. (i hope that made sense)
But it not just a case of finding random things pretty and then saying so - there are certain classes of things that most people find pretty, but not for any reason as obvious as finding certain human attributes pretty - which can easily be explained by functional things such as sexual and social attraction.
Why do humans generally find things pretty if they are brightly multicoloured? - sure, not everybody does, but that’s not the point - the point is the question of why lots of people do.
A large part of that can be answered quite simply: humans are frugivores and most edible fruit are brightly coloured. As a result humans have evolved to find brightly coloured objects attractive because the people who weren’t attracted to brightly coloured objects starved real fast. In reality of course humans were attracted to brightly coloured objects back when we were essentially tree rats and we have retained it ever since because fruit has always remained an important component of our diet.
There has almost ceratinly been a sexual add-on to that reaction. People found bright colours attarctive, and hence humans that wore bright colours, such as placing flowers in the hair, painting the skin with ochre or wearing beads became more attarctive. That then led to something of a runaway raction. People that were attracted to bright shiny objects were more likely to carry and wear them, such people became more attarctive beacuse other humans were already attracted to bright shiny fruits which led to an increased benefit in liking bright shiny objects and so forth.
IOW the original cause was almost certainly that people liked bright shiny things because food was bright and shiny. Humans then co-opted that liking by turning it into sexual decoration, which further reinforced the attaraction to bright shiny things. Today we still like bright shiny things because they seem more edible, but we also like them because they are sexually decorative.
Something simialr probably also applies to most other “pretty” things. We find clear water, green fields and so forth to be pretty because those were premium territory where humans evolved. People who found that sort of scenery attractive tended to live longer than people who found stagnant water and dense forest to be pretty.
ooo shiny!