I got to thinking the other day about what makes someone physically attractive. We can all recognize attractive people, yes, but what exactly is it about them that MAKES them attractive? In this context, I’m limiting the question simply to facial features and not anything below the neck. Bilateral symmetry is one thing that promotes attractiveness, obviously, but why is it that certain facial structures are considered attractive while others are considered ugly?
I also seem to remember reading in Desmond Morris some time ago that babies react more positively to attractive faces than unattractive ones. Does this indicate that some of our basis for facial attractiveness is inborn?
I’d really appreciate some input on this (and cites, if anyone has them) – this has been occupying my brain WAY too much over the last few days.
Desmond Morris has some great things to say on just this subject. Among other things, if I remember correctly, qualities like rosy skin, big glossy eyes, long lashes, well colored unblemished skin, shiny hair are attractive to us because they show that the owner is healthy and young and therefore a good canidate for mating and child-bearing. He also poimts out why babies are attractive to us: eyes very large in relation to the size of the face, large pupils (that’s all I can remember right now)-he says that babies are cute so we will want to protect them; and note that “baby faced” adults are usually considered to be very attractive (Marilyn Monroe is a great example).
I remember reading that people with more money are generally more attractive because they are better able to have a healthy diet, and a healthy diet while young and during adolesence will better ensure an attractive face and/or body. I think it also said that the more symmetrical a face is the more attractive a face is, and a persons face becomes more asymmetrical due to such things as toxins, sickness, injury, malnutrition, etc.
