# Survival of the Cutest

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-the-cutest/637414>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 11, 2012, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-the-cutest/637414 "2012-10-11T13:48:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-the-cutest/637414/21 "2012-10-26T12:25:08Z")

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> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> Not a quibble, because fecund is implicit in “descendants”, which includes all successive generations.

Sorry, I imputed “immediate” to the term unnecessarily.

> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> How so? No intelligence, no motive, no goal. That which has the most descendents is by definition the most “fit”. The individual generally has no idea that the fun stuff cuases descendents.

Well, organisms which only meet some definitions of intelligence are subject to natural selection - the intelligence of evolution is merely a metaphor. I think the example Dawkins gives in “The Selfish Gene” is that a human doesn’t need to be aware of the physical formulae involved in motion to be able to catch a ball and animals or plants may alight at complex selection strategies without conscious awareness of them.

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**Author:** ![ed\_anger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbce88/32.png) [@ed\_anger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ed_anger)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-the-cutest/637414/22 "2012-11-17T20:11:01Z")

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I’d like to see this question redone dealing more with facial attractiveness, which is what “cute” often refers to over BMI and hip-waist ratio. Most of what I’ve seen before on that topic has to do with the biological cost of symmetry (symmetry implying health), and how we tend to find more symmetrical faces more attractive.

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