What makes a person physically attractive?

[Pjen]

The French term for attractive but odd is “Une jolie-laide”. Pretty Ugly but not with the meaning in English!

[skdo23]

@md2000

One study I read said that facial symmetry also plays a significant role. While asymmetry is not often obvious, it is a subtle cue that the person did not develop properly, and so indicator of disease, bad genes or some such. Thus, other failings like buck teeth or crooked teeth, excessively out of proportion facial features, etc. also look “unattractive”. One important purpose of attractiveness is to help evaluate potential mates; so we gauge attractiveness by how it indicated good genes and adherence to our perceived “normal”.

I remember reading this as well in Reader’s Digest, maybe about 20 years ago. IIRC, even babies responded more positively to photographs of people with symmetrical facial features. Also, the article used Denzel Washington as an example of someone with near perfect facial symmetry (this was in the early 1990’s when his career and popularity were at a high point).

[John_Mace]

@md2000

One study I read said that facial symmetry also plays a significant role. While asymmetry is not often obvious, it is a subtle cue that the person did not develop properly, and so indicator of disease, bad genes or some such. Thus, other failings like buck teeth or crooked teeth, excessively out of proportion facial features, etc. also look “unattractive”. One important purpose of attractiveness is to help evaluate potential mates; so we gauge attractiveness by how it indicated good genes and adherence to our perceived “normal”.

Yep, symmetry plays a big part. But there are absolutes, too, like the distance between the eyes, the distance between the nose and the chin, etc. All things being equal, a person with more symmetry is going to be more attractive, but all things are rarely equal.

@Charlie_Wayne

I once read there was an entire study about the left side of the face vs the right side of the face.

I don’t know if it was true. But it was very interesting anyway.

Part of the theory concerned how attractive someone’s face is.

In short, if you split the human face into the right side and the left side by drawing a straight line down the middle and then make a copy of each side and reattach the two right sides together as well as the two left sides, the result is a markedly different looking face.

The face comprised of the two right sides looks remarkably masculine whereas the face comprised of the two left sides looks remarkably feminine.

Sorry, but I’d have to see a cite to believe that.

[Wesley_Clark]

People have covered it pretty well but there are various factors:

How masculine or feminine you are, more masculine men are better looking and so are more feminine women

Facial symmetry. This could be considered a sign of health and good nutrition, as it requires a good set of DNA and good environment for your face to be near symmetrical. I don’t know if that is the reason it is attractive, but that is postulated as a reason.

For women, being fertile which means being young and having a good waist/hip ratio.

For men having a good shoulder/waist ratio is attractive. However this makes you more appealing as a one night stand and less appealing as a long term partner.

Then there are all the non-physical factors of attractiveness. How nice someone is, if they are men how much security and resources they offer (money, fame, status, fidelity), whether they unconsciously remind you of models of relating to people that you learned in childhood, what your society values, what your personal quirks and tastes are, etc.

Long story short: When a person looks at you can they unconsciously calculate that you are healthy (good immune system, good nutritional status, social support, etc) will provide them with a large number of children, that those children will be healthy and survive to adulthood, and when they reach adulthood will those children also have lots of children who will do the same (survive into adulthood and procreate widely)? If so, you are attractive. That is a good shorthand way of thinking of it. People who didn’t find traits that led to this goal are extinct.

[Yllaria]

If you have a chance, try watching The Human Face, a four part documentary by BBC featuring Elizabeth Hurley and John Cleese. It explores a lot of these ideas and more.

[TriPolar]

**What makes a person physically attractive? **

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