Evolutionary Basis of Attraction

Abstract

The study of beauty has many facets with research clearly showing us what biological indicators account for the perception of attractiveness and the subsequent societal implications. But why does beauty matter? Why do our brains infer that attractive people are more valuable social resources than less attractive people? This chapter focuses on why these preferences have come to be so prevalent in modern day society. Conventional thinking asserts that standards of beauty are a gradually learned subjective process that is a product of the media; however, research conducted over the past decades contradicts these widely held beliefs. Theoretical and empirical work has attempted to understand physical attractiveness through evolutionary models of signaling. The evolutionary view assumes that preferences serve adaptive functions and that the external world provides information to guide biologically and socially functional behaviors. If information was present about a person's value in our evolutionary past, an advantage would accrue to those who used that information, and those who used signs and signals would be able to leave more genes behind in the following generation. Preferences for certain traits guide individuals to choose mates who will provide the best chance of their own genes surviving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)