LilbabiC
Bluelighter
What one person finds to be physically attractive the next person may not. There is no set standard for what's considered attractive. Like the old saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
MyFinalRest - the universal standard for beauty is symmetry. while there may be individual preferences for eye or hair color, you're going to be more attracted to someone with a symmetrical face. additionally, since you "understand this shit", it might be wise to actually read the numerous studies and articles pertaining to the relationship between beauty and genetics. i've gotten you started:
The Science of Attraction: What makes a beautiful face?
Do facial averageness and symmetry signal health?
Looking Good: The Psychology and Biology of Beauty
Mixed Race, Pretty Face?
Secrets of Beauty and Attractiveness Revealed
that's not to say there aren't other factors involved during mate selection. though, i think many could make the point that you'll notice you're physically attracted to another person WAY before knowing if you like the way the person smells (per the wiki portion you quoted) or any of the other criteria (whether it be biological or otherwise) that appeal to you.
to answer the OP's question: sex is an important, pair-bonding experience to me and thus, in order to have sexual attraction, there must be physical attraction.
well a good personality can make an ugly girl hot for me personally
Because we're not robots where the mere transmission of information is the most important factor. Because beauty suggests a healthy gene pool, and a depth of character brought on by experience, though it isn't everything.
Beauty is such a striking thing, yet time grinds it down mercilessly...plainness, or homeliness, though, stands the test of time. Beauty alone isn't enough to sustain anything, but it does suggest that there's more beneath the surface because they have reason not to be embittered by life, and their natural selves shine through more readily than those whom life hasn't treated so well. The bitterness of a person who thinks they have a good reason to be bitter is a terribly unattractive thing, much more so than any physical imperfections.
@coffee, my god. WTF? You are calling beauty an advantageous genetic adaptation when beauty is a concept that highly differs from person to person and culture to culture? What's scientific about that?
Even the most attractive women (if you could actually judge that by some universal standard) aren't necessarily picking the "most advantageous" mates to "breed" with.
WTF do you not get about what I'm saying? I'm simply saying that sexual attraction is almost entirely a haphazard process and may or may not result in anything advantageous on the genetic level. You are trying to draw up some evolutionary "master plan" that we are all supposedly following when we feel that someone is attractive. There is no such thing.
WTF is physical attraction then? You just said that Megan Fox is unattractive because of her jaw and forehead. She looks damn good to me. You still need to face that there is nothing fucking scientific about physical attraction. It's too fucking random to tell us anything about genetics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness
That's as far as any real science regarding physical attraction, as it relates to genetics, goes. I understand this shit. You're the one who's goofing.
How did i not win this thread yet?
Okay, you win!
I think personal experience and perception leads to people making real choices about who they are attracted to. You will obviously end up associating certain physical characteristics with memories of experiences - you can't simply seperate the two can you?
A shitty personality can make a pretty girl seem ugly too.
Likewise, outside pressures (like other's opinions and media opinions) can influence who you think is hot too. As for the rest of it, who knows...why do you care?
Well Africanus what you say about "nothing being random" just might be true, but also as you said, nobody has this super fucking "godlike" knowledge to accurately predict anything so to us normal humans, it can't seem anything else but random.
^Fucking prove it!
^That's real good Africanus.
Ninae, I still differ, I think it is a highly conscious thing. What could be more distracting to your mind than seeing someone who's attractive? Certain aspects of basic sexual arousal certianly seem to be subconscious, but physical attractiveness is about more than just sex.
Your body is not subconsciously aware of anything mathematical such as symmetry. You can look at a side view of a face, where it is impossible to discern frontal symmetry and still be attracted.
I highly don't think we are subconciously aware of our genetics too. We are only consciously aware of this scientific concept after many years of rigorous scientific exploration and discoveries. When I see pretty girl and she thinks I'm pretty too, I don't really think we are having a subconscious genetic conversation. Whatever I (or anybody else) can tell about a person by looking at them is very, very limited.
No, were're not machines. Well, some people come close, and that's called autism.
Genes determine a basic recipe for your physical makeup. They do not control our destiny or the choices we make. You are shaming real science by trying to liken genetics to pre-installed software. But, maybe people like you are different from me.
Maybe you don't actually have the ability to make decisions in life and instead, you follow simple impulses in your brain. If that's true, you have become so de-evolved that you are lesser being than my dog. You operate on the level of bacteria.
The Scientism going on here is quite frankly, disgusting. Trying to reduce all human actions into things that can currently be explained or measured is not really a subsitute for true understanding. There are limits to human understanding, and i'm sorry it's so painful for you to face up to it.
No, I'm afraid you're the one who doesn't get it. I'm not saying that to argue, but just because you seem to be looking at this in the wrong way. Some people prefer things to remain a mystery, but I can't relate to that as I don't like being kept in the dark about anything, I just assume there must be something for them to gain from it. Either way, I don't really care as I feel people are generally better served learning how things work. If you don't like that you could also just ignore it when someone else are trying to accomplish something like that.
Either way, we were only talking about the human body and how it works and not the human soul. If you prefer to focus on that perspective you can also do that. But the human soul is still limited by the human body as a biochemical machine to some degree, by our chemical processes, by the brain and nervous system. Otherwise there would be no fascination with various chemicals. They can obviously produce profound emotions and has a strong effect on the human being, even if they "only" work on our body. And if real emotions can originate in the body why can't also feelings of attraction to another body, or even another personality, originate in the body? You don't know how much of your feelings for the opposite sex comes from you as an individual consciousness and how much of it is a result of instincts hardwired into your genes. This also goes for strong feelings of love and higher-level emotions like that (because those feelings are a strong part of our biology).
Of course you are not consciously aware WHAT makes someone attractive, you are only aware THAT you find them attrave. People generally aren't able to point out the small differences between a symmetrical and unsymmetrical face with their normal consciousness, but that doesn't mean they're not there or can't be seen and measured out. The rules of symmetry are quite streightforward, although symmetry is only one aspect of beauty, but all other things being equal someone with better symmetry will be more pleasent to look at.