Height of Sexyness

In a TED talk titled Cute, sexy, sweet, funny, philosopher Daniel Dennett argues that we find certain things attractive because evolution trained us to get attracted to them due to survival benefit. For example, we are fond of sweet things like cakes because they contain sugar, which is Glucose and glucose is required for production of energy. Then he shows a picture of beach girls and says guys find girls like these attractive because that’s how they are programmed to. Over the course of evolution, we lost a lot of hair over the body. If that didn’t happen height of sexyness would be something like this.

What makes a beautiful things beautiful

When you come across a beautiful face you can’t stop glaring at it. A beautiful face mesmerizes for reasons even you fully are not aware. Yet you appreciate the person with a sincere feeling. So, what makes a beautiful face beautiful?

Here are some of the common explanations that you find on the web.

  • Symmetric face
  • Prominent lower jaw
  • Golden Ratio - Ratio of length and width of face should be around 1.6

Almost every time, we recognise a beautiful face with a single look. How the heck does one identify such subtle features of face or calculate the golden ratio just by a glance?

A Body programmed by Gene

When a ball is thrown at you, you don’t solve differential equations to find the trajectory of the ball or locate where your hand should be placed to catch the ball. Yet, you catch it with little or no difficulty without involving any maths. But if you had to build a machine to catch the ball, it would have to do the maths to catch the ball. So, this points out that human body is programmed to make such calculations without awareness. I am not arguing that you calculate velocity vectors of the ball every instant subconsciously! But evolution has programmed us to able to locate where you have to place your arm to hold the ball coming towards you. Something akin to solving differential equations is programmed by genes.

Using a similar argument, we can speculate that we have been programmed to find such features in face and get attracted to them. But why only these features?

Because the Gene told so

It is the genes that have built us as their survival machines. Genes have programmed us with certain instructions that can enhance their chances of survival. Glucose is one of the molecules that is required for energy in human body. So, genes have programmed to us to get attracted to things like cake that contain glucose.

Genes instruct by chemical process that involves breaking and making of proteins, which is very slow–in order of months. But to protect themselves from dangers present in external environment, one has to respond fast–in order of seconds. Hence genes have developed sensory system so that the survival machine can sense danger and protect itself. To make decisions in real time, genes have developed the nervous system which send information to different parts of the body via electrical impulses, which is much faster. Genes have programmed instructions to the parts of survival machine that can be beneficial for their survival. To quote Dawkins, Genes are policy makers, brains are the executives.

Reproduction is the only way genes are passed on from one generation to another. It is by reproduction that genes are capable of surviving for a long. Genes in the form of copies are passed on from parent to offspring. While reproduction, the genes of mother and father are “mixed” to give rise to offspring. So, it is important for genes survival to enter the body of a healthy offspring. For that, choosing the appropriate mate is necessary.

Guys are attracted to certain girls because genes have programmed so. It is on genes that have programmed us to get attracted to a face that is symmetric, prominent lower jaw or may be golden ratio. Why only these features? Because there has to be some survival benefit associated with such features.

Looking good involves taking care of your body and being healthy1. So, if someone looks good that means she/he is taking care of her body(the survival machine of genes) well. The offspring of such a person is likely to have the same characteristics. So, it is profitable for genes to be in such a body, rather than someone who doesn’t work on maintaining the survival machine. Exercise has also been suggested to improve one’s attractiveness2. It means someone involved in physical labour might have developed such characteristics that attract mates. It is profitable to mate with such a physically strong partner, as they are capable of facing danger effectively.

To summarise, we have been trained to get attracted to faces of survival machines that have better chances of survival. Consider the question-why are girls attracted to guys that have a masculine personality? Masculine personality is a sign of strength, which means the survival machine is more capable of protecting themselves and hunt for food and their mates. Hence it is advantageous for the female to mate with a strong male as it increases her chances of survival. Of course, we live in a modern era, where a girl a doesn’t need a man to protect her from predators or hunt for food. But what I am trying to argue that genes have hard-wired us to get attracted to such people.

So, next time you find a person beautiful, complement them they have a evolutionarily attractive personality.

Motive

There is a common tendency of people(including me) to treat beautiful people or things as special, as if they were made of celestial ether. An appreciation, that is sincere and immense, comes out subconsciously for only one reason - the face. The point of this essay was to convince that there is nothing special about beautiful things and it is all play of genes.

Also, when a question like ‘why are beautiful things beautiful’ is attempted to resolve from evolutionary perspective, it helps us realise that most of the time we do things the way we were hard wired to. To conclude, there is no inherent beauty. If you find something beautiful, ask the genes- why!

Sources

  1. Attractiveness and healthy

    In this view, the psychological mechanisms used to assess attractiveness should show evidence of design for identifying good mates (Thornhill & Gangestad 1999). For example, faces that look healthy should be perceived as attractive, and they are (Grammer & Thornhill 1994, Henderson & Anglin 2003, Jones et al. 2001, Kalick et al. 1998). However, such results could reflect a powerful attractiveness halo effect, whereby positive traits like health are indiscriminately attributed to attractive individuals. One study has attempted to rule out a halo account by showing that symmetry looks healthy when attractiveness is statistically controlled, but it’s not clear how this association reflects mechanisms for assessing attractiveness (Jones et al. 2001)

    Facial attractiveness and some of its components may have modest associations with health, although the evidence is far from overwhelming

source - The Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Beauty