ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE

There's more to people than their physical appearance. This piece of wisdom is nothing new to all of us. We have been taught these truths since we were children, and since then, we have learned to automatically claim that we don't judge people solely on their looks. We already know very well that beauty is skin-deep and that what matters most is their personality and their actions—their inner beauty. In reality, however, it's hard to look past a person's looks. Consciously or not, we all have the tendency to assess the people we meet according to our subjective opinion of their level of attractiveness. While we don't always say it out loud, we immediately classify people as good-looking, average, or unattractive moments after we meet them. Even when we don't want to, beauty is an inescapable factor in human society. It doesn't have to dictate who we associate ourselves with and how we treat others, but the ugly truth is that we do find fault and flawlessness in the appearance of others—especially our own. Since our fascination with beauty is hardwired into our overall mechanism as human beings and as a society, one cannot help but think that there's a science behind all of this superficiality. And if that is the case, we also can't help but wonder what makes a person scientifically beautiful. Answering this question will be our primary objective in this story, and by the end of it, maybe you'll want to find out for yourself if you, in particular, are actually good-looking according to science.

So, what are some key factors in determining attractiveness? Scientific research has suggested a pragmatic and yet disappointing conclusion when it comes to beauty: being attractive is a biological advantage. Moreover, scientific studies have also raised and explored several key factors that determine a man and woman's level of attractiveness. For now, we will be briefly discussing two of these key factors: facial symmetry and averageness.

All the way back to our ancient past, mankind has always found beauty in symmetry. Philosophers of ancient Greece, for example, once held the concept that there is a golden ratio when it comes to achieving perfection in all aspects of nature. In mathematics, this golden ratio is an irrational number, which means that the ratio of two quantities is equivalent to the ratio of their sum to the larger one of the same two quantities. This value is represented by the twenty-first Greek letter Phi and is equal to the rounded-off value of 1.618, also known by its other names such as the golden mean or the divine section. This special number has been applied to various ancient creations, including paintings, sculptures, and architectural structures. Today, the golden ratio continues to have a significant influence in our aesthetic view, particularly when it comes to the attractiveness of a person's face. Several studies have been conducted on the subject matter, and their results suggest that the faces of those who are generally deemed attractive possess features with golden ratio proportions. This means that the ratio between the width of the face and the width of the eyes, eyebrows, and the nose determines whether or not a woman or man is considered beautiful. For example, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and Canada’s University of Toronto discovered that the distance between a woman's eyes must be less than half of the width of her face in order to be regarded as attractive or desirable. Not only that, the distance between a woman's eyes and her mouth must be more than a third of the height of her face. A lot of experts believe that the Greeks' golden ratio is the best way to quantify beauty. The faces of many celebrities who have gained widespread popularity for their appearance and allure have also been evaluated for their level of attractiveness using the golden ratio. In fact, in 2016, a British plastic surgeon named Dr. Julian De Silva evaluated the appearance of some well-known female celebrities using the Greek golden ratio of beauty. At the time, Dr. De Silva concluded that the American actress Amber Heard and her facial features were the closest to the Phi ratio, at 91.85%. Other high-scoring celebrities include the likes of Kim Kardashian and Kate Moss.

Beyond just looking beautiful, attractive research shows that those who possess a symmetrical face tend to be healthier compared to those whose faces are not as symmetrical. Studies suggest that attractive people have more diversity in their genes, and this is why they most likely have a better constitution and stronger immune system compared to others. This connection between beauty and health is supposedly also present in animals. Other creatures are concerned with finding a healthy and strong mate. For example, female birds determine which among their potential mates are the healthiest and most suitable for them by assessing the male's appearance and behavior. Aside from symmetry, current research suggests that there is beauty in being average. However, this “average” does not mean that a person looks neither pretty nor ugly, or that his or her appearance is just so-so. What we are actually referring to is possessing the mathematical average of facial features most people have. Hence, the more a person’s facial features, such as the size and shape of the face, eyes, nose, and lips, and their arrangement are close to the population mean, the more he or she is considered to be attractive. According to the researchers of the Language and Social Development Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, it is averageness, not symmetry or distinctiveness, that is the fundamental element of facial attractiveness. Symmetrical, distinctive, and youthful faces are not always perceived as beautiful, but our average-faced individuals have always been deemed attractive. As for why this is so, experts in psychology believe that we find average faces beautiful because they look familiar and because we've seen or encountered such facial features before. We are more inclined to evaluate them more positively. This tendency among humans is what psychologists refer to as the mere exposure effect. This is supported by the research of Coren Apicella, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, on the facial preferences of British young adults and those of the Hadza people in Tanzania. She found that when the participants were shown images of British and Hadza faces, both cultures preferred average faces. However, while the British participants found British and Hadza faces beautiful, the Hadza participants only found faces from their own culture attractive. The likely explanation for this is that the Hadza participants had not been previously exposed to Western standards of beauty, and because they don't have knowledge of what an average European face is supposed to look like, they are unable to show preference for it when it comes to them. Another study found that the human brain processes average and attractive faces faster than the faces of unattractive ones. To put it another way, our brains essentially find average faces easier to handle and accept than those who look less conventional.

So, what do we take away from learning all this? While on a sad note, we are reminded that beauty bias continues to affect how people treat and connect with others. It is an unfortunate reality that our biological and psychological instincts dictate us to favor attractive people over others. It has been proven that beautiful people are more likely to get hired for jobs, while less attractive employees tend to make less money. Most people, knowingly or unknowingly, find attractive people to be smart and friendly just because of their appearance. Those with less attractive faces, on the other hand, are regarded as unlikable, unapproachable, and less intelligent. The truth is, this typecasting based on looks is happening all around us. But perhaps, while we are more aware of the existence of such biases and reflective of ourselves, we can begin to rid them of their influence and power over us. By acknowledging that beauty bias exists and that we all have the tendency to judge people based solely on appearance, we may have the chance to get to know people for who they really are. It is when we truly understand a person that physical appearance completely loses its significance.

Thank you so much for reading!