Physical attractiveness is the degree to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. The term often implies sexual attractiveness or desirability, but can also be distinct from either. There are many factors which influence one person's attraction to another, with physical aspects being one of them. Physical attraction itself includes universal perceptions common to all human cultures such as facial symmetry,[9]sociocultural dependent attributes, and personal preferences unique to a particular individual.[10]
In many cases, humans subconsciously attribute positive characteristics, such as intelligence and honesty, to physically attractive people, a psychological phenomenon called the Halo effect.[11] Research done in the United States and United Kingdom found that objective[12] measures of physical attractiveness and intelligence are positively correlated, and that the association between the two attributes is stronger among men than among women.[13]Evolutionary psychologists have tried to answer why individuals who are more physically attractive should also, on average, be more intelligent, and have put forward the notion that both general intelligence and physical attractiveness may be indicators of underlying genetic fitness.[13] A person's physical characteristics can signal cues to fertility and health,[14][15][16] with statistical modeling studies showing that the facial shape variables that reflect aspects of physiological health, including body fat and blood pressure, also influence observers' perceptions of health.[17] Attending to these factors increases reproductive success, furthering the representation of one's genes in the population.[18]
Heterosexual men tend to be attracted to women who have a youthful appearance and exhibit features such as a symmetrical face,[19] full breasts, full lips, and a low waist–hip ratio.[20][21] Heterosexual women tend to be attracted to men who are taller than them and who display a high degree of facial symmetry, masculine facial dimorphism, upper body strength, broad shoulders, a relatively narrow waist, and a V-shaped torso.[22][23][24][25]
^"People: Just Deserts". Time. May 28, 1945. Archived from the original on August 11, 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2011. ... "the most perfect all-over beauty of all time." Runner-up: the Venus de Milo.
^CBS News Staff (August 5, 2011). "Venus". CBS News. Archived from the original on January 29, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2011. The classical vision of beauty exemplified in Greek art, such as the 2nd century B.C. Venus de Milo (a.k.a. Aphrodite of Milos), was an ideal carried through millennia, laying the basis for much of Western art's depictions of the human form.
^Day J (2004). "Does the Old Testament Refer to Sacred Prostitution and Did It Actual Exist in Ancient Israel?". In McCarthy C, Healey JF (eds.). Biblical and Near Eastern Essays: Studies in Honour of Kevin J. Cathcart. Cromwell Press. pp. 2–21. ISBN978-0-8264-6690-7.
^Singh NK (1997). Divine Prostitution. New Delhi: APH Publishing. pp. 4–6. ISBN978-81-7024-821-7.
^Perkins D (2013). Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture. Routledge. p. 581. ISBN978-1135935627.
^Zeigler-Hill V, L M Welling L, Shackelford TK (2015). Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology. United States: Springer Science+Business Media. p. 329. ISBN978-3-319-12697-5. ...why, despite broad agreement, we see a wide variety of personal preferences.
^Stephen ID, Tan KW (2015). "Healthy body, healthy face? Evolutionary approaches to health perception.". In Sheppard E, Haque S (eds.). Culture and Cognition: A Collection of Critical Essays. Peter Lang International Publishers.
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