What makes some people more attractive?

There are recognized international standards of beauty; But this did not lead to the mechanisms of evolution conducive to making us all characterized by this characteristic over time. This may indicate that moving away from artificiality, and the tendency towards innovation rather than imitation, can help you to be attractive.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the French artist Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres painted an oil painting called "The Great Handmaid", in which he depicted a Turkish maid lying naked, holding a fan of peacock feathers in her hand, while she was staring over her shoulder at the viewer of the painting. Although this classic painter succeeded, through his painting, in showing the attractiveness of this woman, something in the work seemed a little wrong. The painting received harsh criticism when it was shown to the public, as it was said that the lady's back appeared strangely long, and that the limbs and folds of her body were unusually or realistically swaying.

In 2004, an analytical study conducted by French doctors - one of whom specializes in spinal pain - stated that it was impossible for the woman in the painting to actually lie down like this, and that if her back was really that long, that would mean that she She needed to have five more lumbar vertebrae in her body than a normal human being.

During the period during which this painting was painted, the romantic school in painting was popular, which greatly celebrated naked women who turned their backs to the beholder, with their bodies with slender waists and broad thighs. These physical features form what is called the "hourglass figure", which was believed at the time to represent the pinnacle of female beauty.

Until now, the controversy remains about whether Anger deliberately distorted the dimensions of the body of the heroine of his painting or not. That's a little excessive.

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However, small differences in appearance can make a big difference. A simple change in a woman's attire can make her appear more attractive, competent, or trustworthy. If, for example, a woman wants to appear honest or capable in her professional field, or she wants to enhance her chances of being elected as a candidate in the political field; She should - say psychologist Miriam Lees of the University of Mary Washington in the United States and her colleagues - wear clothes of a conservative nature that does not suggest any sexual temptations.

But why do some physical traits seem to be more universally preferred than others, such as those that give women an "hourglass figure"? Do such attributes and features suggest - for example - that the female owner is more fertile than others? And if that is true, then why is there still this diversity and variation in human form and physical appearance, and did the mechanisms of evolution - through the process of natural selection - lead to the prevalence of certain physical characteristics over time?

Some experts in evolutionary biology believe that the "hourglass figure" is attractive to men, because in their view it is associated with being more fertile. Men assumed that women with higher estrogen levels, and consequently fertility rates, were the ones with thinner waists and broad thighs. Thus, if these high fertility rates can be inherited through genes, then the woman's possession of that stature may become an indication that she is more capable of childbearing.

Teenage taboos, hosted by Karima Kawah and edited by Mais Baqi.

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Jane Buffet, an expert in developmental biology at Britain's Northumbria University, says: "At one point, we thought that many (attractive aesthetic features in women, such as having an 'hourglass figure', a feminine face, and fresh, smooth skin) are linked to hormones. sexuality, but we now realize that the evidence we have for that is less than we previously thought."

Buffett used artwork from different eras and eras as a guide for her study of how human perceptions of ideal female body proportions have changed throughout history. It found, for example, that the period between 500 BC and the fifteenth century witnessed relative stability for what was considered an ideal ratio of waist circumference to thigh circumference, at the level of 0.75, that is, the waist circumference was 75 percent of the thigh circumference.

As of the fifteenth century, paintings of women show a change in this ratio, with the waist circumference becoming thinner and two-thirds of the thigh, by the time Inger was painting.

In the twentieth century, it seemed that tastes might have changed from one extreme to the other, although it is difficult for us to say for sure, in light of the fact that Buffett relied, in determining what might be described as the standards that seemed ideal for a woman's body in that period, on pictures of models who appeared on Pages of "Playboy" magazine and winners of the title of Miss World, which models may not provide the opportunity, to determine those parameters accurately.

Although the "hourglass figure" does indeed attract men, it does not seem to be linked to anything genetically inherited, and it could be useful, such as showing, for example, that women who have this figure - for evolutionary reasons - have beneficial levels of self-esteem. hormones. Buffett believes that this preference arose simply from the idea that a woman's possession of a stature in which the circumference of her thighs increases and the circumference of her waist decreases, means that she is of childbearing age but is not old at the same time, and that she also has given birth only a limited number of times.

One of the things that seems most well established, she adds, is that the traits most likely to make a woman attractive are those that have clues about her age and how many children she has had.

If we admit for the sake of argument that these beauty features are not necessarily related to the genetic makeup of women, then this simply indicates that the evolutionary factors that lead to the continuation of certain physical characteristics and the fading of others for reasons related to the sexual attraction that one obtains as a result do not play a role in that matter. This also means that there are no reasons why the "hourglass figure" is the most common among women in the world. Is this why we don't all look the same?

To determine whether it is possible to establish standards for the "ideal body of a woman", by identifying specific characteristics for some of its parts, a psychology expert at the Australian University of Queensland, Bernaby Dixon and his colleagues, conducted an experiment involving men and women, each of whom is sexually inclined to the opposite sex. These respondents were asked to rate the attractiveness of a number of computer-generated human body shapes. There were slight differences between these shapes and each other, with regard to 24 different points, such as height, thigh length, shoulder width, waist-thigh ratio, breast size, and others.

Then the most liked body shapes, whether male or female, were selected and cross-computer-generated to create two forms of a man and a woman, each containing a random mixture of the aesthetic features of his "mother and father". This experiment was conducted several times, to simulate the changes that can occur in the shape of the human body, over generations.

The study showed that the greatest interest for the sample of men in what they like about the woman's strength and physical characteristics focused on her body mass, as they tended to choose women who are smaller in size. It was remarkable that physical features that we might think were important, such as breast size, were next in order, as was the ratio between waist and thigh circumferences.

As for the female sample, the preferred male figure for them was the one that can be described as "the body of swimmers", whose owners are tall, with broad shoulders and an athletic build.

Dixon says that this indicates that although there are general and prevailing attitudes among the majority of people, regarding what they prefer in terms of physical characteristics in the opposite sex, the importance of these characteristics differs from one person to another.

And if we turn to the traits and characteristics that we can control, such as choosing the style of clothing that we like to wear, for example, we will notice that society always includes groups of people who are keen to choose styles of clothing that differ from what is usual and prevailing. In this regard, let us imagine a hypothetical scenario. It is based on the presence of a family living in a city, which is witnessing a fierce rivalry between two football teams; A and B. According to this scenario, the family members are divided between supporting both teams, and there is a child who has the opportunity to choose the side in which he wants to line up, without having the opportunity not to lean towards either of them, or to show hatred for football in the first place. Thus, this child has to either encourage the most popular team among his family members, which, accordingly, makes him compatible with the majority of them, or he may choose not to comply with this prevailing pattern and go a different way.

Calida Krebs Denton, a graduate student seeking a doctoral degree in biology from Stanford University, explains the way humans usually make their choices in life, saying that in this case, one tends to sample the opinions of his generational relatives. The former has those whom it considers as role models, and determines which side the majority of them lean towards, and then makes its decision on this or that issue. It also depends on whether or not the child wants to fit in with the surrounding society. If he has a personality that is compatible with this community, and finds that the majority of his family members support Team A, then he will likely follow their example. By it, it is likely to encourage "B".

And if you consider, within the framework of this hypothetical scenario, that “A” and “B” do not represent two competing football teams, but rather express two things that the choice between them may lead to the separation between life and death, for example; Here you can ask: Will this lead to everyone agreeing to choose one, for example? Answer: Not necessarily.

The researcher Denton and her colleagues conducted an experiment in which computer models were used to identify the role of complex factors such as migration from one place to another, and others, in determining the proportion of compatible to non-compatible in society. And these researchers found that, in some cases, there is a possibility for one to turn from compatible to incompatible. He may be compatible with those around him if it is a common and popular option among them for a logical reason, but he may turn to the opposite, if he finds that this option has become too prevalent.

But are there situations in which not conforming to society has its advantages? Denton says in this context: "If we are talking about biological advantages; we will find that the incompatibility will be useful, if the (biological) trait that results in being - for example - more physical fitness, is rare."

Natural selection (a fundamental mechanism of human evolution) favors diversity. At its core, it requires the ability to adapt and adapt to new environments.”

An example of this is what occurs between males and females of the "guppy" fish, which is one of the colorful ornamental fish. Males have long, brightly colored fins that appeal to females. But each of these females has its own preferences regarding the color of the fins they are attracted to, and the pattern on them as well. This means that there is no ideal shape for the male "guppy" fish, and that one of these males has common features among that type of fish is not an advantage. And it is better for the male in this case, to carry unique features. In zoology, this is called polymorphism. It can be said that this diversity and multiplicity has advantages in terms of reproduction of this small type of fish.

In cases where the uniqueness of features has no mating advantages, and one particular trait is considered ideal; There are opportunities for living beings to exploit this matter, by pretending that they have this or that physical characteristic, even without it being identical to reality.

We can spot this phenomenon in a genus of marine animals known as the "violin crab". The males of this species have a huge claw that they use in fighting, and to confront their male peers as well. The females of this type of crab are attracted to the males that have the largest claws, because this indicates that they have a greater ability to fight.

If one of the male crabs loses his claw as a result of the fight, he has the opportunity to grow a new claw for him in the same place, almost identical to the one he lost, as it does not differ from the previous one in length, but it is less massive and effective as a weapon in the face of opponents. The paradox is that the females of this type of marine organism cannot distinguish between the original claw and that of the alternative, and choose their partner for mating based on the length of the claw, not its mass, which means that they are unable, in fact, to identify the males that are most capable of truly fighting.

With regard to female "violin crabs", the claw constitutes a basic physical characteristic that is perhaps no less important than the ratio of waist to thigh circumference in women in the eyes of some men, or the height of a man for those of women who focus on that.

It means what happens among this type of cancer; That some of his "deceptive males" have the ability to exploit the concentration of females on the length of the claw, to disguise the fact that they are unable to fight properly, due to the loss of the original claw. It also suggests that relying too much on a single physical characteristic to determine an object's attractiveness can make it behave in a deceptive manner. But it would be much more difficult for him to practice this kind of deception, if the quantification of attractiveness depends on assessing the extent to which a characteristic is distinguished and that it is real rather than artificial, says Burnaby Dixon.

But how can this be measured in humans? For men, for example; The presence of thick eyebrows, facial hair, and a square jaw are some of the outward appearances that indicate a high level of testosterone. The levels of this hormone are important, given that it is beneficial for women - in an evolutionary sense - to mate with the most virile men, just as it is the case with female "violin crabs" searching for the long claws of males.

More recently, the high demand for men to grow their beards led to the emergence of the term "peak beard", which suggests that this fashion has reached its peak and is on its way to receding. Is the appearance of this term due to our tendency to dislike conforming to the prevailing norms in society?

A 2014 study showed that women tend to view clean-shaven men as more attractive if they are shown a lot of photos showing bearded men, and vice versa. Dixon explains this by saying that seeing something different from what is prevalent around you may make this thing attractive to you.

As for the researcher Denton, she says: "If we are talking about the characteristics and attractive qualities of a cultural nature, then perhaps the non-conformity with prevailing norms is useful in areas such as music, literature, fashion or visual arts. Here uniqueness can become appreciated in itself. ".

We can see this in the changes that occur in the popularity of baby names from time to time. Our ancestors used to choose common names, given that they are widespread and accepted by many. As for now, it is noted that the list of the most popular and frequently used names changes constantly, so that the prevailing name at one time becomes out of fashion after a short period, as if the popularity of a specific name and prevalence soon makes it less common and attractive. This means that we tend to disagree with the prevailing, when we are in the process of choosing names for our children.

In the end, it may be too early to say that we have reached the beginning of the demise of the phenomenon of liking men with beards, or perhaps we can point out here that there is something attractive about growing a beard, which cannot be explained by genetic factors, just as The same is the case with the issue of considering a certain proportion of consistency between the waist and thigh circumferences, among the criteria for a woman's beauty in the eyes of a man.