The Science of human attraction

Averaging leads to attractiveness:

Source: http://sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/39616/title/It%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s_written_all_over_your_face

• "Most attractiveness research has focused on three aspects of a pretty visage — averageness, symmetry and sexual dimorphism....  Fully understanding facial beauty requires studying how these three facial characteristics relate and interact."'
• 'Averageness is attractive, says Lisa DeBruine, an experimental psychologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. But, she says, when it comes to some key features, such as big eyes and small chins in women, being distinctly nonaverage (being very feminine) can be better. Distinctness is, by default, thought of as bad because, she says, “there are more ways to be nonaverage and ugly than there are ways to be nonaverage and beautiful.”'
• 'Studies have shown that voters believe baby faces suggest incompetence while jutting chins and angular noses are clues to capability in candidates. Another study suggests that people think baby faces make more honest CEOs.'

"Men tend to find women who look more feminine -- bigger eyes and lips, smaller chins, higher cheekbones -- more attractive. Technologies that allow the adjustment of these features, shown here by a face that's been feminized (far left) and masculinized (on the right), have helped reveal their import. When ovulating, women find men with more masculine features -- exaggerated brow ridges, thin lips and strong chin -- more attractive."

• "So your personal preferences aren’t entirely personal. Studies out of Aberdeen suggest that, in addition to your hormonal profile and how attractive you think you are, how much someone looks like you and how much attention they pay you can influence just how attracted you are, in quite predictable ways."
• "But here’s the catch. Caring about specific features is one thing, articulating those preferences is another. Even people who consistently rate symmetrical faces as attractive, for example, have trouble identifying symmetrical faces. People just know an attractive face when they see it."

Body Rankings

2 3 8 0 4 1 5 9 6 7 Ray

8 3 4 2 5 9 1 6 0 7 Pete

2 3 4 0 8 5 1 9 6 7 Chuck

2 3 8 4 9 5 1 0 6 7 Larry

3 5 4 2 8 1 9 0 6 7 John S.

3 2 8 5 0 1 9 4 6 7 Rob M.

3 2 8 0 1 9 4 5 6 7 Kaye

2 8 3 1 9 4 5 0 6 7 Lisa C.

3 2 8 9 1 4 5 0 6 7 Leslie C.

4 3 5 8 2 1 9 0 6 7 Carol