Theory of Attractiveness

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Mark Reynolds Psych 1010-850 September 27, 2013 Reflection Paper 1 What is Attractiveness? We are all attracted to different people for a multitude of reasons, some of these reasons we are aware but some of them are still a mystery. The things we are aware of are the sound of the voice, the smell of their hair, or the softness of their skin. These things are all factors that we are aware of and consciously decide whether or not they are aesthetically pleasing to us. In our book it talks about how faces are the most important things that we look at to judge the attractiveness of another person. I couldn’t agree more with this statement because the first thing that attracts me to someone is their eye. I believe that you can tell a lot about someone just by examining their eyes. The book states four key factors of the face that psychologists have discovered to be noticed as more attractive. Those four factors are smooth skin, symmetry, makeup, and female hormones. Smooth skin is a very key factor because having smooth skin is a sign that you take care of your body and are free of pimples or rashes. The next factor is facial symmetry. According to faceresearch.org, there are two theories of why facial symmetry is found attractive to us. The first one is called The Evolutionary Advantage, which states that people with symmetric are usually found more attractive because having a symmetrical face is linked to how healthy that person is. The other theory is called The Perceptual Bias and this theory claims that our bodies are “hard-wired” to process people with symmetrical faces and those without. The third thing the book talks about is makeup. Makeup is used to improve the attractiveness of a woman’s face. Makeup is usually used to darken around the eyes and lips to amplify their features. When applied to men, makeup usually yields the opposite
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