Science Behind attraction

[Mercedes Benzene]

Why is it that some characteristics are so desireable when finding a mate... or at least someone to hook up with? (Eg: body, eyes, smile, etc)

What biological/evolutionary reasons exist for this?

Also, some of these "desireable" factors change depending on where you live in the world. I find it hard to believe that these characteristics would change based solely on culture. There must be some science involved.

Ideas?

[Jay-qu]

I think a large amount is socially conditioned into you from a young age. You may not yet of found first hand, but you can be far more attracted to a person on the inside than you can to a person on the outside.

[ronthepon]

It could also be that these charecters have been relatively good markers of genetic superiority or otherwise healthiness.

 

So if better looking mates were sought after, so were the better genes simultaneously.

 

Natural selection was favouring the survival of these charecters, and the special instincts were favouring the spread of these traits.

 

Let me get to a few specific examples.

 

Take the face. If it's perfectly well shaped... unscarred, un-pimpled and good looking, it may be due to the ability of the organism to escape danger(that may hurt and create scars), and the high immunity(internal pimple prevention)

 

etc etc etc.

[Racoon]

Much of it has to do with neuro-chemistry... such as Oxytocin :D

Although Desire/Attraction is much more complicated than Sexual Arousal...

 

excerpts:

http://web5.infotrac-college.com/wadsworth/session/256/763/90202460/27!xrn_68_0_A112099945

 

A similar kind of imprinting might take place in humans. "Oxytocin release may help us bond to certain features in our partners," says Pfaus. "It's probably part of the mechanism that generates the template of what we find attractive." The next time you see your partner or someone like your partner, he theorizes, "the oxytocin is activated. It doesn't mean you have to be aroused. You just think, God, what a beautiful woman"--which might explain why we're attracted to the same type over and over.

 

&

 

Nitric Oxide When you're turned on, cells in the genital area release this chemical, which causes blood vessels to dilate and increases the flow of blood. Drugs like Viagra artificially stimulate nitric-oxide release

 

Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide Found in a man's intestines and brain, this protein works much like nitric oxide: it opens blood vessels to enhance erection and stimulate libido

 

Pheromones Scientists believe these chemicals, produced in glands in the armpits, carry sexually stimulating signals that can be picked up--but only unconsciously--by others. Pheromones have been found in animals but not yet isolated in humans

 

Epinephrine/Norepinephrine Found in the adrenal glands above the kidneys, in the nerves of the spinal cord and in the brain, these neurotransmitters play an important role in facilitating arousal and orgasm. They excite the body by giving it a shot of natural adrenaline, causing the heart to beat faster and blood pressure to rise

 

Estrogen A hormone produced in the ovaries and the brain, estrogen regulates ovulation. It's also involved with making women, and maybe even men, feel desire, possibly by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine

 

Dopamine This is probably the most important neurotransmitter involved in desire. Dopamine-producing neurons in the central part of the brain color one's perception of the outside world, creating what is experienced as a sexy mood. Dopamine levels are highly correlated with desire

 

Serotonin This neurotransmitter is produced in the midbrain and brain stem and helps one experience satisfaction, including the kind people feel after an orgasm. Serotonin can increase desire--most likely by working in concert with dopamine--but, paradoxically, serotonin-boosting drugs like Prozac can also make orgasm harder to achieve

 

Alpha Melanocyte Polypeptide Produced in the pituitary gland, this hormone also acts as a neuro-transmitter. Injecting one version of the chemical into male test subjects triggers erections

 

Oxytocin Another hormone released by the pituitary gland, ovaries and testes, oxytocin helps activate milk production, uterine contractions during childbirth and pelvic shudders in orgasms. It also contributes to the feelings that bond parents to their children

 

Testosterone Small quantities of this hormone are made in the brain, but most of it is produced in the testes and ovaries; in women it is quickly converted into estrogen. For men, it's the key hormone of desire, creating feelings of positive energy and well-being. When it's depleted, both men and women experience low libido

[Eclogite]

Take the face. If it's perfectly well shaped... unscarred, un-pimpled and good looking, it may be due to the ability of the organism to escape danger

This is slightly off-topic, but there is research (no references, unfortunately) that indicates a perfectly symetrical face is much less attractive than one in which there are minor differences between the left and right sides. Most people have such differences.

Now what would be the evolutionary disadvantage of a symetrical face?:D

[ronthepon]

Symmetrical faces are bad looking?!

 

That's something I've never known.

[Jay-qu]

The reasoning you used for natural selection is a little sketchy ron, but yet you still may have come out with the right answer. Nature doesnt care whats good for the species, it just happens that the ones that get to reproduce and pass on their DNA end up changing the species in that direction.

 

Now clearly we are not all good looking so there is the first problem..

[HydrogenBond]

I think it comes down to being complementary to each other. If one is your complement, you have more in common and are better able to know what the other person is thinking and feeling. This creates friendship and intimacy that can last. It also creates a team, with the sum of the parts being greater than the parts themselves.

 

Opposites can also work, but only if there is a strong committment to the team, since such a relationship will be like a vibrating molecule in an constantly active state. One needs some strong binding force, like love to keep the team from flying apart. Eventually, complementary changes will occur in both and the vibrations will lessen.

[Queso]

In my own research I have found that my body resonates and operates as a whole @ a frequency of 220Hz.

 

I know this because of meditation. When deep, my body buzzes,

when deep, I harmonize and hum with my body's frequency

and I know that I am harmonizing because I can hear this with my feeling sensors,

the same way you hear bass notes with your feet.

 

(((((((OHM)))))))))

 

I am in the key of A, a perfect A 220Hz.

 

I am wondering what other people buzz at,

because our whole existence is a song.

 

Some notes aren't in key with each other, and sound dead, flat, repel....

 

other notes sound so surreal together,

coming together as chords!

 

In my future experiments I will find out if people resonate @ different frequencies, which seems inevitable, but I have no evidence...

 

I will experiment with people as if they were notes

 

I will conduct symphonies with social interaction.

 

This, is just one other thing to consider when thinking about "attraction."

[InfiniteNow]

This is slightly off-topic, but there is research (no references, unfortunately) that indicates a perfectly symetrical face is much less attractive than one in which there are minor differences between the left and right sides. Most people have such differences.

Now what would be the evolutionary disadvantage of a symetrical face?:steering:

I'd like to hear more about this. That's new to me, but interesting if true...

 

 

I saw a study where they did the following. They took pictures of various males and then had groups of hundreds of females rate them on visual attractiveness. The researchers then selected the top ten and bottom ten in terms of the ratings, then scanned those pictures into a computer and measured the bilateral symmetry of each.

 

They then had this subgroup (the top and bottom 10 as rated for visual attractiveness) wear a white t-shirt for 3 or 4 days without showering or removing the shirt, but engaged in normal daily activities, and then removed the shirts putting them immediately into sealed containers or bags. With those t-shirts in the sealed bag/containing, the researchers then went to a new group of people, people not involved in the ratings of the photos themselves, and asked this group of participants to rate the scent of the t-shirt... smells really good or smells really bad on some scale like 1 to 10.

 

They found out that those individuals whose pictures had the highest bilateral symmetry on their face (this is why I asked Eclogite for more info, because they were rated as more visually attractive too...) tended to have better ratings on their scent as well, even though no visual data was available to the raters when they smelled the shirts. They were rated as attractive visually due to their symmetric faces, but also were rated as smelling better and more attractive olfactorily without the presence of any visual cues.

 

"The scent of symmetry." I've put it into my own words above, and may be off on some minor details. Here's a link (it's a .pdf) for more information on an actual study, a little different from above but similar, conducted at Harvard:

 

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~feinberg/jones_et_al_2004.pdf

 

 

To answer the question, there are a few basics. As Racoon mentioned, it's a result of hormone and chemical release inside us, but what makes those chemicals release? As ronthepon mentioned, indicators of good health. This is why symmetry is a measure used. Assymetric bodies tend to be the result of immune system compromise of some sort during skeletal and muscular development. Also, as HBond pointed out, we look for those who compliment our own bag of tricks well, whether we be conscious of it or not, such that our offspring has the optimum chance for survival. Orb too made the connection between where we see ourselves on this plane of existence and how the other relates to us and if our "wavelengths" don't create a flat note...

 

One last thing which is good to consider when thinking about the science behind attraction is how the concept of beauty was parameterized during our early years. There's the Freudian idea that we are all attracted to our parents, but it goes much deeper than that.

 

As I understand it, basically, we associated mom or dad with love, then our internal concepts of love and beauty overlap later in life as our hormones alter our brain structure. If we were raised by wolves, we'd be almost as likely to be attracted to a wolf that reminded us of our early canine care-taker. A bit of a stretch, but I'm just making a point.

 

Attraction is the amalgom of concepts of beauty developed early in life (physically and mentally), what we want for ourselves and our future and how the other person aligns with that, indicators of good health (look into the "waist-to-hip ratio" for example), and what we see as maximally beneficial to our offspring, optimizing their chance at survival and the survival of their offspring.

[Eclogite]

I'd like to hear more about this. That's new to me, but interesting if true...

Regretably this is one of those facts I ran across some time in the past and filed away in my memory. I don't even recall if I read it in a newspaper, New Scientist, or a research paper, or saw it on a news broadcast or a documentary. Searching for it would consequently be quite difficult.

 

I had no sooner written that than I realised I had just set myself a challenge, which actually took only a couple of minutes to meet. (God bless PubMed.) I didn't locate the original research, but this does support my original recollection.

 

Zaidel, et al "The face, beauty, and symmetry: perceiving asymmetry in beautiful faces." Int J Neurosci. 2005 Aug;115(8)

The relationship between bilateral facial symmetry and beauty remains to be clarified. Here, straight head-on photographs of "beautiful" faces from the collections of professional modeling agencies were selected. First, beauty ratings were obtained for these faces. Then, the authors created symmetrical left-left and right-right composites of the beautiful faces and asked a new group of subjects to choose the most attractive pair member. "Same" responses were allowed. No difference between the left-left and right-right composites was revealed but significant differences were obtained between "same" and the left-left or right-right. These results show that subjects detected asymmetry in beauty and suggest that very beautiful faces can be functionally asymmetrical.

 

Unfortunately, all the other research work appears to support the notion that it is the symmetrical face that is thought to be more attractive. Go to this link

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed

and enter symmetry face beauty in the "for" box. This will give access to eighteen relevant papers. I haven't checked them all, but apart from the one quoted above, all favour symmetry over assymetry.

[pgrmdave]

Quite a bit of attractiveness is due to the desire for a healthy mate, who can produce healthy offspring and take care of them. Thus, clear skin, shiny hair, radient smile are all attractive, and, I believe, these are cross-cultural and across history. Interesting are the changes (at least in Western culture) in attractiveness. Consider weight - hundreds of years ago, beautiful women were quite large. These women, however, had a greater chance of bearing healthy young. For most of American history, being very pale was considered attractive, because it meant that you had enough money that you didn't have to work out in the fields. It was proof that you would be able to raise your children without worry. Now, it's attractive to be tan, for the same reasons - if you're tan, it means that you have recreational time to spend outdoors, so you must have enough money to not worry too much. (Obviously, these last two aren't completely true, they are generalizations, but good reasons for why they changed.)

[InfiniteNow]

This will give access to eighteen relevant papers. I haven't checked them all, but apart from the one quoted above, all favour symmetry over assymetry.

Many thanks. :eek2:

 

Just my take, it sounds more like they are saying that an asymmetric face can still be beautiful more than they are saying that we find beauty in asymmetric faces... :shrug:

[Michaelangelica]

A study I read in an In-house Perfumery Magazine set up the following experiment

 

One room two chairs.

One chair sprayed with male pheromones the other not.

Situation 2

The same thing reversed one chair sprayed with female pheromones the other not sprayed at all.

 

Women and men were let into the interview room and let choose which chair they wanted to sit on.

After, it was statistically analysed to see if males preferred the"female" sprayed chair and vice versa.

They did.

 

Perfume companies are working on this right now!

 

The moral of this story may, or may not, be:-

"Don't wash Guys!"

[quatumrulesoverall]

"Science behind Attration"-an attractive thread for those who are interested. However, could someone tell me why, I may get attracted by this person but not the other one, attraction is all chemistry process or what?? ::lol: ::hihi:

[InfiniteNow]

...could someone tell me why, I may get attracted by this person but not the other one, attraction is all chemistry process or what??

So... have you read the other 14 posts yet? :hihi:

[whateverusay]

I would like to add my personal experience to go along with this research data. I won't divulge too much info for privacy purposes.

 

A little background: I'm 32 (as of August 14), I have two children and I've been happily married for five years. Last January I ran into this man who stopped me dead in my tracks. I dropped something and he was in front of me as I was standing back up and the moment I saw him I was just captivated by him...I didn't realize I was attracted to him though at this point. He said something to me and I responded with something completely stupid as my brain was shut down. Well, I run into him Mon - Fri once a day b/c he works at this place that I need to be. My heartraces every time I see him...and I still have trouble talking to him. Sometimes I try not to look at him because I don't feel like dealing with the intensity of it all.

 

I found myself displaying all of the flirtatious body signals, the way I make eye contact with him, tilting my head, touching my hair, etc. He's not even someone who I usually find good looking. There is a huge difference b/w noticing that someone is good-looking and being attracted like this. He shaves his head...I'm sure b/c he is balding but I really don't care, I can tell he is a teensy bit overweight in the mid-section, and he's not exactly tall...I'm guessing he's about 5'9". Despite all of this he is extremely hot. He has a very handsome face, a strong jaw and nice chin, beautiful dark eyes, and he tans very nicely. Nice arms too. And, he's ten years older than me.

 

I would never, ever risk my marriage for this man or anyone else as I love my husband very much and my kids are warm and safe in their family. But sometimes I wonder how sex would be with this guy since the mere sight of him makes my heart beat so fast I find myself driving over the speed limit when I leave that place.

 

I hope you all don't think I'm a terrible person for this...but I really can't help it. But, interesting though the way this person makes me feel. I have never, ever had my body react like this before with anyone else. When I first met my husband (blind date) I wasn't really attracted to him, and I noticed that he had a pretty big head. I think that nature was warning me not to mate with him....three years later I was giving birth to one of his kids and it took me TWENTY SEVEN hours of painful labor to pop out this kid and his huge head. Now, maybe if I would have had kids with this other guy things would have went more smoothly. Who knows?