I fundamentally disagree with greywolf. I think that recent advances in neural imaging (see above) are providing an important window into how we respond to our environment. They allow us to understand at a molecular level why we do the things we do. I would rank the question of why we're attracted to certain people as fundamental - it certainly is the principal driver of this site.

And yes, all of this scientific research is paid for by your tax dollars, mostly through NIH-funded, peer-reviewed grants.

There have been numerous studies on physical attractiveness and the findings are similar.  They've been able quantify the basic dimensional relationships of features that make a pleasing face or figure.   These studies are usually found on some of the Psychology links or even by searching sexual attraction (maybe linkmeister will read this and find a link).

Some of the findings are very interesting.  For example, most "beautiful" faces have rather unremarkable individual features.  Rather it is the shape of the face, the symmetry and the physical relationships (spacing) of the features that makes otherwise unremarkable features considered beautiful.   A woman's figure is no different, with men almost universally agreeing that a woman is most sexually attractive with a waist that is 70% the width of the hips.  There are similar findings for men (but frankly, who cares).

The conclusion that I find interesting is that these same studies have been conducted on all continents with all races and dozens of different cultures and the findings are very similar.  It seems we have an innate sense of what makes another human beautiful or sexually attractive, and it doesn't much matter what race or nationality they are.   Virtually everyone around the world can be shown two pictures, for example, and agree on which person is the most attractive.

Perhaps it's not surprising given that mating and mate selection is such a primal (and critical) function.  Since we aren't animals, we have a much more highly evolved sense of sexual attractiveness (rather than just scent as in lower primates).  This seems to be something we all share at an unconscious level, whether we realize it or not.  Another one of the many ways we are all more similar than different.  

I thought that response was odd myself. I have a picture of my boyfriend over my desk. Every man (and woman) that notice it make a comment about how handsome he is. And no, they are not gay men. But that would be an intresting study too!

....I guess I overlooked the part about the guys' reactions to a handsome male face.

Here are couple of thoughts about it, & about your question, from my experience & individual perspective.

Dealing with your question first...You may have actually been getting a honest answer from the guys.  What attracts us in terms of the physical varies widely.  Some, not all, of the celebreties who are supposedly sex symbols don't do a thing for me, while some others no one ever seem to think of in that way turn me on.  And frankly, I think a lot of guys (certainly myself) don't really have a very good idea what the majority of women find particularly appealing.  That's a conclusion I came to many years ago...simply based on conversations with gals about male celebreties they thought were hot & those that they didn't.  I was surprised in both regards so often that I came to realize that I knew very little about the female perspective on the issue.  Even when all the gals seem to think some guy was a complete hunk many times I still couldn't really understand why.

On to the survey conclusions & bearing in mind what I've said above.....The guys' reaction to the handsome male faces seems to me overstated.  While any guy might realish the idea of being the center of female attention, I don't think most of us are so competitive about it as some ladies are.  Ever notice that many women will first look over the other female pretty carefully when a couple walks by?  No guy I know does that.  So the analogy to burning the hand seemed to me to be a bit overstated.
There was a time in my life that I'd try to find the hottest woman in the crowd to put a move on.  After less success than I would have liked with this tactic, I changed my mode to looking not for the hottest gal, but finding who was looking back at me approvingly.  I had a helluva lot more fun that way!!  There are plenty of both guys & gals to go around, & the hottest isn't always the best!  Don't know if my attitude is reflective of the majority, but it sure keeps me from having any insecurities.  No way would I feel like the reactions as stated in the report.