The following is quoted from the March 2002 issue of Discovery page 10.

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Beauty may be skin deep, but the response to an enchantress ... runs all the way into the brain. Beautiful faces may be downright addictive, according to neuroscientists at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital.

The researchers recruited groups of heterosexual men in their twenties and thirties and showed them a mix of male and female faces flashed briefly on a computer screen. The participants could keep a face visible longer by pressing a button on a keyboard, something they did repeately when they got to a picture of an attractive female. "These guys were pressing the bar an average 6,000 time over 40 minutes," says Hans Breiter, who led the study. "It was amazing, considering they were just photographs -- it's not as if there were beautiful women waiting for them outside." A concureent brain-scan showed that female faces trigger the same brain regions activated by food and cocaine. Handsome male faces provoked an opposite effect. "There was a definite aversive response, similar to the one you see when you burn your hand," Breiter says. He attributes these responses to motivation circuitry in the brain that regards beautiful females as rewards and handsome males as competition. "The response happens in a primitive part of the brain that's descended from the lizard. Thankfully, we also possess higher brain regions that can regulate that response," he says.

Geez I hope they didn't spend any taxpayer dollars to pay for the study.  Apart from the set of numbers in the test case, the cocaine, & the similarity to a lizards' brain..I think most of us already knew or could have of guessed the same thing.  Of course who would have listened?? LOL

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.

100th Escort Mall I bookmarked, and keep going back to, and back to, and back to, just to find another pretty face, then another, then another, then another.... .......

Sorry...I dont have the "specific" study or the tv show this information was on (Dateline, 60 Minutes, 20/20, Primetime...after watching these shows for so many years they have all become one big blur).

There was a study that "measured" (literally) the space between eyes, nose's, lips, etc. and came up with the "numbers" that make us beautiful. The "looks" of attractive Actors, Models, Singers and "The Beautiful People" of the world all fall within the "number" range measured by these scientists.

An example would be: I saw a photo in a magazine where they "morphed" the faces of Farrah Fawcett and Cameron Diaz together...they fit/morphed together almost perfectly. Again, they do not necessarily look alike, but Farrah Fawcet (in her youth) and Cameron Diaz have similar "Numbers"...

Does anyone know the study I'm refering to? Chime in. (I'll see if I can find it on the Net and I'll post it).

Sable

"Handsome male faces provoked an opposite effect.”There was a definite aversive response, similar to the one you see when you burn your hand," Breiter says"

Ladies, have you ever asked male friends if another male was attractive or good looking and their comment would be: "I'm a guy I don't know if he's attractive or not"  

This study proves that yes they do know but wouldn't admit it. OK yes there are some men that have but I can count on one hand a true response.  Why is this?

RED

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.

1) I have no idea what women think is attractive....in either males or females. My curent GF has two female friends she used to always rave about. She never claimed they were supermodel material, but always spoke about them as if they were so much better looking than her. Having met both of them, one I wouldn't date - period. She is just that unattractive, at least to me. The other isn't bad looking...and is in better shape than my GF...she has the type of body most guys would probably go for...but she isn't very "pretty" (i.e. facial attractiveness).

On the other side of the coin, I have pointed women out to GFs / Female Friends repeatedly and said "she's hot", only to receive a response that "she's ugly! You'd do her?" (or " You'd go out with her"). These were women ANY REASONABLE MAN would think attractive, but for whatever reason, the woman I was with at the time thought were unappealing. Why? Jealousy? Insecurity? Perhaps a judgemental assessment ("I don't like her shoes/hair/bag, so she must be a bitch, and thus I deem her ugly"). Who is to say? My point is they it seems women and men SELDOM agree on what is attractive in either gender, save for at the VERY pinnicle of the human chain. Given that a group of men probably couldn't universally agree on a random sample of 10 women either, is this surprising? Everyone has their own taste...(For example, I am watching an interview of Geena Davis right now...a woman of vast intelligence and honest good looks...a former model no less...yet I have heard  men describe her as "gawky" and "gangly" and "ugly")

2) I know...speaking for myself...that if a guy is just TOO pretty, I find him unattractive. It sets my "gaydar" off, and things just go downhill. I can admit a guy is handsome when I see a handsome guy (Kevin Costner, for example, or Denzel Washington). But if a guy is PRETTY (most of those guys in Calvin Klein ads, who shave all their body hair, for example)...I just wanna puke. I don't think he is attractive, so if asked, I'd say "no".

-- Modified on 4/17/2002 12:57:54 PM

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.  

What is attractive in a woman???  OK I admit I am very very attracted to thin in fact very thin women.  I know it is usually genetic and people usually can't help this- but if they are naturally thin like many asians, they don't have this psycholocical hangup about aways having to be on a diet.  It does not consume their thinking.  I don't care about the hair, eyes, height, or even boobs- if they have some it is a bonus.  About her face - just modestly attractive is good - in fact if she has a nose that is a just a little large or has a bump in it (like Cher) - for some reason that has appeal.  I've asked myself why I am "hot" attracted to a Pamala Anderson but could never see myself dating someone like her.  The answer I come up with is that very attractive women(gross generazation)usually do not try as hard to be giving or flirtatious.  The world has flocked to their door so much that it has jaded them.  Whereas a woman who is maybe on the plus side of "plain" will often have an incredible internal beauty - Flip side...I've known very attractive women who think their good looks are a detriment.  They are not taken seriously for their brains in business and some even have a hard time getting a date because guys are affraid to ask -fearing that they are not handsome or "worthy" enough.  Of course if these beautiful women become the aggressor, that usually solves the problem - but these particular beautiful women I know do not want to be aggressive.

So there you have my opinion.