Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Physical attractiveness" in English language version.
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<ref> tag; supported parameters are dir, follow, group, name (see the help page).In the current study, men rated images with lighter skin tones as most attractive, especially so in the Californian sample. In New Zealand, men rated the female images of average skin color as most attractive, followed by the image which was lightened by 10 units of brightness and 15 units of contrast.
Research with Western subjects disclosed significant consistency in evaluating attractiveness (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986; Iliife, 1960). The females judged to be most attractive may have such similar facial features that they were hard to distinguish one from another (Light, Hollander, & Kayra-Stuart, 1981). Cross-cultural investigations on the judgment of facial attractiveness tended to highlight societal differences, but rough agreements in facial aesthetic preferences were shown by Asian-American and white females (Wagatsuma & Kleinke, 1979), Chinese, Indian, and English females judging Greek males (Thakerar & Iwawaki, 1979), South African and American males and females (Morse, Gruzen, & Reis, 1976), and blacks and whites judging males and females from both races (Cross & Cross, 1971).
Art historians, anthropologists and human psychologists in general agree that it is the symmetry of a face, its perfect proportion, or indeed its averageness – where no feature stands out – that has consistently down the ages been deemed attractive. ...
My informants, mainly women insisted that Japanese skin was superior to Caucasian skin. Although many of my informants had little personal contact with Westerners, they all made more or less identical negative comments about Caucasian women's skin, saying, for example, that it was rough, aged quickly and had too many spots [...] with color resembling 'shabu-shabu'...
Harris investigated the history of the parasol... everywhere ordinary people were forbidden to protect themselves with such devices "pallid skin became a marker of upper-class status". At the beginning of the 20th century, in the United States, lighter-skinned people avoided the sun... Tanned skin was considered lower class.
Also, although unstressed individuals showed a preference for visually similar mates, when subjected to physiological stress by cooling, they were more likepy to prefer dissimilar mates (Lass-Hennemann et al., 2010).
"people preferentially mate with, date, associate with, employ, and even vote for physically attractive individuals." ... Symmetry is one trait we find attractive (but only if the face is right-side up: your symmetric face will, alas, do nothing to help you attract a mate if you constantly stand on your head.
Evolution taught us to lust after symmetry – a nicely balanced body and face – because asymmetry signals past illness or injury. We therefore define beauty quite elegantly, right down to the most ideal ratio of hips to breasts and upper lip to lower lip. Singh says one study showed that people were able to gauge beauty at a subliminal level, when shown pictures for a mere one-hundredth of a second. Another study showed babies prefer pretty faces.
The classical vision of beauty exemplified in Greek art, such as the 2nd century B.C. Venus de Milo (a.k.a. Aphrodite of Milos), was an ideal carried through millennia, laying the basis for much of Western art's depictions of the human form.
... when women are ovulating, they produce copulins, a scent that attracts men....
Previous studies in animals and humans show that genes in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influence individual odours and that females often prefer odour of MHC-dissimilar males, perhaps to increase offspring heterozygosity or reduce inbreeding. Women using oral hormonal contraceptives have been reported to have the opposite preference, raising the possibility that oral contraceptives alter female preference towards MHC similarity, with possible fertility costs.
an overwhelming cross-cultural preference for lighter skin
In the current study, men rated images with lighter skin tones as most attractive, especially so in the Californian sample. In New Zealand, men rated the female images of average skin color as most attractive, followed by the image which was lightened by 10 units of brightness and 15 units of contrast.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2026 (link)Research with Western subjects disclosed significant consistency in evaluating attractiveness (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986; Iliife, 1960). The females judged to be most attractive may have such similar facial features that they were hard to distinguish one from another (Light, Hollander, & Kayra-Stuart, 1981). Cross-cultural investigations on the judgment of facial attractiveness tended to highlight societal differences, but rough agreements in facial aesthetic preferences were shown by Asian-American and white females (Wagatsuma & Kleinke, 1979), Chinese, Indian, and English females judging Greek males (Thakerar & Iwawaki, 1979), South African and American males and females (Morse, Gruzen, & Reis, 1976), and blacks and whites judging males and females from both races (Cross & Cross, 1971).
see bottom-left of p. 43
<ref> tag; supported parameters are dir, follow, group, name (see the help page).The perception that White faces are more masculine than Asian faces provides support for Lewis' (2012) hypothesis that interracial marriage can be explained by differences in sexual dimorphism and thus advances our understanding of the gender asymmetries in interracial marriage.
Male and female 'siblings' of both male and female participants were manufactured using computer-graphic methods detailed in DeBruine et al. [163]. Participants judged self-resemblance to be more attractive in the context of own-sex faces than in the context of opposite-sex faces. However, there was no such opposite-sex bias when the same faces were judged for averageness. This own-sex bias in preferences for self-resemblance indicates that, while self-resemblance is attractive in an exclusively prosocial (i.e. nonsexual) context, it is less attractive in a potential mating context. Stronger attraction to cues of kinship in own-sex faces than in opposite-sex faces is likely to promote prosocial behaviour towards own-sex kin, while minimizing occurrences of inbreeding with opposite-sex kin.
Only two studies have directly investigated whether people perceive own-race faces to be more attractive than other-race faces using more than one race of participant (Rhodes et al., 2001; Rhodes et al., 2005), and these studies present conflicting findings.
Only two studies have directly investigated whether people perceive own-race faces to be more attractive than other-race faces using more than one race of participant (Rhodes et al., 2001; Rhodes et al., 2005), and these studies present conflicting findings.
In the current study, men rated images with lighter skin tones as most attractive, especially so in the Californian sample. In New Zealand, men rated the female images of average skin color as most attractive, followed by the image which was lightened by 10 units of brightness and 15 units of contrast.
see bottom-left of p. 43
<ref> tag; supported parameters are dir, follow, group, name (see the help page).Male and female 'siblings' of both male and female participants were manufactured using computer-graphic methods detailed in DeBruine et al. [163]. Participants judged self-resemblance to be more attractive in the context of own-sex faces than in the context of opposite-sex faces. However, there was no such opposite-sex bias when the same faces were judged for averageness. This own-sex bias in preferences for self-resemblance indicates that, while self-resemblance is attractive in an exclusively prosocial (i.e. nonsexual) context, it is less attractive in a potential mating context. Stronger attraction to cues of kinship in own-sex faces than in opposite-sex faces is likely to promote prosocial behaviour towards own-sex kin, while minimizing occurrences of inbreeding with opposite-sex kin.
Only two studies have directly investigated whether people perceive own-race faces to be more attractive than other-race faces using more than one race of participant (Rhodes et al., 2001; Rhodes et al., 2005), and these studies present conflicting findings.
<ref> tag; supported parameters are dir, follow, group, name (see the help page).Male and female 'siblings' of both male and female participants were manufactured using computer-graphic methods detailed in DeBruine et al. [163]. Participants judged self-resemblance to be more attractive in the context of own-sex faces than in the context of opposite-sex faces. However, there was no such opposite-sex bias when the same faces were judged for averageness. This own-sex bias in preferences for self-resemblance indicates that, while self-resemblance is attractive in an exclusively prosocial (i.e. nonsexual) context, it is less attractive in a potential mating context. Stronger attraction to cues of kinship in own-sex faces than in opposite-sex faces is likely to promote prosocial behaviour towards own-sex kin, while minimizing occurrences of inbreeding with opposite-sex kin.
Only two studies have directly investigated whether people perceive own-race faces to be more attractive than other-race faces using more than one race of participant (Rhodes et al., 2001; Rhodes et al., 2005), and these studies present conflicting findings.
Scientists ... trained a computer to determine, for each individual face, the most attractive set of distances and then choose the ideal closest to the original face. ...
Research, though, has indicated that what we think of as facial attractiveness is really just facial symmetry
it turns out that symmetry of bodily structure is a fitness indicator, and symmetry is more easily detectable among large breasts than small ones.
Competing explanations range from a loss of beliefs in God or an afterlife that can buffer people against life's setbacks, to the stresses of industrialization, to the distress created in women by the spread of unattainable ideals of female beauty, to exposure to toxic substances.
Venus de Milo ... That lady of renowned beauty...
women's aesthetic judgments are so influenced by other women. Men prefer the wider hips, and most likely could [sic] care less about high heels and handbags. Yet for many women all these things are essential to marking their beauty status with other women(unpublished OpEd)
Evolutionary psychologists claim there is an underlying standard script for beauty – a foundation for what we find appealing that transcends culture and ethnicity. There are various absolutes. For instance, to judge someone beautiful, the eye requires symmetry
scientists from Brunel University have revealed that physical attraction is all down to bodily symmetry
Absolute flawlessness, it's long been observed, is disturbing. It offers no point of connection, and may help explain the "uncanny valley" effect, where almost-lifelike robots trigger revulsion in humans. ...
The research once again confirms a hypothesis that beauty is not merely in the eye of the beholder: it is an indicator of genetic fitness. From a choice of computer-generated faces, volunteers routinely choose the most symmetrical as the most attractive. Physical symmetry is interpreted as a sign of good inheritance. And therefore, the theory goes, women in a position to conceive would be more attracted to someone more likely to engender the healthiest offspring.
the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a large gene family found in most vertebrates....
... "the most perfect all-over beauty of all time." Runner-up: the Venus de Milo.
Numerous studies, including his [Daniel Hamermesh's] earlier research, have concluded that beauty helps the budget by providing greater wealth in several ways: Better-looking people generally earn more money and marry those who are better-looking and higher-earning, he says.
The widespread concern that model thinness has progressed from willowy to wasted has reached a threshold as evidenced by the recent actions of fashion show organizers.
The major reason for the imbalance between men and women in the later decades of life is because men tend to marry younger women as they get older.
... "the most perfect all-over beauty of all time." Runner-up: the Venus de Milo.
The classical vision of beauty exemplified in Greek art, such as the 2nd century B.C. Venus de Milo (a.k.a. Aphrodite of Milos), was an ideal carried through millennia, laying the basis for much of Western art's depictions of the human form.
"people preferentially mate with, date, associate with, employ, and even vote for physically attractive individuals." ... Symmetry is one trait we find attractive (but only if the face is right-side up: your symmetric face will, alas, do nothing to help you attract a mate if you constantly stand on your head.
Evolution taught us to lust after symmetry – a nicely balanced body and face – because asymmetry signals past illness or injury. We therefore define beauty quite elegantly, right down to the most ideal ratio of hips to breasts and upper lip to lower lip. Singh says one study showed that people were able to gauge beauty at a subliminal level, when shown pictures for a mere one-hundredth of a second. Another study showed babies prefer pretty faces.
... when women are ovulating, they produce copulins, a scent that attracts men....
Previous studies in animals and humans show that genes in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influence individual odours and that females often prefer odour of MHC-dissimilar males, perhaps to increase offspring heterozygosity or reduce inbreeding. Women using oral hormonal contraceptives have been reported to have the opposite preference, raising the possibility that oral contraceptives alter female preference towards MHC similarity, with possible fertility costs.
Numerous studies, including his [Daniel Hamermesh's] earlier research, have concluded that beauty helps the budget by providing greater wealth in several ways: Better-looking people generally earn more money and marry those who are better-looking and higher-earning, he says.
women's aesthetic judgments are so influenced by other women. Men prefer the wider hips, and most likely could [sic] care less about high heels and handbags. Yet for many women all these things are essential to marking their beauty status with other women(unpublished OpEd)