How the brain detects attractive people

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

An excerpt from the book "Incognito" by neuroscientist David Eagleman about the processes taking place in our head that we are unable to comprehend.

Why are people attracted to young partners rather than older ones? Is it really better to be blonde? Why does a person we catch a glimpse look more attractive than someone we get a good look at? I think it will not surprise you now if I say that our sense of beauty is deeply (and without access) imprinted in the brain - and all this in order to achieve something useful from a biological point of view.

Let's get back to thinking about the most handsome person you know. Well built, everyone likes it, eye-catching. Our brains are wired to pay attention to those who look like that. Thanks to the small details in appearance, such a person gets increased popularity and a more successful career.

Again, you won’t be surprised if I say that what we find attractive is not something intangible and sung by poets. No, the feeling of beauty is born from certain signals that fit into special neural software, like a key to a lock.

What people choose as beauty parameters are mainly signs of the ability to reproduce, manifested as a result of hormonal changes.

Before puberty, boys and girls have similar faces and body shapes. In girls who have reached puberty, the production of estrogen increases, as a result of which the lips become more plump, and the figure takes on a rounded shape; in boys, testosterone production increases, and as a result, the chin protrudes more forward, the nose increases, the jaw becomes more massive, and the shoulders become wider.

Plump lips, full buttocks and a narrow waist in a woman convey an unambiguous message: I am full of estrogen and capable of childbirth. In men, this is done by a massive jaw, bristles and a wide chest. This is how we are programmed to seek beauty. Form reflects function.

Our programs are so ingrained that they differ little from person to person. Researchers identify a very narrow range of female proportions that men find most attractive: the optimal waist-to-hip ratio is usually between 0.67 and 0.822. Men find women with such parameters not only more attractive, but also presumably healthier, happier and smart.

The older a woman becomes, the more her forms deviate from these proportions. The waist spreads, the lips become thinner, the breasts sag, and so on - all this sends a signal that the woman has already passed the peak of fertility. Even a teenager without a biological education is less attracted to an older woman than a young girl. Its neural circuits have a clear mission (reproduction); his consciousness receives only the necessary heading ("She is attractive, chase her!") and nothing else.

Hidden neural programs reveal more than fertility. Not all fertile women are equally healthy, and therefore not all look equally attractive. Physiologist Vileyanur Ramachandran suggests that the joke about men who prefer blondes may contain a grain of truth: white-faced women show signs of illness more clearly, while a dark complexion can mask problems. More health information is a better choice, hence these preferences.

Visual stimuli are stronger for men than for women. Nevertheless, women are subject to the same inner forces: they are attracted by the attractive traits that characterize mature masculinity.

Interestingly, women's preferences can change over the course of a month: during ovulation, they prefer masculine men, and the rest of the time they prefer the stronger sex with softer features, which probably signals more social and caring behavior.

Seduction programs are mostly driven by the mindfulness apparatus, but the result is obvious to anyone. This is why people are shelling out for a facelift, tummy tuck, implants, liposuction, and botox. They strive to hold in their hands the keys to the programs embedded in the brains of other people.

Unsurprisingly, we have little or no direct access to the mechanics of our drives. Visual information connects to ancient neural modules that drive our behavior. Remember the experiment in Chapter 1, when men ranked female faces for beauty: they considered women with dilated pupils more attractive because they signal sexual interest. None of these men had conscious access to their decision-making process.

In one study in my laboratory, subjects were shown pictures of men and women for a moment, after which they judged their attractiveness. In the second step, participants were asked to rate the same photographs, but this time they could get a good look at them. What is the result? People seen in passing are more beautiful.

In other words, if you catch a glimpse of someone as you turn a corner or drive by, your perceptual system will tell you that these people are prettier than if you were judging them in a relaxed environment.

For men, this effect is more pronounced than for women, probably because men are more "visual" in assessing attractiveness. The "fleeting effect" corresponds to everyday experience, when a man casts a cursory glance at a woman and thinks that he has just seen a rare beauty, and when he looks closely, he discovers his mistake. This effect is clear - in contrast to its causes. Why, then, the visual system, having received short-term information, is always mistaken in one direction - it thinks that a woman is more beautiful? Why shouldn't she, in the absence of clear data, believe that a woman should be average or even below average?

The answer has to do with the demands of reproduction. If you decide that the unattractive person that flashed is beautiful, it only takes a second glance to fix the mistake - not much cost. On the other hand, if you are wrong and find an attractive partner unattractive, you can say "Sayonara!" (jap. "goodbye") to a potentially fortunate genetic future. Therefore, the perceptual system has to swallow the fairy tale that a glimpse of a person is attractive. As with other examples, all the conscious brain knows is that you were driving in a different lane in traffic and just passed an incredible beauty; you have no access to the neural machinery of the brain, or to the evolutionary pressures that shaped such a perception.

Attractiveness is not a fixed concept, it is adjusted in accordance with the requirements of the situation.

So, almost all female mammals send clear signals when they are ready to mate. The female baboon's bottom turns bright pink - an unmistakable and irresistible invitation for a male baboon. On the other hand, human females do not transmit any special signals to announce their fertility.

Or is it not so? It turns out that a woman is considered the most beautiful just at the peak of fertility - about 10 days before the start of the menstrual cycle. This is true of the opinions of both men and women. A woman's appearance conveys a message about her fertility level. Such signals are weaker than the baboon's bottom, but their task is only to stimulate a special unconscious apparatus in men who are in the room. Once they have reached the correct circuits, mission accomplished. Signals also reach the chains of other women - perhaps because this is how they can evaluate rivals in the fight for men.

It is not yet clear what these signals are: they can be, for example, the quality of the skin (for example, during ovulation, the tone becomes lighter). But whatever they are, our brains are engineered to pick them up - even without the conscious mind. The mind only feels a powerful and inexplicable impulse of desire.

The relationship between ovulation and beauty is not only evaluated in laboratories - it can also be measured in real life situations. In a recent study, scientists in New Mexico counted the tips a dancer received at local strip clubs and calculated the correlation between the amount of remuneration and the stripper's menstrual cycle.

During peak fertility, dancers earned an average of $ 68 per hour. During your period - only about $ 35. Between these periods, the average earnings were $ 52. Interestingly, contraceptive strippers do not have a clear peak in earnings and earn an average of $ 37 an hour over the course of the month - compared to the average of $ 52 an hour for non-contraceptive users. Apparently, they earn less, since the pills lead to hormonal changes (and therefore to changes in signals), and therefore such dancers are less interested in Casanovs in men's clubs.

It is important to clarify that the beauty of a girl (or a man) is predetermined by neural structure.

We do not have conscious access to these programs, and we can only pull them out after careful research.

Note that the brain is pretty good at detecting signals. Return to the image of the most beautiful person you know and imagine that you are measuring the distance between his or her eyes, as well as the length of the nose, the thickness of the lips, the shape of the chin, and so on. If you were to compare these measurements with those of another, less attractive person, you would find that the differences are negligible. To a space alien or a German Shepherd, the two would be indistinguishable, just as it is difficult for you to distinguish between an attractive and unattractive alien or an attractive and unattractive German Shepherd. However, small differences within your species have a huge impact on your brain.

As an example, let's say that some people find it exciting to see a woman in short shorts, but repulsive to see a man in short shorts, although the two pictures are hardly distinguishable from a geometric perspective. Our ability to make subtle distinctions is amazingly refined; our brains are designed to cope with the precise tasks of choosing and conquering a mate. All of this happens below the level of awareness: we simply enjoy the seething of delightful experiences.

Attractiveness isn't the only topic Eagleman addresses in the book. He also talks about brain damage, cheating, drugs, criminal law and artificial intelligence. Get ready to know what will forever change the way you see yourself, your actions, and the world around you.