The Psychology of Attractiveness

Summary

The transcript discusses the correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness in potential mates, highlighting a significant difference in how women perceive men versus how men perceive women. It critiques evolutionary biology studies for focusing on female attractiveness markers while neglecting what women find attractive in men. The conversation touches on the biological markers of beauty, such as neotenic features and fecundity indicators, and questions the convenience of these theories for men. The discussion also addresses the harsh standards placed on women's sexual self-presentation and the impact of reproduction on women's lives, suggesting that women's preferences for competent partners are influenced by the biological and practical burdens of reproduction.

Takeaways

• 🔍 The correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness for women perceiving men is significantly higher (0.6) compared to the correlation between cognitive ability and grades.
• 🚹 The correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived mate attractiveness for women by men is either zero or slightly negative, indicating a stark difference in how attractiveness is perceived across genders.
• 👩 Women tend to preferentially mate 'up' the hierarchy, while men tend to mate 'down', a trend that is well-established cross-culturally.
• 🤔 The preference for certain physical traits, like neotenic features and symmetry, is linked to perceptions of attractiveness and is seen even in infants' gaze towards symmetrical faces.
• 🧸 The 'beauty myth' is discussed in relation to societal expectations and the pressure it places on women to conform to an ideal of sexual self-presentation.
• 🧬 There is a critique of evolutionary biology studies that focus on physical markers of attractiveness in women but often neglect to examine what women find attractive in men.
• 🤝 There is a noted overlap in physical markers of attractiveness that are mutually recognized by both men and women, though the manifestations may vary.
• 💭 The discussion suggests that women's preferences for wealth or professional accomplishment in men may be a proxy for assessing productive competence, rather than a direct marker of attractiveness.
• 🤰 The biological and practical reasons behind women's preferences in mates are explored, including the differential burden of reproduction and the impact on women's lives.
• 📚 The speaker expresses a critical view of evolutionary biology's application to explaining contemporary gender roles, suggesting it lacks intellectual merit in modern contexts.

Q & A

What is the correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness for women perceiving men?

The correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness for women perceiving men is either zero or slightly negative, indicating that women do not strongly associate a man's socioeconomic status with his attractiveness.

How does the correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness for women perceiving men compare to other social science findings?

The correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness for women perceiving men is significantly lower than the correlation between general cognitive ability and grades, which is one of the most robust and powerful findings in social sciences.

What is the role of neoteny in perceptions of attractiveness?

Neoteny, or the retention of juvenile features into adulthood, is one of the hallmarks of sexual attractiveness. It is a pervasive tendency that influences perceptions of beauty, including in animated characters and plush toys, which often have large eyes, small noses, and symmetrical faces.

Why do women preferentially mate across hierarchies and upwards, according to the script?

Women preferentially mate across hierarchies and upwards due to a biological and practical interest in finding a partner who is as competent or more competent than themselves, which can help redress the differential burden of reproduction.

What is the 'beauty myth' referred to in the script?

The 'beauty myth' refers to societal expectations and standards that place an 'Iron Maiden straitjacket' on women, dictating the ideal of their sexual self-presentation and attractiveness, often in ways that are harsh and unattainable.

What is the criticism of evolutionary biology studies as presented in the script?

The criticism is that evolutionary biology studies often focus on physical markers of attractiveness in women but neglect to examine what women find attractive in men. This leads to a flawed understanding of gendered attractiveness and reinforces certain gender roles.

Why might male scientists be hesitant to study certain physical markers of attractiveness in men?

Male scientists might be hesitant to study certain physical markers of attractiveness in men, such as penis size, because the conclusions could be unpopular or challenge societal norms and expectations.

How do women's evaluations of men's attractiveness differ from men's evaluations of women's attractiveness?

Women are reported to be much harsher in their evaluations of men's attractiveness compared to men's evaluations of women, with men rating 50 percent of women as below average in attractiveness, while women rate 80 percent of men as below average.

What is the biological rationale behind women seeking partners who are more competent or as competent as themselves?

The biological rationale is that women, being the sex that devotes more time and energy to reproduction, seek to redress the differential burden of reproduction by finding a partner who can contribute equally to the responsibilities associated with raising offspring.

Why does the speaker in the script consider the application of evolutionary biology to contemporary gender roles as lacking intellectual merit?

The speaker believes that evolutionary biology is often used to justify outdated gender roles and expectations that do not reflect the realities of the 21st century. The speaker argues that these studies do not account for societal changes and the evolution of gender dynamics.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Socioeconomic Status and Attractiveness Perceptions

This paragraph discusses the correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness, particularly in the context of mate selection. It highlights a significant difference in how women perceive men versus how men perceive women, with a strong correlation for women (around 0.6) but none or a slight negative correlation for men. The speaker critiques evolutionary psychology studies for focusing on physical attractiveness in women while neglecting to explore what women find attractive in men, suggesting a bias in research that overlooks women's preferences for physical markers of attractiveness in men, such as symmetry, muscle tone, and height.

05:02

🤔 Critique of Evolutionary Psychology and Gender Roles

The speaker challenges the utility of evolutionary biology in explaining contemporary gender roles, arguing that it often relies on outdated assumptions. They point out that evolutionary psychologists tend to assume women seek wealth as a proxy for productivity, which the speaker finds conceptually flawed. The paragraph also addresses the harsh standards of female attractiveness and the 'beauty myth,' suggesting that societal expectations disproportionately burden women. The speaker asserts that women are more critical of male attractiveness than vice versa, which they attribute to biological and practical reasons related to reproduction and the desire to find a competent partner.

10:03

🌱 Outdated Assumptions in Evolutionary Biology

The final paragraph emphasizes the speaker's view that evolutionary biology's explanations for current gender dynamics lack intellectual merit. They argue that these theories often discuss scenarios that are no longer relevant to modern society. The speaker suggests that the field's focus on historical circumstances distracts from understanding and addressing current gender issues.

Keywords

💡Perceived Mate Attractiveness

This refers to how attractive an individual is seen by potential partners. In the video, the speaker discusses the difference in how men and women perceive attractiveness in a mate. For example, women are suggested to correlate attractiveness with socioeconomic status, while men focus on physical attributes.

💡Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to an individual's or group’s position within a social hierarchy, based on factors like income, education, and occupation. The speaker claims that women often associate a man's socioeconomic status with attractiveness, suggesting a strong correlation between the two (about 0.6).

💡Cognitive Ability

Cognitive ability refers to mental capabilities such as learning, thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving. In the video, it is mentioned to compare the correlation between SES and attractiveness with the correlation between cognitive ability and academic grades, showing that the former is even higher.

💡Sexual Attractiveness

Sexual attractiveness is the degree to which someone is considered desirable as a sexual partner. The video discusses how it is influenced by physical traits (e.g., symmetry) and biological markers of fertility, particularly in women. For men, other factors like competence and status are argued to play a role.

💡Symmetry

Symmetry refers to the balanced and proportionate arrangement of features. In the video, symmetrical faces are mentioned as a cross-cultural marker of beauty and attractiveness. This is linked to biological health, as symmetry often indicates good genes and fertility.

💡Neoteny

Neoteny is the retention of juvenile features in adult organisms. The speaker highlights neotenic faces (baby-like features such as large eyes and small noses) as a marker of attractiveness in women. This concept is also extended to how babies and adults prefer these features in faces and even toys.

💡Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach that explains psychological traits as adaptations shaped by natural selection. The video critiques this field, particularly its conclusions about gender differences in sexual attractiveness and mating preferences, calling these theories outdated and biased.

💡Beauty Myth

The 'Beauty Myth' refers to societal pressures on women to adhere to certain standards of physical appearance. In the video, it is mentioned in relation to how women are expected to conform to harsh standards of beauty, which are biologically linked to fertility and attractiveness, placing women in an 'Iron Maiden' straitjacket.

💡Productive Competence

Productive competence is a person's ability to be effective in producing valuable outcomes, often associated with wealth and professional success. In the video, it is argued that women may use markers of wealth as a proxy for productive competence when assessing male attractiveness, though the speaker disputes this as a conceptual flaw.

💡Gender Roles

Gender roles are societal norms that dictate the expected behaviors, attitudes, and responsibilities of men and women. The video critiques how evolutionary biology is used to justify contemporary gender roles, particularly in the context of sexual attraction and mating preferences, suggesting that these ideas may be outdated and misleading.

Highlights

The correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived attractiveness for women perceiving men is about 0.6, indicating a strong association.

This correlation is stronger than that between general cognitive ability and grades, one of the most robust findings in social sciences.

In contrast, the correlation between socioeconomic status and perceived mate attractiveness for women by men is zero or slightly negative.

Women tend to preferentially mate 'up' the hierarchy, while men tend to mate 'down', a pattern observed cross-culturally.

The preference for mates does not significantly change even in Scandinavian countries, known for gender equality.

Biological markers of beauty, such as neotenic faces and babyish features, are linked to attractiveness.

Symmetrical faces and certain physical traits are seen as attractive across cultures.

The 'beauty myth' suggests that societal standards of beauty can be harsh and are particularly challenging for women.

The author criticizes evolutionary biology studies for focusing on female attractiveness markers without examining what women find attractive in men.

Studies often assume that women use wealth as a proxy for attractiveness in men, neglecting other physical markers.

The speaker asserts that there is a lack of research on what physical attributes women find attractive in men.

Evolutionary psychology is criticized for being convenient for men by avoiding直面 the physical attributes women evaluate in men.

Women are reported to be harsher in evaluating men's attractiveness compared to men's evaluations of women.

The biological differential burden of reproduction on women is highlighted as a reason for their preferences in mates.

The speaker argues against the use of evolutionary biology to explain contemporary gender roles, suggesting it lacks intellectual merit.

The discussion points out the ongoing debate about the role of biology versus culture in shaping gender roles and attractiveness standards.

Transcripts

the correlation between perceived mate

attractiveness

uh

with regards to women perceiving men the

correlation between socioeconomic status

and perceived attractiveness is about

0.6 which is a higher correlation than

the correlation between General

cognitive ability and grades and I use

that as an example because that's one of

the most robust and Powerful findings in

the social sciences whereas the

correlation between socioeconomic status

and perceived mate attractiveness for

women by men is zero or slightly

negative so it's a walloping difference

and that's associated with the

proclivity of women to preferentially

mate across hierarchies and up and men

to meet across hierarchies in down

that's relatively well established

cross-culturally and the proclivity

doesn't ameliorate much in say the

Scandinavian countries it ameliorates

slightly and then there are other

Hallmarks of attractiveness on the

female side and this is where I want to

go with the beauty myth we know that

babies for example will gaze much longer

even as newborns at symmetrical faces

and there is this doll-like aspect that

you described so one of the Hallmarks of

sexual attractiveness is neotenic faces

and so there's a proclivity for

organisms to evolve towards their

juvenile forms that's neotni and it's

such a pervasive tendency that it even

characterizes animated characters as uh

Stephen J Gould was at pains to

establish it's quite comical but one of

the Hallmarks of cuteness is

of babyishness of face and you can see

that in the like plush toys and the

sorts of things that are often bought as

dolls for kids or or for sentimental

adults have very large eyes very small

noses very symmetrical faces there's all

sorts of Hallmarks of Beauty from a

biological perspective many of them seem

to be associated with fecundity

um particularly on the female side and

that is very harsh it's a very very

harsh standard and when I read the

beauty myth which was a long time ago by

the way because it was published in what

91 93 93 yeah 93 93.

um I was curious about what you made of

the biological markers of beauty and

what you how you think that plays into

what did you describe the Iron Maiden

straitjacket that's placed on women in

terms of the what the ideal of their

sexual self-presentation Nation

right so thank you for asking you may be

right it may actually have been 91 um

came out first in Britain and then in

the United States so respectfully I'm

familiar with these arguments and uh

respectfully I'm very familiar with

David buss's work and I I think that

it's fundamentally flawed and I'll I'll

get to why

um

so first let me concede

um you know of course uh it's it's

thoroughly documented that there are

markers of

um health and attractiveness uh Health

infertility that are often

cross-cultural

um and certainly symmetrical features

um you know Rosy Skin showing good

circulation you know youth uh all of

those are kind of transcendental

um

markers for attractiveness however one

giant intellectual flaw respectfully in

um pretty much all of the studies that

I've seen of The evolutionary biologists

is that they focus on these markers in

women and they don't

um test for what women find attractive

in men they they project or they

construct kind of experiments or surveys

that prove tendentiously in my view that

women find wealth uh or professional

accomplishment attractive and that that

kind of substitutes for physical Beauty

but they don't ask women who are

heterosexual

um what are the markers for you of

Beauty in men or attractiveness in men

and if they did and they don't they

would find broad shoulders they would

find you know symmetry they would find

maybe you know sorry penis size

um you know they would find maybe

a a muscle tone that shows that they can

kind of effectively you know impregnate

a woman they they would probably find

height as a marker right and it's

notable to me like they they have they

have investigated that I mean there is a

fair bit of overlap in the biomarkers

let's say for what men and women find

mutually physically attractive although

the way that's manifested varies to some

degree as you pointed out shoulder to

waist ratio for example is a marker as

you can see in superhero portrayals of

men for example and the the the the

Cardinal difference seems to be too

though you know it's also not the

sophisticated evolutionary psychologists

don't assume that women are after wealth

what they assume is that women will use

markers of wealth as indicators of

productive competence right but tonight

because to me that's also a conceptual

flaw

um I'll get to why in just a minute but

I know I have to note for the record as

a feminist analyst that I have literally

never seen a study that asks women if

they find penis size a marker for sexual

attractiveness and I think scientists

don't want to run that study male

scientists don't want to run that study

because it would be unpopular

conclusions

um so I I guess to me the whole field of

evolutionary biological studies that

conclude that um sexual attractiveness

is a is is kind of um gendered female

and uh and that for males there are

other proxies for sexual attractiveness

is really convenient for men um because

they don't have to come up against the

raw brief fact that there are you know

physical things women evaluate men for

if they're heterosexual just like their

physical things men

let me ask you about that a little bit

too because you say that it's convenient

for men and so I mean I'm I'm never

certain what form of differential

perception on the part of each sex is

convenient for which sex I mean the

entire sexual Battlefield let's say is

fraught with catastrophe an opportunity

for both sexes I mean one of the things

you do see for example is that women are

much harsher in the evaluations of

attractiveness of men than men are of

women so women men rate women 50 percent

of women as below attractive below

average in attractiveness and women rate

80 percent of men as below average in

physical attractiveness and well and and

like I am I I want to be absolutely 100

crystal clear here that I am not blaming

women for this I understand why this is

I believe now it's in the interest of a

woman biologically and practically

to find a partner who is as competent as

competent as she is or more competent

because fundamentally what she's trying

to do is redress the differential burden

that reproduction places on women and so

totally the reason that women totally

disagree with you I think that's out of

date respectfully but I'll wait for you

to finish okay well okay well so I'm

curious about why you would why you

would consider that because consider

that out of date because first of all

one of the definitions of what

constitutes female biologically is the

female sex biologically speaking is

almost invariably the sex that devotes

more biological time and energy to

reproduction than the alternative sex so

you see that even at the level of sperm

and Aid because the egg has a volume

that is multiple thousands of times

larger than the sperm and even at that

level there's more

resources being devoted to the difficult

job of reproduction of the female level

and of course women

have a nine month gestation period which

is very onerous and then they do they

are charged with primary responsibility

for infant caregiving especially during

the first year and we know perfectly

well that the differential burden of

reproduction on women is such that

single women who have a child are much

more likely to descend into poverty and

the reason for that at least in part is

well it's actually very difficult to

have a child and it's a 40 hour a week

job at minimum and to add the necessity

of

working and providing on top of that

means an 80-hour work week and so it

isn't obvious to me why the hypothesis

that women would be motivated to redress

that

fundamental biological differential I

don't understand why that would be an

objectionable hypothesis even from the

feminist perspective well let me just

recognize that women are more at risk on

the sexual and reproductive front

I mean I recognize

what you're saying there

um I guess what I would say is

there are as many I like get first let

me say I think the whole field of

evolutionary biology

being presented to explain contemporary

21st century gender roles or

expectations or Norms is respectfully uh

I think it has almost no intellectual

Merit I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude

because you can I mean I've read the

whole range of evolutionary biologists

biologists who are usually invoked right

and they're always 10 dashes and they're

always talking about circumstances that

no longer exist