Attractiveness or attraction is a quality that causes an interest, desire in, or gravitation to something or someone. Attraction may also refer to the object of the attraction itself, as in tourist attraction.
Visual attractiveness
Visual attractiveness or visual appeal is attraction produced primarily by visual stimuli. This type of "visual stimuli" and/or what makes a person attractive is typically seen, but not limited to, features portrayed on the face.
Physical attractiveness
is the perception of the physical traits of an individual human person as pleasing or beautiful. It can include various implications, such as sexual attractiveness, cuteness, similarity and physique. Judgment of attractiveness of physical traits is partly universal to all human cultures, partly dependent on culture or society or time period, partly biological, and partly subjective and individual.
The Science Behind Attraction
According to a study determining the golden ratio for facial beauty, the most attractive face is one with average distances between facial features, and an average length and width of the face itself. Facial attractiveness, or beauty, can also be determined by symmetry. If a face is asymmetrical, this can indicate unhealthy genetic information. Therefore, if a face is symmetrical, healthy genetic information is implied. People will judge potential mates based on the physical expression of the genetic health, which is their apparent attractiveness. This supports the good genes theory, which indicates that attractiveness is seen as a way to ensure that offspring will have the healthiest genes and therefore the best chance of survival. Certain traits that indicate good genes are seen as desirable when choosing a partner.
Attractive qualities in animals
Ultimately, animals were created solely for the purpose of reproduction, therefore, choosing distinctive attractive qualities is the most important factor in their quest for choosing the perfect mate. Attraction among animals is based mostly on what will give the females the best chance of having the most and healthiest offspring that will likely survive to adulthood because of the traits they will inherit from the male. Out of both genders, females often are choosiest about who they pick for a mate. They will look for certain characteristics, like special traits or behaviors in their potential mates that ensure their offspring will have healthy genetic material. Females will look for signs of health in the males, such as large and fancy adornments, bright colors, or other features that the male will only have if he is in good health. A theory that been mentioned, is that females typically seek males who are "good providers and offer potential stability", a quality similar to that of human connections. Besides this, females are also attracted to how much a male weighs, his opposition to sickness and diseases, as well as his domination and authority over large sections of land.
Additional attributes
Beyond the physicality of what makes one attractive, there are many other factors that play a role in someone's sense of attractiveness. Certain pheromones secreted by animals, including humans, can attract others, and this is viewed as being attracted to smell. Human sex pheromones may play a role in human attraction, although it is unclear how well humans can actually sense the pheromones of another. In 2014, Professor Yan Zhang from the Huazhong University in China, that was issued in the Personality and Individual Differences. The study suggested that people who tend to portray positive personality traits, like kindness for instance, are typically seen as more attractive than people who portray negative personality traits.
Eye candy is a slang term for superficial attractiveness. In a 2017 Boston Globe article about the potential for cheerleading at the Olympics, eye candy was used to describe cheerleaders as "entertainment popularized by professional sports in the United States." The term has also been used in professional sports in the United States referring to female athletes.
