Thread: What causes physical attraction?

This is a really complated subject, not easy to answer. When you ask what the 'cause' of physical attraction is, there are a few different approaches that can be taken:

The evolutionary advantage

of physical attraction in general: Unhealthy people will often look abnormal. So we become attracted to people who look very normal, with symmetrical faces and well-proportioned faces and bodies. Even some healthy people will still appear ugly to us, for this reason, if they don't have normally proportioned and symmetrical faces.

of specific physical features:
Breasts, hips, other feminine qualities: Basically to advertize a good baby making machine.
Youthful women: As a woman gets older, it's much more likely for a baby she has to have negative mutations, disorders, etc.
Men of prime age/intelligence/muscle/leadership ability: Helps protect a woman and her children, more likely for the children and woman to survive to produce more offspring.
...I could go on

Biologically: It's just programmed into our brains to find breasts attractive, to find symmetry attractive, etc.

Psychologically:
This is a whole other confusing topic. Why is a skinny waist attractive? Do we only think they are because society tells us they are, or do we naturally find thin waists attractive? The ancient Greeks (the men) often found little boys attractive. Does that suggest most of our feelings of physical attraction are programmed into us by society?

Originally Posted by Dianeva

Biologically: It's just programmed into our brains to find breasts attractive, to find symmetry attractive, etc.
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I think there's more to it than just simple programming. We see an image. We associate that image with a feeling, either something we've experienced or a projected idea about a future experience. This causes chemicals to be released in the body that cause attraction, arousal.