Thread: What causes physical attraction?

Originally Posted by Mario92

These are actually myths.

I don't think that they are true from a biological standpoint, but in this is strongly encouraged in our culture. Logic and emotion don't have to oppose each other either, it's just that in our culture men are taught to repress emotions and women are taught that they don't need to be smart. This obviously isn't the case with all people, it's just encouraged. It's basically just a side effect of patriarchy and treating women as objects.

Whatever the reasons for it, I still hold that men tend to be more attracted to physical traits, while women tend to be more attracted to emotional traits. It isn't necessarily because of the left-brain/right-brain theory, but that's the best explanation I can come up with.


e: After a bit of reading online, it looks like in some cases men primarily use the logical side of their brain. In those same activities, women use both sides of their brain equally. What this shows is that men do tend to be primarily logical in some cases while women also take emotion into account. This supports my theory that women are (obviously) more emotional than men. I believe this also carries over into the processes of attraction.

Source:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ere.html?cat=4

Originally Posted by MindGames

Whatever the reasons for it, I still hold that men tend to be more attracted to physical traits, while women tend to be more attracted to emotional traits. It isn't necessarily because of the left-brain/right-brain theory, but that's the best explanation I can come up with.


e: After a bit of reading online, it looks like in some cases men primarily use the logical side of their brain. In those same activities, women use both sides of their brain equally. What this shows is that men do tend to be primarily logical in some cases while women also take emotion into account. This supports my theory that women are (obviously) more emotional than men. I believe this also carries over into the processes of attraction.

Source:
Gender Differences in Brain Hemisphere Use - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com

In my R.E class, we are currently learning the topic of gender differences (and where they come from) and in the booklet we're given, it does say that men use the left side and women use both. We're not really told why, but we've concluded that it is from early experiences and influences.

We were shown a video (although our teacher likes to get us to really think about issues and never gives us a straight up answer, so I don't know for sure, but basically what's in the video is what she's implying). In the video, there was a baby that was dressed as both and boy and then a girl (not sure what sex it was) and then shown to people to see what their reactions were.

When the baby was dressed as a boy, the people tended to hold the baby away, and show the baby objects. They would talk to the baby about what a strong man he would grow up to be, and mostly talked about things the baby would grow up to do and the baby's career. They also played with the baby, using big motions and moving the baby around.

When the baby was dressed as a girl, the people tended to cradle the baby, and "shield" it from what was going on around. They would talk to the baby mostly about her appearance, pointing out physical features (such as the eyes) and saying how beautiful they were etc. They didn't play with the baby and barely moved her at all.

As I said, she didn't give us a straight answer, but she basically said that the way you're handled as a baby determines how you think, which is how men respond with the left side and women with both.