Attractiveness: Nature vs nurture

thattequilagirl

Is how physically attractive a person is more to do with genetics or to do with how well people look after themselves?

I think in your late teens/early 20s genetics has a big part to play, you're hot or you're not, but as time goes on things like your skin, hair, teeth and figure (all important elements of attractiveness) start to depend more on how well you're taking care of yourself.

Some girls I went to school withwho were considered fairly plain look stunning now, whereas others who were gorgeous back then have horrible wrinkles from tanning and smoking.

With lads, I've found a lot of fellas who were fairly scrawny start hitting the gym and bulk up and they're nearly like different fellas.

Or is this just a desperate attempt to convince myself to get to the gym?

osarusan

People looking after themselves will make them look as good as they can.

How good that is will be down to genetics and maturation (or artificial means such as make up, surgery, etc).

Of course, it is all (to a certain extent) in the eye of the beholder anyway - there are some things that are pretty much universally considered attractive though.

brummytom

Probably a bit of both. If you're relatively attractive naturally, then looking after yourself can keep you looking well.
You can't polish a turd, though.

Birneybau

brummytom wrote: »

Probably a bit of both. If you're relatively attractive naturally, then looking after yourself can keep you looking well.
You can't polish a turd, though.

You can if you freeze it.

Think it's a case of both. Symmetry is seen as a measure of beauty, a non lopsided face I suppose, but apart from that, healthy living and working out can certainly improve one's attractiveness.

Surgery just makes most people look worse, the lovely Leslie Ash comes to mind.

arayess

bar the odd exception and outliners I don't think anybody is extremely good looking or ugly .

A lot has to do with how they carry themselves (for example a funny confident person) and how they look after themselves although there is that "je ne sais quoi" aspect to attraction.
Somebody just has something and sometimes I'd like a lady and I can't understand why myself.

Menas

I find a woman with a good sense of humour and who is good craic a lot more attractive than a model who is boring!

thattequilagirl

arayess wrote: »

bar the odd exception and outliners I don't think anybody is extremely good looking or ugly .

A lot has to do with how they carry themselves (for example a funny confident person) and how they look after themselves although there is that "je ne sais quoi" aspect to attraction.
Somebody just has something and sometimes I'd like a lady and I can't understand why myself.

I totally agree. I'm more jealous of friends of mine who have a very individual style and way of holding themselves than those who are classically good looking.

I definitely think it evens out a lot over time though.

ScumLord

Birneybau wrote: »

Symmetry is seen as a measure of beauty, a non lopsided face I suppose, but apart from that, healthy living and working out can certainly improve one's attractiveness.

Symmetry is a bit of a myth, no face is symmetrical and if it was it would look very weird. There are all sorts of ratios and particular features play a role in attraction, but with humans it can all depend on the mood of the mob.

Fat people have been sexy in the past, still are in some tribes. Really skinny people had a time at the top, physical people have a constant attractiveness but outside of being physically fit what society considers beautiful can change based on culture. It could probably be argued nerds and geeks are getting a bit of limelight at the moment, which seems logical given we're in the age of the technological boom.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as long as enough people agree that person is important enough to become sexy. It's probably down to women having a fairly transient sexual attraction. They're attracted to whatever works at that time, rather than just physicality. If humans are running around fields after deer then they select physical men. If we need to make warships they select smart men.

callaway92

Menas wrote: »

I find a woman with a good sense of humour and who is good craic a lot more attractive than a model who is boring!

Long-term yeh, but no way in the short-term

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Attractiveness is subjective though. I might think someone is an absolute lash and the next person could suggest I go to specsavers. Different things are attractive. You could have an average looking lad with absolutely beautiful eyes, or a nice smile, and that could make them the most attractive to you.

I don't think there's a lot of thoroughly ugly people in the world.

Earthhorse

Menas wrote: »

I find a woman with a good sense of humour and who is good craic a lot more attractive than a model who is boring!

What about a model with a good sense of humour who is good craic?

Nobody ever seems to think about them.

You can make the most of yourself, but obviously results will vary depending on the raw material.

Some people do grow into their looks though.

Earthhorse

ScumLord wrote: »

physical people have a constant attractiveness

This is probably going to make me seem really shallow but personally speaking I find physical people more attractive than ghosts.

Earthhorse

Candie wrote: »

Some people do grow into their looks though.

And some grow all the way out the other side again.

Sky King

Looking fit and in shape makes much more of a difference as you get older than when you're young.

In your 30s and older a few stone can add on or take years away from how old you look.

The_Captain

thattequilagirl wrote: »

Some girls I went to school withwho were considered fairly plain look stunning now, whereas others who were gorgeous back then have horrible wrinkles from tanning and smoking

Well yeay, that's pretty standard puberty behaviour because people aren't finished growing.

There's people who were beautiful as teenagers who end up growing into plainness as their features grow.
On the other hand, the amount of beautiful adults who were proper uggo teenagers is unreal.

thattequilagirl

Earthhorse wrote: »

This is probably going to make me seem really shallow but personally speaking I find physical people more attractive than ghosts.

Stop ghostshaming!

General attractiveness isn't totally dependent on beauty anyway, someone who's nice to be around and is a good person is always going to be attractive.

Fr_Dougal

Candie wrote: »

General attractiveness isn't totally dependent on beauty anyway, someone who's nice to be around and is a good person is always going to be attractive.

Yeah but someone really attractive can get away with more crap than someone cosmetically challenged.

TerrorFirmer

Remember the stories in the womens chat magazines?

"It was Friday night and I was down the local with my mates, we always loved to let our hair down after a long week in the factory. I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see a gorgeous hunk smiling sheepishly at me. "Fancy a drink" he said, flashing a cheeky grin."

And then you actually look at the pictures of those involved.

One eyed Jack

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Remember the stories in the womens chat magazines?

"It was Friday night and I was down the local with my mates, we always loved to let our hair down after a long week in the factory. I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see a gorgeous hunk smiling sheepishly at me. "Fancy a drink" he said, flashing a cheeky grin."

And then you actually look at the pictures of those involved.

That's the thing about attraction - there's no accounting for taste!

thattequilagirl

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Yeah but someone really attractive can get away with more crap than someone cosmetically challenged.

As I've heard the lads say about women they're very attracted to "You'd put up with a lot from her"

Capt'n Midnight

brummytom wrote: »

You can't polish a turd, though.

You can cover it with glitter.

Also

In the 17th century, the English parliament issued a law according to which men had no problems in divorcing their wives in case it turned out that women's makeup during matchmaking wonderfully concealed all of their defects that became obvious after marriage.

wakka12

Birneybau wrote: »

You can if you freeze it.

Think it's a case of both. Symmetry is seen as a measure of beauty, a non lopsided face I suppose, but apart from that, healthy living and working out can certainly improve one's attractiveness.

Surgery just makes most people look worse, the lovely Leslie Ash comes to mind.

Biggest myth. Bad surgery makes you look worse. The thing is if somebody has good surgery then you wont know they had surgery. Millions of people have surgery every year, yet we see quite few people who had noticeably bad surgery, thats because most are successful.