Hi my Friends!
Having an analytical mind
is not always the best.... Being in love, I still want to understand WHY? Why
he and not somebody else?
Following is an article
from www.livescience.com about Rules of Attraction. As I met my love in
Internet, some of these rules don't work, in my opinion. What is for sure is
our strong similarity.... We both have near the same character and
interests. And as article says, I laugh for hours at his jokes.... may be these
were the reasons?
And how about you? Please, leave
your opinion about the following:
To figure out how we pick
mates, scientists have measured every shape and angle of the human face,
studied the symmetry of dancers, crafted formulas from the measurements of
Playboy models, and had both men and women rank attractiveness based on
smelling armpit sweat.
After all this and more,
the rules of attraction for the human species are still not clearly understood.
How it all factors into true love is even more mysterious.
But a short list of
scientific rules for the game of love is emerging. Some are as clearly defined
as the prominent, feminine eyes of a supermodel or the desirable hips of a
well-built man. Other rules work at the subconscious level, motivating us to
action for evolutionary reasons that are tucked inside clouds of infatuation.
In the end, lasting love
depends at least as much on behaviour as biology. But the first moves are made
before you're even born.
Symmetry equals sex
Starting at conception, the
human body develops by neatly splitting cells. If every division were to go
perfectly, the result would be a baby whose left and right sides are mirror
images. But nature doesn't work that way. Genetic mutations and environmental
pressures skew symmetry, and the results have lifelong implications.
Good symmetry shows that an
individual has the genetic goods to survive development, is healthy, and is a
good and fertile choice for mating.
Both men and women rated
symmetrical members of the opposite sex as more attractive and in better health
than their less symmetrical counterparts. The differences can be just a few
percent—perceivable though not necessarily noticeable.
Men with higher degrees of
symmetry enjoy more sexual partners than men of lower symmetry.
Women's sex-partner numbers
are dependent on things other than attractiveness. Because of the way that the
sexual system in humans works, women are choosey. They are being sexually
competed for. They have to be wooed and all that."
Those hips
Body shape is of course
important, too. And scientists have some numbers to prove it. Psychologist
Devendra Singh of the University
of Texas studied people's
waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).
Women with a WHR of
0.7—indicating a waist significantly narrower than the hips—are most desirable
to men.
And an analysis of
hourglass figures of Playboy models and Miss America contestants showed that the
majority of these women boast a WHR of 0.7 or lower.
In general, a range of 0.67
to 1.18 in females is attractive to men, Singh concluded in a 2004 study, while
a 0.8 to 1.0 WHR in men is attractive to women, although having broad shoulders
is more of a turn-on.
What exactly is encoded in
the hip ratio? A big fat clue to whether the person will have enough energy to
care for offspring.
Where fat is deposited on
the body is determined by sex hormones; testosterone in men and estrogen in
women. If a woman produces the proper amount and mixture of estrogen, then her
WHR will naturally fall into the desired range. The same goes for a male's
testosterone.
Face it
The structure of a person's
face also gives insight to fertility.
Estrogen caps bone growth
in a woman's lower face and chin, making them relatively small and short, as
well as the brow, allowing for her eyes to appear prominent, Thornhill explained.
Men's faces are shaped by testosterone, which helps develop a larger lower face
and jaw and a prominent brow.
Men and women possessing
these traits are seen as attractive, because they advertise reproductive
health.
Thornhill also points to
the booming nip-‘n'-tuck business—which is very much about improving a person's
symmetry—as evidence that people find the quality attractive.
Sniff this
Research reported last
month found women both smell and look more attractive to men at certain times
of the month.
And symmetrical men smell
better.
Borrowing sweaty
undershirts from a variety of men, scientists offered the shirts to the noses
of women, asking for their impressions of the scents. Hands down, the women
found the scent of a symmetrical man to be more attractive and desirable.
A 2002 study found women
prefer the scent of men with genes somewhat similar to their own over the scent
of nearly genetically identical or totally dissimilar men.
The human genome contains
more than 1,000 olfactory genes—compared to approximately 300 genes for
photoreceptors in the eyes—so pheromones have received a lot of attention from
basic research scientists as well as perfume manufacturers.
But the role of pheromones
in the human realm remains controversial.
Animal attraction
Pheromones clearly at as
sexual attractants in the animal world.
Yet many
researchers are not sold on the idea that these odourless compounds play a role
in human attraction.
A study last year, however,
suggested that human pheromones affect the sexual area of the brains of women
and gay men in a similar manner.
Sex goes visual
Pheromones, like other
scents, hitch a ride through the air on other particles, such as water
droplets. They generally hover just 10 inches off the ground, however. So odds
are slim they'll waft up to a human nose and fuel sudden passion at a
nightclub.
Watch any construction
worker whistling at a passing woman from half a block away, and you can see how
visual cues can be more powerful.
After our ancestors
began to see color, a gene important in the pheromone-signalling pathway
suffered a deleterious mutation, making it impossible for the scent signals to
reach the brain. Imagine a train, leaving from Los Angeles
to New York, discovers that the tracks in St. Louis are destroyed.
Lasting relationships
The rules of attraction
might drive our initial decisions, for better or worse. But lasting
relationships are about much more than what we see and smell.
Behavior plays a key role,
with biology an intriguing contributing factor.
One of the oldest theories
about attraction is that like begets like. It explains that eerie perception
that married couples sometimes look awfully similar.
The main theory is that
some genes work well in combination with each other. If these genes evolved to
work in combination, then you don't want to break that up too much for your
offspring. Finding a mate with similar genes will help you ensure this.
If your spouse is
genetically similar, you're more likely to have a happy marriage, for example.
Child abuse rates are lower when similarity is high, and you'll also be more
altruistic and willing to sacrifice more for someone who is more genetically
like you, research shows.
It probably comes as little
surprise people are drawn to individuals with similar attitudes and values, as
psychologist Eva Klohnen at the University
of Iowa found in a 2005
study of newlywed couples. These characteristics are highly visible and
accessible to others and can play a role in initial attraction.
When it comes to sticking
together for the long haul, researchers have shown that likeness of
personality, which can take more time to realize, means more.
Comedy can also help a
relationship. But the importance of humour is different for men and women, says
Eric Bressler of McMaster
University.
A woman is attracted to a
man who makes her laugh, Bressler found in a 2005 study. A man likes a woman
who laughs at his jokes.
True love
Somewhere amid attraction
and sex, we all hope, are strong feelings of love. But
which of all the motivations really drives us?
Interestingly, brain scans
in people who'd recently fallen in love reveal more activity related to love
than sex. "Romantic love is one of the most powerful of all human
experiences," says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University.
"It is definitely more powerful than the sex drive."
Despite all their
differences, men and women place high value on one trait: fidelity.
Cornell University's Stephen Emlen and colleagues
asked nearly 1,000 people age 18 to 24 to rank several attributes, including
physical attractiveness, health, social status, ambition, and faithfulness, on
a desirability scale.
People who rated themselves
favourably as long-term partners were more particular about the attributes of
potential mates. After fidelity, the most important attributes were physical
appearance, family commitment, and wealth and status.
"Good parenting,
devotion, and sexual fidelity—that's what people say they're looking for in a
long-term relationship," Emlen says.
