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Monday, August 29, 2005

Beauty Is In The DNA Of The Beholder

The surveys are in, and you are looking at the most beautiful gal and the most handsome man in the world. Sadly, neither person exists. They are computer-generated composites. The girl is comprised of 64 females and the guy of 32 men. And I added some graininess to make the images more realistic.

The basic theory that German scientists with the Beautycheck Project are working under is that there are hard-coded characteristics that make people attractive. Or at least hard-coded characteristics that make German people attractive to other Germans. 96 models were photographed and 500 volunteers from all walks of life were asked to rate each one on a scale of 1 (ugly) to 7 (beautiful). All responses averaged out; you get the images shown above.

There were some interesting results. The researchers found that adding elements of a child’s face to the female made her more attractive to men. “An enlarged head, a large curved forehead, a shortened nose, rounded cheeks and enlarged eyes” all make the woman “breathlessly beautiful” according to a subsequent Pravda report.

Also measured were social reactions to the photos. Those rated beautiful had attributes such as talented, creative, and sensitive imputed to them for no reason besides aesthetics. Faces scoring lower on the 1-7 scale were assumed to be malcontent, presumptuous, and even stupid.

Posted on August 29, 2005 10:14 AM. Permalink