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Physical Attractiveness

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Beauty; Mate choice; Sexual selection

Definition

The visual cues used to judge mate quality.

Introduction

One of the most fundamental problems facing an individual is mate selection: how do we choose a partner? It is important that we are sensitive to the physical cues that honestly signal that one individual is more desirable (i.e., fitter and with a better reproductive potential) than another and use them to choose the partner which is most likely to enhance our chances of successful reproduction. The wrong choice will obviously have a negative impact on an individual’s potential for reproduction, so one might expect very strong selective pressures for the development of mechanisms that accurately detect cues to health and fertility in potential partners. In this context, attractiveness is based on features that accurately index health and reproductive potential.

Female Attractiveness

For female attractiveness, the two indices most widely researched are overall body fat...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Lincoln University, Lincoln, UK

    Martin J. Tovée

  2. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Piers L. Cornelissen

Authors
  1. Martin J. Tovée
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  2. Piers L. Cornelissen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin J. Tovée .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Gary L Brase

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Tovée, M.J., Cornelissen, P.L. (2016). Physical Attractiveness. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1879-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1879-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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