“The types of environments that are important are not those that are shared by those who grow up in the same family, but are much more subtle and individual, potentially including things such as one’s unique, highly personal experiences with friends or peers, as well as social and popular media”, study author Laura Germine writes.
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‘Women who perceived themselves as more attractive than their mates (partners) showed less interest in their current romantic relationships, ‘ said the researchers from Eastern Connecticut State University. As good friends, relatives and even genetic twins debate attractiveness, it is personal experience that plays a role in determining what is a rather subjective view of “beauty”.
Germine said that the conept that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” has existed for a very long time.
They suggest that future studies could look more closely at which aspects of the environment are most significant in shaping preferences for certain faces and for understanding what influences preferences for other things, such as art, music or pets. But if the identical twins’ preferences were not more similar to each other, it would suggest the environment plays a larger role, she said.
The findings may comfort people those of us who consider less conventionally attractive.
Beyond a few simple rules – such as symmetry being considered generally a more attractive trait – it seems each of us seems to have a different “type” that we are attracted to. They used the insights gained to develop a “highly efficient and effective” test of the uniqueness of an individual’s face preferences.
The study, which was conducted on identical twins, was created to illuminate where people’s disagreements over attractiveness come from. A new study says yes, discovering that 50% of people’s preferences for faces is unique to them, and who we find attractive is most strongly influenced by our life experiences.
Working with colleagues at Wellesley College, Germine looked at 35,000 volunteers’ preferences for different faces, entered through a website. But apparently those decisions aren’t based on a few evolutionary instinct – they come from personal experiences.
In the first part of the study, the researchers found that if they selected two participants at random, the participants agreed on the attractiveness of a face 48 percent of the time on average, and disagreed 52 percent of the time. Previous research has shown that if people see a face and associate it with something positive, they tend to find that face more attractive, she added.
Test yourself online here, to see how much you differ from other people on what faces you prefer, and who you find handsome.
In the new study, the researchers asked 1094 identical twins and 482 fraternal twins – who had been recorded in the Australian Twin Registry – to look at 102 female faces and 98 male faces.
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It really is true – you never get over your first love.
