Аннотации:
Humans tend to judge and sort parts of their social and non-social environment permanently into a few basic categories: those parts they like and those parts they don’t. Indeed we have developed aesthetic preferences for those things and people we are exposed to. And, needless to say, these preferences shape our behavioural choices - our tendency to seek out or avoid what the world has to offer to us. Humans and other animals have evolved preferences for food and habitats, for naturally occurring sensations like smells and sounds, as well as for the broad array of culturally created artefacts. Last but not least, humans have also evolved aesthetic preferences for their sexual and social companions. Here we will review the current approaches in attractiveness research, and deal with the obsession about beauty. We review the biological constraints which create the bases for beauty traits as honest mating signals. If evolutionary approaches to beauty are correct, beauty signals should have a direct relation to health, and reproductive success. The pillars of beauty identified up to now are averageness, symmetry, and sex-hormone markers, which find their expression in form, skin texture, body motion, body odour, voices and hair complexion. We suggest that the content of these signals is redundant, and points in the same direction.
