Why do we Find People Attractive?

Our culture can affect our opinion of attractiveness, but the question is, why don’t all people within a certain culture find the same person attractive?

Let me ask the question in another way, why do attraction preferences differ from one person to another within the same culture?

Why would someone find a person attractive while others find him completely undesirable?

Experience and finding people attractive

Do you know that your past experiences can let you find certain people attractive?

A girl raised by a father who used to ignore her emotional needs will grow up and become an adult who needs excessive care. Such a girl would find any man with facial features that show kindness attractive provided that all other factors are constant.

The girl won’t be aware that she is looking for a person who can give her the care her father failed to provide her with, as all of this will be happening on the subconscious level.

We find people more attractive when we feel that they can help us attain important psychological goals.

That same girl in the previous example will never find a guy attractive if he has a feature or two that are similar to the father’s facial features.

Other factors that let us find people attractive

Physical attraction is a significant factor, but most people don’t know that physical attraction can be alerted based on their perception. A girl who cares a lot about status will certainly find a man driving a Ferrari more physically attractive than if she saw him walking on his feet.

Thus we find people physically attractive even if they were average-looking if we found out that they can help us fulfill our emotional needs.

This means that while there are universal standards for attractiveness imposed on us by globalization still attractiveness is in the beholder’s eye to a great extent.