Physical attractiveness is the extent to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. The term often implies sexual attractiveness or desirability but can also be distinct from them. Many factors influence one person's attraction to another, with physical aspects being one of them. Physical attraction includes universal perceptions common across human cultures, such as facial symmetry, as well as socioculturally dependent attributes, and personal preferences unique to each individual.
In many cases, humans subconsciously attribute positive characteristics, such as intelligence and honesty, to physically attractive people, a psychological phenomenon called the halo effect. Research done in the United States and United Kingdom found that objective measures of physical attractiveness and intelligence are positively correlated, and that the association between the two attributes is stronger among men than among women. Evolutionary psychologists have tried to answer why individuals who are more physically attractive should also, on average, be more intelligent, and have put forward the notion that both general intelligence and physical attractiveness may be indicators of underlying genetic fitness. A person's physical characteristics can signal cues to fertility and health, with statistical modeling studies showing that the facial shape variables that reflect aspects of physiological health, including body fat and blood pressure, also influence observers' perceptions of health. Attending to these factors increases reproductive success, furthering the representation of one's genes in the population.
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