<p>Many, if not most people are guided in their romantic choices by so-called (psychological) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovemap" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"love maps</a>. According to sexologist John Money, these are not inborn, but are typically formed at an early age (single digits, before puberty), and function like a "native language," complete with its own "accent."</p>

<p>By definition, an "attractive" person (to a given individual), will fit that person's love map. It's like being alone in a foreign country and meeting someone who is a "country(wo)man, or at least speaks your language. The attraction could be "instant."</p>

<p>I have such a decided preference for a certain type of woman, formed out of early childhood experiences with nannies, before the age of seven or eight. The term I use for such women is "M1A" (Maiden, first preference, class A). Other people will have first (and second) preferences, perhaps of different classes, of maidens or men. They may be different from mine, but will also originate in their own love maps.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-19T17:42:08.667Z
2017-08-19T17:42:08.667Z
Tom Au
<p>With regard to your first question about the psychological processes of interpersonal attraction there are (at least) 4 factors that have been found in the social psychology literature.</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>Contextual Aspects.</strong> 
People are more likely to develop attraction
towards those they see more frequently than others. This is known as
the <em>Mere Exposure Effect</em> (Saegert, Swap &amp; Zajonc, 1973). </li>
<li><strong>Attributes of the Target Person.</strong> 
The perceived attractiveness (for example of the
face) is another factor.  The comments point to resources regarding
this aspect. </li>
<li><strong>Attributes of the Perceiver.</strong> 
Mood has an effect on interpersonal attraction. Being in a positive mood makes a person more likely to develop attraction (Gouaux, 1971).  </li>
<li><strong>Aspects of the relationship between Perceiver and Target Person.</strong> 
Perceived similarity has an effect on interpersonal attraction (Byrne, 1971).  Similarities can serve as a positive reinforcement of the attitudes of the perceiver.
They are also the foundation for common activities and also which in
turn lead to closer relationship.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>References</strong></p>

<p>Byrne, D. E. (1971). The attraction paradigm (Bd. 11). New York: Academic Press.</p>

<p>Condon, J. W., &amp; Crano, W. D. (1988). Inferred evaluation and the relation between attitude similarity and interpersonal attraction. <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5)</em>, 789.</p>

<p>Gouaux, C. (1971). Induced affective states and interpersonal attraction. <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 20</em>, 37–43.</p>

<p>Saegert, S., Swap, W., &amp; Zajonc, R. B. (1973). Exposure, context, and interpersonal attraction. <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25(2)</em>, 234-242.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-06-18T13:37:16.260Z
2014-10-17T04:53:33.817Z
2014-10-17T04:53:33.817Z
Jens Kouros
<ul>
<li>What makes a person particularly attractive to another person, specifically the opposite sex? </li>
<li>Why would the brain evolve this trait to target specific genes (that make someone look pretty), and exclude others (that make someone look ugly)?</li>
</ul>

<p>This seems to differ from the accepted idea that ancient female humans were attracted to stronger, more able bodied men due to survival instinct. Facial features seem to have nothing to do with survival or natural selection.</p>

<ul>
<li>So, why are facial features significant to assessing beauty?</li>
<li>Also, how does the brain process physical features as good or bad?</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-24T17:01:23.907Z
From a more biological standpoint, check out this answer, the key word is "Indicator traits", which are perceived as beautiful because they correlate with good genes: http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/9500/do-male-animals-visually-perceive-females-as-more-less-attractive
Alex Stone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-06-12T02:30:08.573Z
check out this review article [The evolutionary psychology of  facial beauty](http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/Psyc591Readings/Rhodes2006.pdf)
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-06-12T05:31:18.947Z
High symmetry means that your body was under good conditions during development and probably has high fitness, this is because symmetry is hard to maintain. Your brain is tuned to detecting very subtle features of faces for other social interaction reasons, and so you hijack that mechanism to check for symmetry instead of developing a new system for looking carefully for symmetry in non-facial features. That being said, faces aren't the end of the game, you also have classic metric like waist-hip, etc.
Artem Kaznatcheev
<social-psychology><evolution><physical-attraction><aesthetics>
What makes someone attractive psychologically?
Nick
# What makes someone attractive psychologically?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-06-12)

* What makes a person particularly attractive to another person, specifically the opposite sex?
* Why would the brain evolve this trait to target specific genes (that make someone look pretty), and exclude others (that make someone look ugly)?

This seems to differ from the accepted idea that ancient female humans were attracted to stronger, more able bodied men due to survival instinct. Facial features seem to have nothing to do with survival or natural selection.

* So, why are facial features significant to assessing beauty?
* Also, how does the brain process physical features as good or bad?

**Tags:** social-psychology, evolution, physical-attraction, aesthetics

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: check out this review article [The evolutionary psychology of  facial beauty](http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/Psyc591Readings/Rhodes2006.pdf)  
> **username_3**: High symmetry means that your body was under good conditions during development and probably has high fitness, this is because symmetry is hard to maintain. Your brain is tuned to detecting very subtle features of faces for other social interaction reasons, and so you hijack that mechanism to check for symmetry instead of developing a new system for looking carefully for symmetry in non-facial features. That being said, faces aren't the end of the game, you also have classic metric like waist-hip, etc.  
> **username_1**: From a more biological standpoint, check out this answer, the key word is "Indicator traits", which are perceived as beautiful because they correlate with good genes: http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/9500/do-male-animals-visually-perceive-females-as-more-less-attractive  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2013-06-18. Score: 11 | Accepted answer

With regard to your first question about the psychological processes of interpersonal attraction there are (at least) 4 factors that have been found in the social psychology literature.

* **Contextual Aspects.**
  People are more likely to develop attraction
  towards those they see more frequently than others. This is known as
  the *Mere Exposure Effect* (Saegert, Swap & Zajonc, 1973).
* **Attributes of the Target Person.**
  The perceived attractiveness (for example of the
  face) is another factor. The comments point to resources regarding
  this aspect.
* **Attributes of the Perceiver.**
  Mood has an effect on interpersonal attraction. Being in a positive mood makes a person more likely to develop attraction (Gouaux, 1971).
* **Aspects of the relationship between Perceiver and Target Person.**
  Perceived similarity has an effect on interpersonal attraction (Byrne, 1971). Similarities can serve as a positive reinforcement of the attitudes of the perceiver.
  They are also the foundation for common activities and also which in
  turn lead to closer relationship.

**References**

Byrne, D. E. (1971). The attraction paradigm (Bd. 11). New York: Academic Press.

Condon, J. W., & Crano, W. D. (1988). Inferred evaluation and the relation between attitude similarity and interpersonal attraction. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5)*, 789.

Gouaux, C. (1971). Induced affective states and interpersonal attraction. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 20*, 37–43.

Saegert, S., Swap, W., & Zajonc, R. B. (1973). Exposure, context, and interpersonal attraction. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25(2)*, 234-242.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2017-08-19. Score: 0

Many, if not most people are guided in their romantic choices by so-called (psychological) ["love maps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovemap). According to sexologist John Money, these are not inborn, but are typically formed at an early age (single digits, before puberty), and function like a "native language," complete with its own "accent."

By definition, an "attractive" person (to a given individual), will fit that person's love map. It's like being alone in a foreign country and meeting someone who is a "country(wo)man, or at least speaks your language. The attraction could be "instant."

I have such a decided preference for a certain type of woman, formed out of early childhood experiences with nannies, before the age of seven or eight. The term I use for such women is "M1A" (Maiden, first preference, class A). Other people will have first (and second) preferences, perhaps of different classes, of maidens or men. They may be different from mine, but will also originate in their own love maps.


---

