Why is your heartbeat faster when you see a tall, handsome guy? Why it becomes faster when you see a charming, cute girl?
Increased heartbeat rate, sweaty palms, nervousness, obsessive thoughts and shyness are just some of the ways our bodies show attraction toward other people.
We’ve evolutionarily developed adaptations to look for cues helpful in survival; cues that represent health and skills.
Both facial symmetry and body symmetry is a universal symbol of a healthy and strong immune system, and in experiments and studies worldwide, scientists found that individuals higher in body symmetry are judged as more attractive than less-symetrical ones.
From genetic perspective, the most important task of any species is to reproduce and surive, passing on the legacy, so anything we’re attracted to has been beneficial in survival for millenia.
Humans developed automatic, instinctual search for and assesment of cues of good health and social status. Due to different roles in survival, men and women evolved two different sets of attractions.
Men developed attractions for youthfulness, beauty and fertility through searching for cues of those characteristics. Our ancestors had many children, so younger, more fertile women could provide more children to the family.
Women deceloped attractions for dominance in males, muscular physique, and high social status. Women needed protection of males to get through pregnancy and childbirth, so they looked for strong, socially dominant males with plethora of resources to share.
We can clearly see that men and women are attracted to two very different sets of qualities. As in yin/yang philosophy, dominant males seek submissive females, because this is how survival was best ensured. Two dominating energies clash and create conflict, and two submissive energies lack direction and leadership.
Our nature is biological and psychological, and discovering secrets of what it means to be human is a wonderful, surprising journey.
For a deeper exploration of the secrets of attraction, I invite you to follow “The Perfect Lover.”
