experiments have been performed in which
photographs of all sorts of
women were
taken, and systematically combined in such a
way that their
facial features (length of
nose, width of
eyes, etc.) would be averaged together at varying
degrees with varying numbers of photographs. for example, the
first level would be an unaltered photograph. the next would be two sets of features averaged
together to make one
face. then four, then
eight. and so on.
these
pictures were then shown to
males, who were asked to
rate the women on how "
attractive" they were. as the features became more averaged, a higher
percentage of males found the faces more
attractive. so hypothetically, the most average female in regards to physical features would be
the most sought-after woman on earth.
biologists theorize that this is related mainly to
genetics and
natural selection. people generally chose others who are "
normal" in appearance (i.e. don't have deformities like
hunchbacks or whatever) because there is an
ancient built-in reproductive mechanism that drives
organisms to mate with the healthiest
candidate available. not only does this reduce the
risk of
disease to the
organism in
question, but it also decreases the likelihood of
deleterious genes popping up in the
offspring.
it's all about survival, dudes. better start looking so-so.