Evolutionary Approaches to Beauty

Abstract In Evolutionary Psychology, it is sometimes claimed that certain traits are universally considered as beautiful. In both sexes, these alleged universals have included having symmetrical facial and body traits, smooth, blemish-free skin, and sex-typical (masculine vs feminine) traits. In men, ‘beautiful’ traits may include having a strong jawline, being tall, and possessing a muscular physique with broad shoulders. In women, youthful and feminine features are claimed to be preferred, such as large eyes, full lips, and a curvaceous yet slim body shape. According to evolutionary scholars, humans have evolved attraction to such traits because they signal important information about the individual’s biological condition; for example, that this individual is particularly healthy or fertile. While early research—primarily conducted in Western cultures—seemed to support this notion, more recent research has challenged this. For example, emerging cross-cultural research from non-Western cultures has demonstrated that, rather than being universal, beauty perceptions are malleable and vary considerably between cultures. Furthermore, when researchers test whether these traits are truly associated with health or fertility, we find that the evidence is weak and inconsistent. In this chapter, we therefore review extant evidence for evolutionary-derived hypotheses about the universality of beauty. We also discuss how narratives arguing that perceptions of beauty are fully evolved—rather than malleable—are sometimes misused in the public domain by, for example, promoting ideas of biological determinism and justifying appearance-based discrimination, and we make recommendations for future research into this area.