The cheek which shows more emotion and is more attractive.
People were shown a random sample of black, white and mixed-race faces.
People were shown a random sample of black, white and mixed-race faces.
Mixed-race faces are consistently seen as the most attractive when compared with black and white faces, research finds.
The finding is dramatic among the most attractive people, writes Dr Michael Lewis, the study’s author:
“…40% of the faces in the experiment were mixed race but among the top 10% most attractive faces this proportion increased to 65%.
Of the top 5% most attractive faces, 74% were mixed race.”
Dr Michael Lewis explained the motivation for the study:
“Previous, small scale, studies have suggested that people of mixed race are perceived as being more attractive than non-mixed-race people.
This study was an attempt to put this to the wider test.
A random sample of black, white, and mixed-race faces was collected and rated for their perceived attractiveness.
There was a small but highly significant effect, with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as more attractive.”
There is an evolutionary theory for why mixed race faces are seen as more attractive.
Charles Darwin came up with the idea that hybrids are more vigorous (heterosis).
Cross-breeding in many species leads to offspring or are genetically fitter.
It could be that humans also pick up on this hybrid strength.
Dr Lewis writes:
“The results appear to confirm that people whose genetic backgrounds are more diverse are, on average, perceived as more attractive than those whose backgrounds are less diverse.
This can be taken as evidence for heterosis among human population groups.
There is evidence, albeit anecdotal, that the impact of heterosis goes beyond just attractiveness.
This comes from the observation that, although mixed-race people make up a small proportion of the population, they are over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions like acting with Halle Berry, Formula 1 racing with Lewis Hamilton; and, of course, politics with Barack Obama.”
Previous research has shown the same effect for mixed Asian and European backgrounds.
Dr Lewis said:
“…people of a mixed Asian and European background were rated as more attractive than Asians, Europeans, or even faces generated as morphs between these two groups.”
The study was published in the journal Perception (Lewis, 2010).
Studies regularly find that even experts do little better than chance at detecting lies.
This subtle social behaviour might be a warning sign.
Smiling is associated with positive values, but does it make you look younger?
The benefits of helping others are substantial.
The benefits of helping others are substantial.
People who help others are likely to live longer, research finds.
The conclusions come from a study of grandparents and their grandchildren.
Researchers followed more than 500 people aged 70 to 103-years-old.
Those that gave occasional childcare to their grandchildren — or helped out their own children — tended to live longer.
Another analysis showed that the beneficial effects extended to childless older couples who provided emotional support to others.
Professor Ralph Hertwig, a senior author of the study, cautioned that:
“…helping shouldn’t be misunderstood as a panacea for a longer life.
A moderate level of caregiving involvement does seem to have positive effects on health.
But previous studies have shown that more intense involvement causes stress, which has negative effects on physical and mental health.”
Ms Sonja Hilbrand, the study’s first author, said:
“It seems plausible that the development of parents’ and grandparents’ prosocial behavior toward their kin left its imprint on the human body in terms of a neural and hormonal system that subsequently laid the foundation for the evolution of cooperation and altruistic behavior towards non-kin.”
The study was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior (Hilbrand et al., 2016).
This workplace behaviour does more damage to people’s mental and physical well-being than bullying.
Women were shown faces morphed to have more or less of three dangerous character traits.
The same strong signal about social connection was true whether people spoke to a stranger or a close friend.
Women smelled the body odour of some men who’d eaten this and found it more attractive.
Women smelled the body odour of some men who’d eaten this and found it more attractive.
First, you better check that it’s not April the 1st.
OK, done. It’s not. Onwards…
Eating garlic — and I mean a lot of garlic — makes men’s body odour smell more attractive, a study finds.
The surprising finding adds to garlic’s established health benefits.
It took the ingestion of four cloves of garlic to do the trick.
Two cloves was simply not enough.
Women smelled the body odour of some men who’d eaten no garlic, some who’d eaten two cloves and some who’d eaten four.
They rated each man’s odour sample for attractiveness, pleasantness, intensity and masculinity.
There is, of course, a fatal flaw to this experiment.
Women did not smell the men’s breath!
This may well have changed the ratings somewhat…
If you are planning to try out the power of garlic, though, look no further than a 2010 volume of the Journal of Food Science (Hansanugrum & Barringer, 2010).
This study found that drinking milk can help prevent garlic breath.
That should help a bit.
So, why does the body odour of garlic smell more attractive to women?
Professor Craig Roberts, who led the study, said it could be related to its health benefits:
“Our results indicate that garlic consumption may have positive effects on the pleasure derived from perceived body odour perhaps due to its health effects.
From an evolutionary perspective, formation of preferences for diet-associated body odours was possibly shaped by means of sexual selection.
Previous research indicates that many animal species use diet-associated cues to select mates in good physical condition.
As the health benefits of garlic consumption include antioxidant, immunostimulant, cardiovascular, bactericidal and anti-cancer effects, it is plausible that human odour preferences have been shaped by sexual selection.
The study was published in the journal Appetite (Fialova et al., 2015).
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