“What is beautiful is good”—but why? A recent article in The
Quarterly Review of Biology provides a compelling physiological explanation for
the “beauty stereotype”: why human beings are wired to favor the beautiful
ones.
Studies have shown that humans subconsciously attribute
positive social qualities (such as integrity, intelligence, and happiness) to
physically attractive individuals. Even across cultures there exists a
significant consensus on relative beauty: youthful facial features, including,
for women, relatively large eyes, a relatively high craniofacial ratio, and a
relatively small jaw. In an article published in the September 2013 issue of
The Quarterly Review of Biology, Dr. I. Elia, an independent scholar at
Cambridge University, bridges genetics, physical and social anthropology, and
psychology to interpret the findings of the “farm fox experiment” in Russia to
reveal “a possible and replicable demonstration of the origin of beauty while
inadvertently illuminating its ancient philosophical connection to goodness via
a plausible neurohormonal pathway.”