Many people in the world are obsessed with the desire to look beautiful. The ideas of beauty and physical attractiveness have been persistent in art, sculpture, poetry, and songs throughout centuries of human civilization. In recent times, books, magazines, movies, television, and commercials have flooded us with beautiful images everywhere. Does physical beauty matter for sexual attraction?

The Early Imprinting of Beauty in Childhood

Beginning in early childhood, girls and boys learn how important it is to be beautiful. All around us are talking about physical beauty, repeatedly commenting on who is beautiful and who is not. “You are so beautiful!” is the nicest compliment that anyone tries to say to a girl when they don’t know what else to say. Stereotypically, teachers, parents, siblings, and friends join in the chorus. “Darling” youngsters hear aahs and oohs. They receive the adoring attention and admiration of those around them. In contrast to this, those children and teens who are less attractive, disproportionate, and overweight are perceived indifferently and may hear nasty comments or outright rejection.

Cultural Adoration of Beauty

Through the centuries, the fine arts and magnificent poetry have been persistent in their search for the ideals of physical beauty. They explored what is beautiful in human bodies, faces, and costumes. The beauty of human physical appearance has been the realm of artistic and literary exploration.

The aristocracy and affluent people entertained these beautiful ideas. The real lives of many commoners were full of safety and shelter concerns and hard work for subsistence. These people often did not have time to appreciate beauty. Men and women mated with those who were close to them. They married those who were affordable and valuable for family survival. Charm was deceptive. Beauty was fleeting. Industriousness was often more valuable.

Nowadays, the cultural attitudes of praising “beauty” and avoiding “unbeauty” have become cultural commonplace, at least in Western societies. Thus, the desire to be beautiful is imprinted on our minds and cultures. Modern Western societies, being obsessed with the importance of men and especially women being beautiful, transfer these beauty ideas and ideals to other societies around the world. In recent decades, Eastern and other cultures have become more and more influenced by Western ideas of beauty.

Are Men’s Preferences for Sexually Beautiful Women Evolutionary?

Dating advertisements on websites are packed with these stereotypes. Everyone describes themselves as “beautiful” in one or another respect. And everyone expects to find a beautiful partner. Evolutionary scientists try to convince us that men look for “good-looking” women, while women look for “good financial prospects” in men. These researchers presume that men want to conceive more offspring, and therefore, men look for fertile women to accomplish this evolutionary desire. It is also assumed that men somehow know that “good-looking” women are more fertile than others. This is why men prefer beautiful women for mating relationships.

We all know that “good looking” really matters for sexual attractiveness, not only for women but also for men. Several explanations are possible, including biological and cultural evolutionary perspectives (Karandashev, 2022). However, it is not always clear whether men and women look for “not bad-looking” or “beautifully looking” sexual and mating partners. Different people may look at this differently. Some look for only the “beautiful,” while others may look for those who are “good enough” or “not bad at all.”

In Search of Attractive Faces and Bodies

Researchers have also investigated what is sexually attractive in the faces and bodies of others. They strived to find cross-cultural standards of beauty across many societies, such as symmetry, body proportions, and others. They found some cross-cultural similarities, which presumably support an evolutionary explanation of universal qualities of sexual attractiveness.

Through recent decades, a lot of scientists have investigated what is attractive in the physical appearance of faces and bodies and what makes them sexually attractive. There are thousands of articles, books, and other publications on the topic of “physical attractiveness.”

However, a vast majority of this research was conducted in Western and modernized Asian societies. The number of studies in other societies is much smaller. So, it seems doubtful to say anything about the universality of physical beauty.

Scientific evidence from other societies and cultural contexts tells us that the importance of beauty is not universal, and beauty standards are not universal across cultures.

Physical Beauty Is Not Universally Important

An abundance of anthropological findings has demonstrated that “beauty” is a cultural idea rather than an evolutionary device for mating purposes. The importance of physical appearance for sexual attractiveness varies across cultures. And the cultural norms of sexual beauty also differ in different societies (Karandashev, 2019; 2022).

Physical attractiveness seems really important for many people in mainstream North American and European societies, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. In such societies with high values of individualism, independence, and autonomy, personal preferences and choices matter.

Physical attractiveness matters less to people in some Asian and African societies, such as Korea in Southeast Asia and Ghana in Africa. Relational affordance limitations reduce people’s value of physical attractiveness in their daily lives and mating (Anderson et al., 2008; Karandashev, 2017; Wheeler & Kim, 1997).

Physical attractiveness matters less for people in some tribal subsistence-based societies with a risk of safety and food shortages. Men and women (mostly gatherers and hunters) care more about their subsistence survival than about beauty (see, for review, Karandashev, 2022).

Maybe modern people care about beauty when they have nothing else to care about.