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'''Beauty''' in humans or animals refers to a set of ornaments (meaning traits that serve no known biological purpose besides aesthetics) that are often sexually attractive to the opposite sex. Broadly, one can distinguish two aspects of beauty: | '''Beauty''' in humans or animals refers to a set of ornaments (meaning traits that serve no known biological purpose besides aesthetics) that are often sexually attractive to the opposite sex. Broadly, one can distinguish two aspects of beauty: | ||
# Mathematical/geometric beauty such as symmetry, smoothness, elegance, or more generally, simplicity. | # Objective beauty | ||
# Exaggerated, arbitrary and sexually dimorphic beauty, such as large female breasts or male penises, highly specific shapes of noses (e.g. upturned nose in females) or chin, i.e. [[few millimeters of bone|Few millimeters of bone]], dimples on back or cheeks, and also complex coloration patterns in birds. (See also: [[:Category:Aesthetics]]) | ## Mathematical/geometric beauty such as symmetry, smoothness, elegance, or more generally, simplicity. | ||
## Exaggerated, arbitrary and sexually dimorphic beauty, such as large female breasts or male penises, highly specific shapes of noses (e.g. upturned nose in females) or chin, i.e. [[few millimeters of bone|Few millimeters of bone]], dimples on back or cheeks, and also complex coloration patterns in birds. (See also: [[:Category:Aesthetics]]) | |||
# Subjective beauty | |||
## Individual preferences resulting from individual emotional experiences or individual development of circuitry for inherited sexual preferences. | |||
The second aspect cannot fully be explained by simplicity because it has seemingly unnecessary specificity or complexity. Either there are functional constraints or correlated characters<ref>Price T, Langen T. 1992. ''Evolution of correlated characters.'' [[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21236041 Abstract]]</ref> preventing a simpler shape, or sexual selection lead to arbitrary shapes becoming sexually attractive. | The second objective aspect cannot fully be explained by simplicity because it has seemingly unnecessary specificity or complexity. Either there are functional constraints or correlated characters<ref>Price T, Langen T. 1992. ''Evolution of correlated characters.'' [[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21236041 Abstract]]</ref> preventing a simpler shape, or sexual selection lead to arbitrary shapes becoming sexually attractive. | ||
Objective beauty is largely [[Sexual selection|sexually selected]], and possibly reinforced by feedback loops like [[Fisherian runaway]] or sensory bias<ref>Fuller, R. C., Houle, D., & Travis, J. 2005. ''Sensory Bias as an Explanation for the Evolution of Mate Preferences.'' [[https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/444443 Abstract]]</ref>. | |||
Not just looks, but also behavior can be beautiful, e.g. attractive behavior has elegance, poise and wittiness. The opposite is awkwardness and violation of norms etc. | Not just looks, but also behavior can be beautiful, e.g. attractive behavior has elegance, poise and wittiness. The opposite is awkwardness and violation of norms etc. | ||