And men think women are complicated… so how do men process what they look for in a mate? How does the male mind comprehend the concept of "love”? Women have been asking themselves those questions as long as men and women have happily coexisted (or sometimes, not so happily). So how do men really "think” about love? Helen Fisher’s Why We Love? discusses the observations of brain activity of those in love, which in this case, provide the best (and tough!) answers to these questions.
Fisher cites that an fMRI on the brain circuitry of people in love showed more activity in brain regions associated with visual processing, primarily of the face, of men compared to women. This brain activity could help to explain why men generally fall in love more quickly than women – when a man sees an attractive woman, he is psychologically outfitted to correlate eye-catching visual features of that woman with romantic infatuation. What this also explains is why men are ardent supporters of the pornography industry, as well as to why women go to such amazing lengths to broadcast their visual assets, with makeup, clothing and jewelry. It’s true; men are more likely to choose women who exhibit visual signs of youth and beauty. According to Fisher, "American men who place courtship ads in newspapers and magazines are three times more likely than women to mention that they seek beauty in a partner."
So men like attractive women because men are visual animals. Fact. But evolutionarily speaking, psychologists now believe that men subconsciously prefer youth and beauty because it gives them reproductive payoffs. Smooth skin, white teeth, sparkling eyes, a lithe body, and a lively personality are all good qualities for bearing and rearing children. Combined with a 0.7 hip to waist ratio and a symmetrical face, those features draw men to women for their superior genes, not just solely because they are visually favorable.
It has been said, "Why does a woman have to be beautiful rather than intelligent?: Because men can see better than they think.” Although, this is thought of as an old joke, it sure does seem to contain a piece of truth. For men, the eyes (and brain!) don’t lie.
Tags: Attraction, Pop culture, Psychology
[...] described in three stages. The first is lust or physical attraction driven by sexual hormones in men and women. The second stage is attraction, but not the sexual kind, rather the “crush” kind. [...]