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  • I'm a sucker for a pretty face.

  • Actually, we all are.

  • Why is that?

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Anthony here for D News.

  • And over and over, studies show that humans

  • seem to attribute positive personality

  • traits to physically attractive people.

  • Integrity, intelligence, kindness--

  • we just think that prettier people have those things

  • by default, whether we realize it or not.

  • It seems unfair, and it is.

  • But is there some sort of biological reason for it?

  • A recently published study from Cambridge University

  • wanted to find out just that.

  • They selectively bred silver foxes for 20 years

  • based on how friendly they were towards humans.

  • And with each generation, they got more and more domesticated.

  • And as they got more domesticated

  • and as they got friendlier, they also

  • seemed to acquire more physical traits that would best

  • be scientifically described as-- oh, look at their adorable

  • little faces-- rounder skulls, smaller noses, shorter muzzles,

  • flatter faces.

  • It turns out that friendliness in silver foxes

  • is connected to genes that control the hypothalamus,

  • pituitary, and adrenal glands, which

  • all modulate fear and aggression.

  • And as those genes changed, the physical

  • features they're responsible for changed, too.

  • So what does that mean?

  • It means that we associate cuteness or attractiveness

  • with physical traits that also mean

  • something is less dangerous.

  • It is a survival thing.

  • We know to be attracted to something

  • that is less likely to tear our throats out.

  • Handy.

  • Now in humans, the idea of beauty

  • changes from culture to culture, and everybody

  • has their own personal type.

  • But there are some traits which have

  • been found to be attractive to the majority of the world.

  • And it could be that we're not just

  • wired to find those things attractive,

  • we are wired to find those things attractive

  • because we are also wired to find them safe.

  • It's one of those left over survival skills that actually

  • hinders us in day to day life because humans have much more

  • complex brains and thought processes

  • than we did in the wild.

  • Those attractive traits don't really

  • correlate to anything any more.

  • You know, I basically avert my eyes from pretty people

  • and just give them whatever they ask

  • for as I stammer out a thank you to them for allowing

  • me to be in their presence.

  • How about you?

  • Do you automatically think highly of attractive people?

  • What is wrong with us?

  • Let me know in the comments, and subscribe for more D News.

I'm a sucker for a pretty face.

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