ts where fat can safely be stored because it will not impede movement and is also visible. Cross- culturally, men prefer women with a “feminine” body shape to those who are obviously over or under weight. However, “the preference for heavier women in some cultures can be explained by socio- ecological features that have an impact on fecundity” (Turner, 1999, p.4). For example, preferring a fatter to a normal weight wife in an area subject to food shortage might result in a mate with lower fertility, but this may be more than offset by having a greater chance of successful gestation and period of lactation. In this sort of case, such a choice would be adaptive. These sorts of inescapable biological preferences are more suited to the Stone Age than the Information Age. Moving past such basic instincts, there is more to attraction than just the bodily aspects. There are several factors to attraction that are unrelated to the physical. Although they play an important role- physical attributes are clearly not the only factor in creating attraction. The feeling of safety that comes from interaction and familiarity (proximity), shared interests and morals (similarity), the sense of genuine trust and closeness achieved in communication (intimacy), and the feeling of appreciation and value (exchange) help explain why 90% of the population gets married (Mestel, 1999), despite genetic imperfections. Today humans rely on other methods of assessing prospective partner’s relationship and parenting skills, as well as their genes. A man can’t just walk up to a woman and say: “not only am I extremely symmetrical and muscular, I also earn $200,000 a year and am the vice president of a multi-million dollar corporation”. This explains the process of dating, wherein two people who have mutual physically attraction create the opportunity to evaluate one another’s personalities, participating i...
