Physical Attractiveness and the Theory of Sexual Selection may be a promising
title. But the book itself, by Doug Jones (University of Michigan, $24,
ISBN 0 915703 40 8) is a dry report of a five-year investigation into the
features that appeal to the opposite sex, carried out among Brazilians,
Americans, Russians, and Paraguayan and Venezuelan Indians. There aren’t any
pin-ups. Some unsurprising conclusions are reached, such as that attractiveness
declines with age. Dogged reading with words such as “adaptionism” and
“neotenous” to savour.
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