Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty

Many of the reviews here complains about this being not a book scientifically strong enough. But even looking at the index you can see what the text is about from the chapters 'the nature of beauty', 'beauty as bait', 'cover me', 'feature presentation' and 'fashion runaway'... since the book is written by someone like Dr. Etcoff, everybody expects the scientific cold point of view evident in every page. But for many other disciplines the text is perfectly able to open wide a huge perspective in the general problem of the perception of beauty, its uses, and the necessity of it. For people into arts, the thing about beauty perception and mathematical relation deeply rooted, not in the software but instead in the hardware, is fundamental in a time were the discussion is always about art not being interested in the aestethic depiction, perception or even consideration. Of course it can be sort of very well known facts what she is saying here about the golden proportion, simmetry and genetic health, the 7 to 10 hip proportion and fertility in women, and even the relation between the mother's perception of beauty in their offspring and neoteny -a concept that certainly you can trace back to Stephen Jay Gould or any other 'divulgative' text, even like the mentioned here 'the selfish gene', etc. But the real problem is context. What this book is really good at, is filling the gap between those kind of books -biology, life sciences, perception- and the kind of studies that really need to approach the subject not only as a problem, but instead as a matter. Not precisely aesthetics, but !fashion!. Even at the very beginning is mentioned how nowadays an entire city can be stopped because Claudia Schiffer is at a starcaise making some photographs, giving us the clue to understand how this whole book can be seen; in a total different light and with such a different use. The fact that every now and then Desmond Morris collides with Sandra Rhodes, Azzedine Alaia meets Darwin, opens the window and let you see the landscape is about the form, perception and construction of beauty as an adjective, as something we worn and sometimes have to endure. So this book belongs in the shelf next to Anne Hollander, Valerie Steel or Alison Lurie. Comprehensive studies about the power of image, fashion and appeareance. And not precisely in the side of the 'scientific' bunch. And it is an excellent entrance to think in the equation beauty, perception, process and representation that is so difficult to see, but so much necessary to really achieve: design with one eye into the biological process, art once again perceiving its duties, and science humanized through the contact with the arts, designs and fashion. Also I think everybody goes to the scientific side forgetting all the good concatenation of historical facts from corsets, wigs, make up, heels, making a very well define line between the subject -the beauty- and its uses. As a companion I think also in the same shelf could it be 'Venus Envy' by Elizabeth Haiken, also a bridge between 'science and consumer culture'.

Contrary to what many people think there are certain features of the human body and face that have always been considered attractive, in all cultures. That is, beauty is not an invention of the media any more than cuteness is an invention of Disney (Bambi, the movie, exploited our instinctive judgements of what is cute). Neither is beauty merely in the eye of the beholder. Yet, having said that, both the media and the perceiver matters, just not as much as people tend to think. In this book Nancy Etcoff from Harvard University provides a fast paced, thoroughly researched, rich and enjoyable account of attractiveness. She provides answers to all the main questions that usually come up when attractiveness is discussed. Here is a non exhaustive list, which the basic answer Q: What is attractive? A: Averageness, symmetry, Big eyes (women), large cheekbones (men) Q: When did people start to care so much about their appearance? A: Since the dawn of time Q: Are we nicer to more attractive individuals A: Yes Q: Why are certain traits considered attractive? A: Because they are indicators of underlying qualities, such as health or fertility These are rough answers, and there are many important and interesting details which cannot be covered in a short review such as this. Thankfully, Etcoff goes into full detail, and even though I am sort of a minor expert on attractiveness (have published a couple of studies on memory biases associated with attractiveness), I learned many things from this book. Etcoff’s style of writing is reminiscent of Steven Pinker. Both are masters when it comes to referencing a ton of literature from very divergent sources (books, TV-shows, published articles, archeological findings, poetry etc), in a short amount of text, without affecting the flow of that text. In fact Etcoff made such an impression on me that I am almost certain to buy her next book (if she writes one), independent of what that book is about.

Survival of the Prettiest explains, in evolutionary, philosophical, and scientifically studied ways, what we find attractive in women and men and why, from prehistoric times, to the Greeks and Romans, to the 90’s. I loved all of the quotes on beauty this book, as said by great philosophers and writers. I now see a celebrity, or a viral pretty face, and know just what gives their appearance star power (big eyes, small chins/jaws, and symmetry and harmony mostly). It features fascinating studies on babies, motherhood, and men and women. The last 1/4 is on fashion, which was very fun to read. The only reason I didn’t give this book 5 stars is because at times it was repetitive and started losing me. However it was still a super quick, great read! I would not recommend this book to a teenager or anyone with severely low physical self confidence. This book makes very clear what is considered most attractive physically. It feels nice to have some of the features, stinks to not have others, and made me think many times “I would just have to fix this, this, and this,” which I think could be dangerous on impressionable minds.

I was always a fan of Desmond Morris' books combining elements of anthropology and sociology, so reading the description of this book I thought it would make a nice gift for my wife. She thought it was excellent, and I read through it as soon as she was finished with it. A wonderful little read that explains so much with regards to feminine beauty over the course of history. The author lays out the central thesis - there are innate biological indicators of feminine beauty, mainly having to do with youth and childbearing. These indicators - hip size, bust, lips, etc. - are well known and well tracked throughout human history. There are periods however where certain indicators are dramatically overemphasized and become the dominant desired look - which is then often taken to extremes in fashion and taste (think of really severe corsets or footbinding). And there are interesting cycles where beauty is in being full and healthy, or the absolute obverse in pale and skinny - it's a strange quirk of historical periods. But this is a book that touches on a lot of things well - anthropology, sociology, biology, history, the economics/marketing of feminine fashion, and advertising. Sometimes you read a description and come away disappointed, but this was an excellent book and certainly worth your time if you're interested in the subject.

This book came out in the year 2000 and is peppered with references to 90s models. Ultimately, it became quite repetitive to me - we get it, people are geared toward rewarding beauty - I just wish that it went somewhere else, maybe into some deeper meaning or suggestions about it. I studied Cultural Psychology in college, so I was already sort of familiar with some of the information. The main thought I had was that I wondered how much of this gearing toward beauty came from the legacy of a male-dominated culture. Of course, women pay attention to beauty and value beauty as well, but women are now more powerful than ever in this country, and I wonder how things are changing, if at all. I'd prefer to see a follow up. Like I said, this book came out 15 years ago, and I suspect it may be a little dated.

I love this book. I read it when it first came out as a library book, and it helped me with little beauty hacks that doubled my tips as a cocktail waitress. A great starter read for those who want to learn the system. ;) Beyond that, it boasts some interesting studies and science-backed tricks, though it's NOT an instruction manual. Use it to guide your research further (disclaimer: I'm SUPER into biological anthropology. A very fun read that digests quickly. I heartily recommend it to any woman (though men would benefit from reading it too).

This book let me finally come to terms with beauty as something all humans are attracted to as an evolutionary necessity. That beautiful people have a societal advatage is a given but just means the rest of us must work a bit harder. Having beauty alone is rarely enough though; one has to apply one's talents and intellect to compete in the world and to contribute successfully. This book has been well researched and the author has approached the subject in a friendly manner.

Nancy Etcoff's "Survival of the Prettiest" argues that beauty is not a social construct but that human beings are hardwired to recognize people and things as beautiful. You could imagine it like this. There's a definite set of beauty principles we all carry around in our noggins that interact with the environment in all sorts of ways, and these principles allow for varying ranges as to what would appear to be beautiful to us. We might not be able to state in words why it is we find some people and some things beautiful. But there's compelling cross-cultural evidence that there are certain features that we all find beautiful. Etcoff does make an effort to distinguish beauty from fashion. Fashion by its very nature is something that is of the moment. It sometimes either exploits some of the knowledge we carry around about what we find beautiful but other times is very much a matter of social construction. Sometimes we find certain styles and things fashionable because of some authority that tells us that that style of thing (clothing item, accessory, makeup, etc.) is fashionable. Etcoff doesn't talk so much about art, but you could sort of apply this kind of thinking to art and the artworld. So nobody would definitely say that the function of art is that it ought to be beautiful, but everybody agrees that people in general like beautiful art. If so, then how to account for so much ugly art that people seem to like? Fashion and authority. Status indicators. Display of conspicuous consumption. It's not a pretty answer but very likely true. Or perhaps less cynically, sometimes it's just that a work of art can be ugly, maybe only a little ugly, but it serves another positive function: like maybe it expresses something important boy human nature.

Important text for those interested in beauty

Inequality between price and quality of the book

Llegó a tiempo, muy buen libro.

As a guy, I think the author focus a lot on the "we, the poor women" theme sometimes, but as a whole the book is a "must read". Every single HR manager, boss, teacher and potential employer should read it as a tool to avoid the awful discrimination we use (and are not aware of) when hiring, assessing, judging and promoting people. It was an eye opening experience for me. The book is extremely well researched (50 pages on citations only) and very convincing. The language is easy and friendly.

実態のない「美」についての世界中の研究や著者の偏見（とも思える）も交えて解釈した本。 美に憧れ、しかし手の届かない美に日々翻弄される一般人の自分は大変おもしろく、興味深くよめました。 美とは何なのか、改めて驚かされる思いです。 「どうしたら綺麗に見えるのか？」など流行のファッション雑誌を隅々まで読むより、よほど有意義で「諦め」が付く本かもしれません。 しかし、この本の情報量に比べ、タイトルの陳腐なこと…。 まあ、これが「美人学」「美人論」「歴史に潜む美」などと重いタイトルがついていたら自分も手にしなかったでしょうが。 自分にとって良い本は大抵タイトルが買うのにちょっと恥ずかしいものが多いことも最近気が付きました。 内容は「ここの解釈はこんな程度か…」と思う部分もありましたが、概ね「知らなかった」「そうそう、実生活ではそうだよ。」などと共感や驚きなど純粋におもしろかったです。 タイトルにはおよそ適合しない、久しぶりに最初から最後まで退屈しない、機知に富んだ本に出会えたと思います。