Social Psychology

Love à la Darwin

A date with Darwin: from the perspective of evolution, beauty plays an important role in the choice of partner. But what is beauty? There are no fixed measurements for beauty—but there are rules and laws of nature according to which we can evaluate good appearance. Modern behavioural biology examines the signal effect of face and body and recognises that our appearance has a considerable effect on choice of partner. But not all aspects have yet been sufficiently researched. With their studies, the behavioural biologists from Göttingen hope to open a new chapter in the history of the search for the ideal partner. It's sure to be anything but boring: what role do, for example, the appearance of the skin or the body movements of another play?