Be born beautiful
What does the appearance of a person say
RIA Novosti, Vladislav Strekopytov. For hundreds of generations, people have chosen partners with good heredity to produce viable offspring. This has formed special criteria for external attractiveness, which, according to scientists, largely determines the state of the human immune system.
Beauty and attractiveness
Traditionally, it is believed that beauty and health are inextricably linked. The appearance of a person largely depends on how well all the systems of the body function. Unhealthy complexion, problems with skin, hair, nails are indicators that everything is not normal inside.
But beauty is an aesthetic concept. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as "a combination of qualities that give pleasure to the eye and other senses." We often talk about attractiveness, which, according to psychologists, is based on a sense of interest, a disposition to establish contact. Since the 1990s, scientists have been trying to understand how this is related to health.
The canons of beauty and attractiveness are not the same. The first ones are usually set by the social environment — public opinion, mass media, cinema and television. In the second case, a person focuses on his own feelings. Those whom representatives of the opposite sex consider beautiful or attractive sometimes differ greatly in physical parameters.
Scientists have found out that for men, the attractiveness of a woman, in addition to sexuality, is based on the potential ability to give healthy offspring. It is from this point of view that they subconsciously evaluate the future partner. Women in men are attracted by the ability to protect and provide resources.
The main thing is a good immunity
Researchers from Texas Christian University decided to check what biological factors are behind attractiveness and whether it is possible to judge the health and "quality" of heredity by it.
159 young people with an average age of 20 years were selected from students and local residents — 80 men and 79 women of normal build. And they made their portraits — without makeup and jewelry, with a neutral facial expression. Other external signs were excluded for the purity of the experiment.
Scientists made sure in advance that none of the participants had a history of mental disorders, chronic depression, acute illnesses, that no one uses hormonal contraceptives, steroid or anti-inflammatory drugs. Two days before the test, the volunteers did not exercise and did not take alcohol.
Previously, in several scientific papers, experts concluded that women's perception of men depends on the phase of the menstrual cycle. Therefore, the participants were chosen so that they were all in the same follicular (pre-ovulatory) phase.
After photographing, everyone donated blood for a general analysis and for markers of the state of the immune system.
Then, through the Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform, the researchers invited 492 volunteers — young men and women aged about 25 years. They were shown photos of the participants and asked to rate them on the attractiveness scale. Moreover, regardless of sexual orientation, only portraits of representatives of the opposite sex were shown. According to the results, the attractiveness rating was compiled.
The results were quite expected. The "appraisers" preferred symmetrical faces with proportional features, light clean skin, prominent cheekbones, bright eyes. At the same time, scientists have found a link between attractiveness and the strength of immunity. Those who got into the first lines of the rating had a better immune system than those who took the lower positions. At the same time, the correlation did not depend on the state of health at the moment, which was determined by markers of inflammation in the blood.
Scientists assessed the strength of immunity by several indicators. Namely, by the number and composition of leukocytes, the level of their activation in response to pathogenic signals, the ability of immune cells to phagocytosis — capture and absorption of bacteria, unicellular organisms and foreign particles, lysis — dissolution of tumor target cells. And besides — blocking the growth of bacteria in the blood plasma in the absence of immune cells, only with the help of antibacterial proteins.
In men, attractiveness correlates with a high level of NK cells, in women the dependence is reversed. Figure from the article by Mengelkoch et al. More than just a pretty face? The relationship between immune function and perceived facial attraction, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The results showed that the most "popular" participants and participants had higher phagocytosis parameters. It was evaluated by the rate of cleavage of Escherichia coli bioparticles. The attractiveness of female faces is most correlated with high levels of glucose, basophils and antibodies in the blood, and a low rate of bacterial growth in plasma. Men's cells have a high level of activity of cytotoxic lymphocytes — NK cells, or natural killers fighting infections.
Interestingly, in women, the correlation for NK cells is reversed. Perhaps due to the fact that their activity is sometimes associated with a decrease in the level of estrogens — female sex hormones, and, as a result, with lower fertility and a high risk of miscarriages. The results of previous studies have shown that femininity, so attractive to men in representatives of the opposite sex, indicates a high level of estrogen.
The general conclusion is this: attractiveness — at least of the face — is associated with inherited characteristics of immunity. It is really possible to judge the viability of future offspring by it. The difference is that in men, the protective system is better "sharpened" to fight pathogens and neoplasms, and in women — to suppress primarily bacterial infections. Why this is so is still unclear.
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