The definition of beauty keeps evolving with time, but as writer H.G. Wells puts it, ‘Beauty is in the heart of the beholder.’ In this article, we have compiled a list of the top 50 most beautiful women in the world to let you experience the magic they created either through their work or auras.
That’s because it’s galvanized by the limbic system, a primitive section of the brain responsible for regulating essential functions like hunger. When encountering a potential mate, a part of the brain called the hypothalamus spurs the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, causing the sensations of lust or love.
Thanks to the efficiency of this loop, “people often make up their mind about someone within the first three minutes [of encountering them],” Helen Fisher, Ph.D., a biological anthropologist, senior research fellow with The Kinsey Institute, and author of Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray, tells mbg.
First, we tend to be drawn to people who are similar to us. We’re commonly attracted to those who remind us of loved ones, such as parents, former significant others, or friends. “Subconsciously, hormones are activated because the other person has triggered some kind of similarity or resemblance,” says Beverly B. Palmer, Ph.D., a psychology professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and author of Love Demystified: Strategies for a Successful Love Life, to mbg.
One study found we may find ourselves less attracted to people who differ significantly from ourselves in terms of personality traits, and we’re more attracted to those who are complementary toward ourselves or perhaps “better versions” of ourselves. That attraction to what’s similar likely explains why we also tend to date people who share our race, socioeconomic status, education level, and political affiliation.
U.S. Census data shows just 10% of marriages in 2016 were interracial or interethnic, and a well-known 2014 analysis about race and dating preferences conducted by OkCupid found that although a significant percentage of respondents indicated that they would date someone of a different race, they didn’t walk the walk when it actually came to swiping and connecting with matches.
Similarly, 77% of Republicans and Democrats said their spouse or partner was in the same party in a Pew Research Center survey from 2016, and the importance of shared politics has gone so far as to lead to the rise of separate dating apps for conservatives.
Another factor frequently cited in pop culture is smell, sometimes in the context of pheromones. Some experts, like Fisher, say that the sense does not have significant bearing on whom we find attractive. (“It’s love at first sight, not love at first smell,” she says, explaining that the human sense of sight is much keener than smell.)
That said, other experts do believe factors like deodorants, perfumes, and bodily smells can play a role in attraction. Research on this specific topic is inconclusive, with one study2 indicating that women preferred men whose genes displayed a different immune response from theirs, and another revealing that women were turned on by men who smelled similarly to them. Still another showed that women were drawn to men whose perspiration was similar to their father’s.
Even though many of us don’t want to admit it, good looks are the strongest factor influencing attraction. That’s according to Madeleine A. Fugère, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Eastern Connecticut State University and author of The Social Psychology of Attraction and Romantic Relationships.
“When we consciously state our preferences for an ideal long-term partner, most of us say that traits, such as kindness, mutual affection, and intelligence, are more important than physical attractiveness,” she tells mbg. (According to research, altruism, in particular, is a compelling trait, particularly for women.) But in actuality, “physical attractiveness has a stronger impact on our dating decisions than factors such as personality or education.” This emphasis makes sense.
After all, humans link “attractive” physical features with health, youth, and fertility. For men and women, symmetrical faces are appealing. Research has also shown straight men prefer women with a waist-to-hip ratio of about 70%.
Why? “People who vary from that basic percentage are more likely to have pregnancy loss and are more susceptible to certain diseases and fertility challenges,” says Fisher. Similarly, straight men in one study responded to a specific spinal curvature in women, one linked with the ability to successfully birth children.
Importantly, many of the studies available on this subject are based on relatively small groups of primarily white people, meaning the findings may very well not be representative of people of other races or of the general population.
This is an issue in many areas of scientific research, but it's particularly important to point out in the case of attraction, much of which may be heavily influenced by factors such as race, socioeconomic status, or other aspects of identity. These factors play a large role in our cultural understanding of beauty, and so studies that don't take them into account may not fully capture the truth about attraction.
Attractiveness doesn't rest on the ability to see beauty, but to detect flaws. The fewer the flaws, the more attractive someone appears to be, says Kristin Donnelly, a doctoral student in experimental psychology at the University of California, San Diego.
Other elements of attractiveness, such as body shape, weight, and skin color, can be more subjective and influenced by culture. There are less physical things that can make a person seem attractive, too, like a person's confidence, smell, or voice.
For psychological experiments, researchers sometimes show participants a number of faces to establish a baseline of what they consider attractive; other times, they use pre-rated faces from a database, such as the Chicago Face Database (essentially HotOrNot, but for science). Researchers have been looking into the effects of attractiveness for decades.
The results show that being considered attractive generally means that other people treat you better. "We assume attractive people have positive qualities that have nothing to do with their physical attractiveness," says Lauren Human, an assistant professor of psychology at McGill University. This is sometimes called the halo effect.
Attractive people are generally assumed to be more intelligent, more trustworthy, and have better social skills. We find them more interesting and pay more attention to attractive people, so we tend to get a better sense of who they are as individuals.
Good-looking people are more successful—they are paid more at work and are promoted more quickly. They're often happier, too. Even parents treat cute babies better than ugly ones. It's not that unattractive people are viewed more negatively, Human says, they just aren't viewed as positively as their prettier counterparts.
