The Science of Sex Appeal
May 11, 2009
Last night, I spent a good chunk of my evening sucked into watch the Discovery Channel’s “The Science of Sex Appeal.” If you haven’t seen it and have two hours to spare, I highly recommend it. It is a very scientific look into such a common experience. They go from determining the most appeal body shape in the eyes of the opposite sex, to the effect of a person’s voice, to what makes us fall in love, and eventually what keeps humans in love. Essentially, it seemed like everything boiled down to finding someone to mate with. When asking men about their preferred body type, the researchers found that the ratio of 7 (wasit) to 10 (hips) was the most preferred because it was the healthiest for carrying children. They had women smell men’s sweat at different periods in their cycle to show that women were most attracted to males when they were ovulating. They also found that dopamine is the drug released when we are in love that keeps us connected to our significant other. It was certainly interesting enough to keep me glued to the tv during finals week, but it makes me a little nervous that love and attraction can be boiled down to hormones and such a primative drive as the desire to produce offspring.
Feel free to watch clips of it here to see if you are fascinated by the science of sex appeal or if it makes you a little nervous too 
