24 SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ATLANTIC
H
OT OR NOT?
The question
of whom we’re
attracted to and why
has long confounded
humankind’s greatest phi-
losophers, scientists, and
reality-show contestants.
Scads of studies
suggest that those of
us looking for Mr. or Ms.
Right may actually be
looking for Mr. Facial
Symmetry or Ms. Ideal
Waist-to-Hip Ratio (about
0.7 for women). [1, 2] But
other research suggests
that whether a trait is
attractive depends on the
type of connection you’re
looking for. For example,
women in one study found
men with facial scars
more appealing than
other men for short-term
relationships, but not
for long-term ones. [3]
In another study, men
with beards had an edge
among women seeking
long-term relationships— a
finding that might give
clean-shaven guys with
scars an idea about how to
turn a one-night stand into
something lasting. [4] (If
all of this sounds hetero-
normative, it is: Almost
all research on attraction
involves straight people.)Should two people seek
lasting happiness, they
may want to define the
relationship, especially if
they’re already friends. As
any Harry or Sally can tell
you, while women often
mistake males’ indica-
tions of sexual interest for
expressions of friendli-
ness, men consistently
mistake females’ expres-
sions of friendliness for
sexual interest. [5–7] This
might help explain why
men are more likely to
report attraction toward
opposite-sex friends than
are women. [7] Further
complicating matters,
University of Virginia and
Harvard researchers found
that women were most
attracted to men whose
level of interest in them
was ambiguous. [8]
Those of you playing
at home may have noticed
that men have morepredictable (and physi-
cal) definitions of what
makes a woman attrac-
tive than women do for
men. [9] Elsewhere in
the “Hey, eyes up here!”
school of attraction sci-
ence, people in one study
tended to look at faces if
seeking love, and bodies
if motivated by sexual
desire. [10] In another
study, people tended to
check out a romantic pros-
pect’s head and chest—
while they focused on the
legs and feet of someone
in the friend zone. [11]
If two people can get
it together to go out, they
are likely to wear red or
black, especially com-
mon choices on a first
date. [12] No wonder: Red
makes everyone seem
more attractive, both to
themselves and to oth-
ers. [13] What they order
matters, too. Researchers
have found that a woman
is more likely to find a man
attractive if she’s eating
something that’s spicy
rather than sweet. [14] A
drink may also help—but
only one. In an experi-
ment, people who had
the equivalent of a glass
of wine were rated more
attractive than people who
drank either no alcohol
or more than a glass,
perhaps because they
seemed more relaxed, or
maybe because they were
attractively flushed. [15]
Of course, true hotness
lies within, but how do you
get someone to discover
your inner hottie if you lack
come-hither hips or pierc-
ing, symmetrical eyes? A
red shirt, a glass of wine,
and a little curry could be a
good start.^from an oven—an appliance that doesn’t
usually make much noise—could stand
out in a bad way. “A coff ee machine or
a vacuum cleaner with a ringtone would
be a marker of inauthenticity,” which
can irritate people, says Nicolai Jørgens-
gaard Graakjær, a professor of music
and sound in market communication
at Denmark’s Aalborg University. In a
Whirlpool showroom, I found the tones
Arbeeny composed for the smart oven
cheerful and unobtrusive. But in an
actual kitchen, with a jingle emanating
from the dishwasher, Slack notifica-
tions clacketing from an open laptop,
text-message alerts pinging from an
iPhone, and some Tchaikovsky burbling
from an Amazon Echo, a harried cook
might be forgiven for failing to appreci-
ate the fi ner points of the KitchenAid’s
preheat composition.
Too many sounds, carefully designed
though they may be, runs the risk of turn-
ing into an irritant, or worse. Dexter Gar-
cia, a co-founder of Audio UX, pointed
me to a 2010 article in The Boston Globe
describing “alarm fatigue.” Nurses at
Massachusetts General Hospital had
become so bombarded by constant alerts,
they ignored the critical beeps signaling a
dying patient. The problem is pervasive:
In a study at Johns Hopkins Hospital,
nearly 60,000 alarms were recorded over
12 days—that’s 350 alarms per patient, per
day, hammering staff ears.
Most households aren’t quite there yet.
Even as their notifications have grown
more baroque, machines themselves
have become quieter overall, engineered
to mute hums, drones, and grinding
motors. Arbeeny sees her work as battling
ill-considered walls of noise, and improv-
ing upon the clunky piezoelectric blurts
of old. In the abstract, she is undoubt-
edly realizing that goal. But as ever more
appliances seek to distinguish themselves
aurally, a cacophony seems inevitable,
one in which even the most carefully
wrought melody might be drowned out
by the din. Sonic branders may be in the
business of selling sound, but perhaps the
fi rst question a product designer should
ask is: Could it be quiet instead? In the
near future, the smartest machines might
turn out to be the ones that know when to
hold their peace.
Laura Bliss is the West Coast bureau chief
for CityLab.
DISPATCHESIllustration by LUCI GUTIÉRREZ[1] Little et al., “Symmetry Is Related
to Sexual Dimorphism in Faces”
([2]PLoS ONE Singh et al., “Cross-Cultural , May 2008)
Consensus for Waist-Hip Ratio and
Women’s Attractiveness” (Evolution
and Human Behavior[3] Burriss et al., “Facial Scarring , May 2010)
Enhances Men’s Attractiveness
for Short-Term Relationships”
(encesPersonality and Individual Diff, Jan. 2009) er-
[4] Dixson et al., “The MasculinityParadox” (Biology, Aug. 2016) Journal of Evolutionary
[5] Mons Bendixen, “Evidence of
Systematic Bias in Sexual Over-
and Underperception of Naturally Occurring Events” (Evolutionary
Psychology, Nov. 2014)
[6] Haselton, “The Sexual Over-
perception Bias” (in Personality, Feb. 2003)Journal of Research
[7] Bleske-Rechek et al., “Sex Diff er-
ences in Young Adults’ Attrac tion to
Opposite-Sex Friends” (Psychological Science, Sept. 2016)Evolutionary
[8] Whitchurch et al., “ ‘He loves me,he loves me not ...’ ” (Science, Feb. 2011)Psychological
[9] Wood and Brumbaugh, “Using
Revealed Mate Preferences to
Evaluate Market Force and Difftial Preference Explanations for Mate eren-
Selection” (Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, June 2009)
[10]the Gaze” ( Bolmont et al., “Love Is in Psychological Science,
July 2014)
[11] Gillath et al., “Eye Movements
When Looking at Potential Friends and Romantic Partners,” (Archives of
Sexual Behavior, 2017)“Displaying Red and Black on a First [12] Kramer and Mulgrew,
Date” (Evolutionary Psychology,
April 2018)
[13]of Red Color on Perceived Self- Berthold et al., “The Eff ect
Attractiveness” (European Journal
of Social Psychology, May 2017)
[14]Everything Nice” ( Miska, “Sugar, Spice, and Psi Chi, Spring 2018)
[15] Van Den Abbeele et al.,
“Increased Facial Attractiveness
Following Moderate, but Not High, Alcohol Consumption” (Alcohol and
Alcoholism, May/June 2015)- STUDY OF STUDIES
Laws of Attraction
Beards, scars, red clothes, and other
scientifi cally proven sources of sex appealBY BEN HEALYTHE STUDIES: