“The Psychology of Beauty”

It is hard to say what is more to dislike about some evolutionary psychologists’ declarations about beauty:  their stark simplicity or their ignoring the possibilities of cultural influence.  One result of these factors is that the connection between their dictates and one’s own experience can be slight.  One is left with the uneasy feeling that philosophy professors just aren’t the sort of being anyone would have thought worth studying.  Nor are their friends.  All with some notable exceptions, of course.

The blog named in the  title of this post is an antidote to the simplifying confidence one too often finds.  The poster, Wayne Hooke,  picks up on topics that do show the issues to be more complicated.  For example, are judgments of attractiveness really just based on facial symmetry?  Isn’t smell suppose to be important?  He also seems to have a good eye for the latest research:  for example, hip to waiste ratio  has a competitor: adominal depth.

The research discussed is also assessed in terms of  its internal integrity, and so on.

There’s lots more; see what you think!