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From: herbach@informix.com (Martin Herbach)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Incest avoidance
Message-ID: <1991Apr5.213834.13967@informix.com>
Date: 5 Apr 91 21:38:34 GMT
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Has any discussion appeared about the correlation of incest-avoidance
and beauty-perception?  I am referring here to the perception of sexual
attractiveness in humans.  I read recently of a study (sorry, no citation)
showing that a "beautiful" feature (e.g. nose) is one with "average"
characteristics.  Average in size, shape, position, etc., and average
with respect to the population of the beholder.

Could this be the incest-avoidance mechanism at work.  If quail are
known to prefer cousins over siblings or strangers, could they be
selecting "not-too-familiar but not-too-strange" with respect to
whatever characteristics code for quailness? 

It would seem that a biological explanation of beauty should be a big
deal, but no one seems to have connected the two.  Anyone seen any
such rantings in print?  Does this make sense to anyone else?  Do
I need lithium?