Some people think it’s shallow, and other people think it’s human nature, but how important is it for a man to be physically attractive?

Throughout evolution, it’s a fact that the physical appearance of humans has played a massive role in the survival and reproduction of our species.

Physical appearance was best used as a determinant for the genetical potential of a mate — A man who looked better, generally had better genetics.

Better genetics meant that the man was likely stronger, tougher, faster, and more competent. This translated into better odds for survival.

This served two purposes for attracting females.

Females would be attracted to a man with better odds for survival. It meant that the man could better protect her, and therefore extend her lifespan.

In addition, procreating with a man with good genetics increased the probability that her offspring would inherit those favorable genetics for survival, making it more likely her bloodline would continue to reproduce.

However, the modern world is vastly different and survival isn’t much of a concern for most humans nowadays.

And yet, this mate selection process etched into our subconscious hasn’t disappeared, despite our external world transforming so drastically.

Because of this, traditional markers of competence such as height, strength, and athleticism are still considered highly attractive, despite their lack of utility in the modern age.

Many people claim that this is ‘shallow’, and that judgment of a person should be made predominantly on personality instead of physical appearance.

‘You should not judge a book by its cover’.

The problem with this is that there has to be some form of basic filtering mechanism. There are so many books in the world, but not enough time to read all of them.

Therefore we have to filter through all the books to find the ones we want to read, and the front cover is the main way of doing this.

In the same way, there are 8 billion people on this planet, but not enough time to talk to all of them.

If you are looking for a potential partner, you have to use some form of filtering mechanism to narrow down the pool of potential mates. Physical attractiveness often plays a large part in the filtering process.

In the modern world, our physical attractiveness can be influenced by more than just our genetics. We can alter our fashion, groom differently, and change our diet.

This is probably the most pliable aspect of physical attractiveness and it says a lot about your personality as well as financial status, lifestyle, health, and status.

If you want to become more attractive, changing these aspects can have dramatic impacts on how you are perceived in a very short amount of time.