Physical and Sexual Interpersonal Attraction in Love

The chapter explains how the concepts of physical and sexual attraction differ from each other. The materials of the chapter describe the ideas and research on beauty and physical attractiveness. The chapter demonstrates how attractive physical appearance influences overall interpersonal attraction. Evolutionary, ecological, social, cultural, and psychological perspectives show that the values and notions of physical attractiveness depend on many of these contextual factors. The studies reviewed in the chapter have demonstrated variability in preferences for physical appearances across cultures. The chapter presents research findings that reveal the effects of familiarity, imprinting, and exposure on the impressions of how physically attractive a person looks. The features of physical attractiveness are sexually polymorphic and differ between genders. The sections of this chapter provide an overview of the qualities of physical appearance that make a person attractive, as well as multisensory qualities of attractive appearance, including visual, auditory, tactile-kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory modalities of sensation and perception. The chapter describes in detail how people experience and express physical and sexual attraction. The last section of the chapter presents varieties of sexual attraction in love that depend on sexual identities, sexual orientations, and factors influencing diversity in sexual attraction.