Physical attractiveness as a phenotypic marker of health: an assessment using a nationally representative sample of American adults

a r t i c l e i n f o Evolutionary explanations regarding the differential preference for particular traits hold that preferences arose due to traits' association with increased potential for reproductive fitness. Assessments of physical attractiveness have been shown to be related to perceived and measured levels of health, an important fitness-related trait. Despite the robust association between physical attractiveness and health observed in the extant literature, a number of theoretical and methodological concerns remain. Specifically, the research in this area possesses a lack of specificity in terms of measures of health, a reliance on artificial social interactions in assessing physical attractiveness, and a relatively infrequent use of non-student samples and leaves unaddressed the confounding effects of raters of attractiveness. Using these concerns as a springboard, the current study employed data from the National Longitudinal Study for Adolescent Health (N ≈ 15,000; aged 25 to 34 years) to assess the relationship between physical attractiveness and various specific and overall measures of health. Logistic and OLS regression models illustrated a robust association between physical attractiveness and various measures of health, controlling for a variety of confounding factors. In sum, the more attractive a respondent was rated, the less likely he or she was to report being diagnosed with a wide range of chronic diseases and neuropsychological disorders. Importantly, this finding was observed for both sexes. These analyses provide further support for physical attractiveness as a phenotypic marker of health. The findings are discussed in reference to evolutionary theory, and the limitations of the study and future research suggestions are also addressed. One of the key theoretical foundations of an adaptationist approach to the study of mating behaviors is that traits found to be attractive by members of a species are indicative of evolutionarily important phenotypes (Sugiyama, 2005). In short, the perspective holds that sexual selection processes produced an evolved suite of mechanisms related to mate choice in order to maximize reproductive success and the Indeed, the adaptive problem of mate selection is one of the most fundamental factors related to reproductive success (Tovée, Edmonds, & Vuong, 2012). A significant component within the adaptive problem of mate selection is maximizing the likelihood of obtaining a healthy mate (Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Symons, 1995). Ensuring that a mating partner is healthy aids reproductive success in a number of ways; for example, it can help decrease the likelihood of infection from a …