In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attraction

by David Perrett

Overview

In our daily lives, in our memories and fantasies, our mental worlds overflow with faces. But why do we have faces at all, and brains that are good at reading them? And why are we attracted to some faces more than others? In Your Face is an engaging and authoritative tour of the science of facial beauty and face perception. David Perrett, the preeminent scholar in the field, reveals and interprets the most remarkable findings and in the process demolishes many popular myths, setting the record straight on what neuroscience and evolutionary psychology are teaching us about beauty. The record is more surprising and often more unsettling than you might think.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137205056
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	06/05/2012
Series:	MacSci
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

DAVID PERRETT is an internationally recognized leader in the field of face perception and the study of human attractiveness. His work has appeared in the most prestigious scientific journals and is often featured in the popular press around the world. As a professor and head of the Perception Lab at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, he has trained many of the most promising young researchers in the field. Perrett received the Golden Brain award for his discoveries about the way the brain processes faces and pioneered the use of computer graphics to study the perception of facial attributes such as beauty, health, and personality.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Fish Face: A Brief Tour of the Face and its Origins
Seeing Faces: How we Recognize Faces and Why we Like Them
A Baby's Bias: How we are Attracted to Faces from Birth
Beauty in Balance: The Proportions that Really are Universally Attractive
His and Hers: How Sex Hormones Influence our Looks and our Attraction to Others
The Point of Beauty: Why Facial Attractiveness Matters in the Long Run
Fit Face: How our Health is Reflected in our Faces
Wither the Face: On the Cuteness of Babies and the Effects of Time
Faces with Attitude: How the Personality we Seek in a Partner Guides our Face Tastes
All in the Family: How Parents and Peers Shape our Attraction to Faces
Love Potions: Transforming Attraction to Love
Epilogue

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Let's face it. David Perrett has written a truly compelling book. Chock full of science, but reader-friendly and entertaining. Now I have a new perspective on my own crooked smile and have learned many other fascinating things related to faces. Highly recommended." - Professor Joseph LeDoux, author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self.

"An engaging revelation of the biology and psychology behind facial beauty, but be warned: In Your Face may reveal some surprising truths about why we are attracted to others." - Bruce Hood, author of SuperSense and Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol.

Editorial Reviews

"Let's face it. David Perrett has written a truly compelling book. Chock full of science, but reader-friendly and entertaining. Now I have a new perspective on my own crooked smile and have learned many other fascinating things related to faces. Highly recommended." -- Professor Joseph LeDoux, author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self. 
 
"An engaging revelation of the biology and psychology behind facial beauty, but be warned: In Your Face may reveal some surprising truths about why we are attracted to others." -- Bruce Hood, author of SuperSense and Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol.

From the Publisher