In life, people find themselves attracted to someone and they cannot understand why. Have you ever been attracted to someone and they have nothing to offer you?

This person may haven no personality, no job, and may not be the brightest, yet you are still attracted to them.

Before factors like education, financial status and religious views, the human’s sole purpose on earth was to reproduce healthy offspring.

Basic human attraction stems from the body’s want to procreate with the best possible mate, and produce the best offspring.

People with “good genes” are the most attractive. Having good genes means that this person has a healthy immune system and a well-developed reproductive system.  

Estrogen and testosterone have a strong influence on attraction. These hormones help differentiate male and female bodies.

As children, the male and female bodies develop at the same pace, until puberty. During this time, estrogen and testosterone levels increase along with the body, becoming more feminine or masculine.

Men get broader shoulders and grow facial hair among other physical changes. Women, on the other hand, become more curvaceous, grow breast and other feminine features.

Why is Halle Berry, Megan Fox, Brad Pitt and Tyson Beckford found attractive by the masses? These celebrities’ faces are well aligned. Most people would never consider facial alignment a factor when saying someone is cute. However, this is a major factor when observing the opposite sex.

A well-aligned face shows that a person’s body is well developed and they have good genes. The more feminine a female is or the more masculine a male is heightens their chances of being selected as a mate.

The celebrities listed above have well aligned eyebrows, noses, and faces that make them attractive.

People’s desires to be more attractive or beautiful can lead them to artificially alter their faces or skin to become more attractive.

According to an NPR article, “Around The World, Notions Of Beauty Can Be A Real Beast,” Julie Chen, a well-known television personality, had plastic surgery on her eyes to help her career grow.

Long hair along with skin, smell, and one’s tone of voice create signals to the opposite sex. Long hair is the body’s sign of maturity.

Maturity indicates to the reproductive system that it is ready to procreate. Healthy skin is a sign of a good immune system.

Think about what is more attractive to you, someone with clean, clear and healthy skin, or someone who has pimples, scars and flaky skin. A healthy person’s immune system does a better job of protecting them from the bacteria that causes acne.

The immune system also shows a better ability to fight skin damage.  Skin can also show maturity. Skin tone can be artificially enhanced through make up.

Make-up companies create products to even out skin tone, cover up bruises and blemishes. This may be why most people seem more attractive with make up.

The natural smell of a woman or a man can cause attraction. Men and women have chemicals called pheromones produced from estrogen and testosterone.

 Pheromones send signals through smell. Pheromones found in women are called copulins and androstenol in men. They can be found in blood, saliva, sweat, and other body secretions. Today’s perfume and body spray commercials emphasize that artificial scents can help attract the opposite sex.

Dr. Perry Mac and Dr. Joseph Whittaker from N.C. A&T’s Biology department spoke about pheromones when asked about attraction.

Dr. Mac stated at ages 11,12 and 13 (ages near puberty) each person develops their own natural scent. He continued to say that these scents have pheromones that each person of the opposite sex may respond to differently.

The pheromones may cause attraction in some members of the opposite sex or it may have an inverse effect.  This shows most people still have something specific that attracts them to someone else.

Dr. Mac and Dr. Whittaker both agreed that although there is not another specific biological cause of attraction, there is something instinctual about human attraction. Dr. Mac gave the example of two different men who are attracted to two women who have completely different body types.

One male is attracted to tiny women and the other male is attracted to more tall women. Neither one of the two men can specifically pinpoint the cause of their preferences, however, the preference of each male may come from something instinctual triggering their attraction to a specific body type.

Developing an attraction for someone can start before knowing whether the person is smart, kind or even religious.

In a documentary entitled, “The Science of sex appeal,” researcher Dr. Douglas Kenrick described attraction by saying, “We say someone looks attractive, but actually what we’re saying is that person probably has good genes and that person is probably reproductively healthy.

 If I pair up with that individual and we have children, those children will do quite well.”

Our bodies direct us to who we are genetically compatible with, but that does not mean we should completely rely on it.

Picking a partner for life should not only be based on attraction, but at knowing what causes basic attraction in humans can help answer the question. “Why am I attracted to this person?”

—Email  Keene-An at [email protected] and follow us on twitter @TheATRegister

• KEENE-ANN Contributor