--- product_id: 2484072 title: "Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty" price: "€ 43.23" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2484072-survival-of-the-prettiest-the-science-of-beauty store_origin: HR region: Croatia --- # Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty **Price:** € 43.23 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty - **How much does it cost?** € 43.23 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2484072-survival-of-the-prettiest-the-science-of-beauty) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A provocative and thoroughly researched inquiry into what we find beautiful and why, skewering the myth that the pursuit of beauty is a learned behavior. In Survival of the Prettiest , Nancy Etcoff, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, argues that beauty is neither a cultural construction, an invention of the fashion industry, nor a backlash against feminism—it’s in our biology. Beauty, she explains, is an essential and ineradicable part of human nature that is revered and ferociously pursued in nearly every civilization—and for good reason. Those features to which we are most attracted are often signals of fertility and fecundity. When seen in the context of a Darwinian struggle for survival, our sometimes extreme attempts to attain beauty—both to become beautiful ourselves and to acquire an attractive partner—suddenly become much more understandable. Moreover, if we understand how the desire for beauty is innate, then we can begin to work in our own interests, and not just the interests of our genetic tendencies. Review: In the eye of the beholder - Many of the reviews here complains about this being not a book scientifically strong enough. But even looking at the index you can see what the text is about from the chapters 'the nature of beauty', 'beauty as bait', 'cover me', 'feature presentation' and 'fashion runaway'... since the book is written by someone like Dr. Etcoff, everybody expects the scientific cold point of view evident in every page. But for many other disciplines the text is perfectly able to open wide a huge perspective in the general problem of the perception of beauty, its uses, and the necessity of it. For people into arts, the thing about beauty perception and mathematical relation deeply rooted, not in the software but instead in the hardware, is fundamental in a time were the discussion is always about art not being interested in the aestethic depiction, perception or even consideration. Of course it can be sort of very well known facts what she is saying here about the golden proportion, simmetry and genetic health, the 7 to 10 hip proportion and fertility in women, and even the relation between the mother's perception of beauty in their offspring and neoteny -a concept that certainly you can trace back to Stephen Jay Gould or any other 'divulgative' text, even like the mentioned here 'the selfish gene', etc. But the real problem is context. What this book is really good at, is filling the gap between those kind of books -biology, life sciences, perception- and the kind of studies that really need to approach the subject not only as a problem, but instead as a matter. Not precisely aesthetics, but !fashion!. Even at the very beginning is mentioned how nowadays an entire city can be stopped because Claudia Schiffer is at a starcaise making some photographs, giving us the clue to understand how this whole book can be seen; in a total different light and with such a different use. The fact that every now and then Desmond Morris collides with Sandra Rhodes, Azzedine Alaia meets Darwin, opens the window and let you see the landscape is about the form, perception and construction of beauty as an adjective, as something we worn and sometimes have to endure. So this book belongs in the shelf next to Anne Hollander, Valerie Steel or Alison Lurie. Comprehensive studies about the power of image, fashion and appeareance. And not precisely in the side of the 'scientific' bunch. And it is an excellent entrance to think in the equation beauty, perception, process and representation that is so difficult to see, but so much necessary to really achieve: design with one eye into the biological process, art once again perceiving its duties, and science humanized through the contact with the arts, designs and fashion. Also I think everybody goes to the scientific side forgetting all the good concatenation of historical facts from corsets, wigs, make up, heels, making a very well define line between the subject -the beauty- and its uses. As a companion I think also in the same shelf could it be 'Venus Envy' by Elizabeth Haiken, also a bridge between 'science and consumer culture'. Review: Well written, enjoyable and well researched account of the science of beauty - Contrary to what many people think there are certain features of the human body and face that have always been considered attractive, in all cultures. That is, beauty is not an invention of the media any more than cuteness is an invention of Disney (Bambi, the movie, exploited our instinctive judgements of what is cute). Neither is beauty merely in the eye of the beholder. Yet, having said that, both the media and the perceiver matters, just not as much as people tend to think. In this book Nancy Etcoff from Harvard University provides a fast paced, thoroughly researched, rich and enjoyable account of attractiveness. She provides answers to all the main questions that usually come up when attractiveness is discussed. Here is a non exhaustive list, which the basic answer Q: What is attractive? A: Averageness, symmetry, Big eyes (women), large cheekbones (men) Q: When did people start to care so much about their appearance? A: Since the dawn of time Q: Are we nicer to more attractive individuals A: Yes Q: Why are certain traits considered attractive? A: Because they are indicators of underlying qualities, such as health or fertility These are rough answers, and there are many important and interesting details which cannot be covered in a short review such as this. Thankfully, Etcoff goes into full detail, and even though I am sort of a minor expert on attractiveness (have published a couple of studies on memory biases associated with attractiveness), I learned many things from this book. Etcoff’s style of writing is reminiscent of Steven Pinker. Both are masters when it comes to referencing a ton of literature from very divergent sources (books, TV-shows, published articles, archeological findings, poetry etc), in a short amount of text, without affecting the flow of that text. In fact Etcoff made such an impression on me that I am almost certain to buy her next book (if she writes one), independent of what that book is about. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #469,785 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #110 in Philosophy Aesthetics #231 in Grooming & Style #462 in Evolution (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 276 Reviews | ## Images ![Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Y483iZ0eL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ In the eye of the beholder *by G***Z on March 19, 2007* Many of the reviews here complains about this being not a book scientifically strong enough. But even looking at the index you can see what the text is about from the chapters 'the nature of beauty', 'beauty as bait', 'cover me', 'feature presentation' and 'fashion runaway'... since the book is written by someone like Dr. Etcoff, everybody expects the scientific cold point of view evident in every page. But for many other disciplines the text is perfectly able to open wide a huge perspective in the general problem of the perception of beauty, its uses, and the necessity of it. For people into arts, the thing about beauty perception and mathematical relation deeply rooted, not in the software but instead in the hardware, is fundamental in a time were the discussion is always about art not being interested in the aestethic depiction, perception or even consideration. Of course it can be sort of very well known facts what she is saying here about the golden proportion, simmetry and genetic health, the 7 to 10 hip proportion and fertility in women, and even the relation between the mother's perception of beauty in their offspring and neoteny -a concept that certainly you can trace back to Stephen Jay Gould or any other 'divulgative' text, even like the mentioned here 'the selfish gene', etc. But the real problem is context. What this book is really good at, is filling the gap between those kind of books -biology, life sciences, perception- and the kind of studies that really need to approach the subject not only as a problem, but instead as a matter. Not precisely aesthetics, but !fashion!. Even at the very beginning is mentioned how nowadays an entire city can be stopped because Claudia Schiffer is at a starcaise making some photographs, giving us the clue to understand how this whole book can be seen; in a total different light and with such a different use. The fact that every now and then Desmond Morris collides with Sandra Rhodes, Azzedine Alaia meets Darwin, opens the window and let you see the landscape is about the form, perception and construction of beauty as an adjective, as something we worn and sometimes have to endure. So this book belongs in the shelf next to Anne Hollander, Valerie Steel or Alison Lurie. Comprehensive studies about the power of image, fashion and appeareance. And not precisely in the side of the 'scientific' bunch. And it is an excellent entrance to think in the equation beauty, perception, process and representation that is so difficult to see, but so much necessary to really achieve: design with one eye into the biological process, art once again perceiving its duties, and science humanized through the contact with the arts, designs and fashion. Also I think everybody goes to the scientific side forgetting all the good concatenation of historical facts from corsets, wigs, make up, heels, making a very well define line between the subject -the beauty- and its uses. As a companion I think also in the same shelf could it be 'Venus Envy' by Elizabeth Haiken, also a bridge between 'science and consumer culture'. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Well written, enjoyable and well researched account of the science of beauty *by N***N on November 3, 2014* Contrary to what many people think there are certain features of the human body and face that have always been considered attractive, in all cultures. That is, beauty is not an invention of the media any more than cuteness is an invention of Disney (Bambi, the movie, exploited our instinctive judgements of what is cute). Neither is beauty merely in the eye of the beholder. Yet, having said that, both the media and the perceiver matters, just not as much as people tend to think. In this book Nancy Etcoff from Harvard University provides a fast paced, thoroughly researched, rich and enjoyable account of attractiveness. She provides answers to all the main questions that usually come up when attractiveness is discussed. Here is a non exhaustive list, which the basic answer Q: What is attractive? A: Averageness, symmetry, Big eyes (women), large cheekbones (men) Q: When did people start to care so much about their appearance? A: Since the dawn of time Q: Are we nicer to more attractive individuals A: Yes Q: Why are certain traits considered attractive? A: Because they are indicators of underlying qualities, such as health or fertility These are rough answers, and there are many important and interesting details which cannot be covered in a short review such as this. Thankfully, Etcoff goes into full detail, and even though I am sort of a minor expert on attractiveness (have published a couple of studies on memory biases associated with attractiveness), I learned many things from this book. Etcoff’s style of writing is reminiscent of Steven Pinker. Both are masters when it comes to referencing a ton of literature from very divergent sources (books, TV-shows, published articles, archeological findings, poetry etc), in a short amount of text, without affecting the flow of that text. In fact Etcoff made such an impression on me that I am almost certain to buy her next book (if she writes one), independent of what that book is about. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Very Solid 4 Stars *by K***R on August 29, 2021* Survival of the Prettiest explains, in evolutionary, philosophical, and scientifically studied ways, what we find attractive in women and men and why, from prehistoric times, to the Greeks and Romans, to the 90’s. I loved all of the quotes on beauty this book, as said by great philosophers and writers. I now see a celebrity, or a viral pretty face, and know just what gives their appearance star power (big eyes, small chins/jaws, and symmetry and harmony mostly). It features fascinating studies on babies, motherhood, and men and women. The last 1/4 is on fashion, which was very fun to read. The only reason I didn’t give this book 5 stars is because at times it was repetitive and started losing me. However it was still a super quick, great read! I would not recommend this book to a teenager or anyone with severely low physical self confidence. This book makes very clear what is considered most attractive physically. It feels nice to have some of the features, stinks to not have others, and made me think many times “I would just have to fix this, this, and this,” which I think could be dangerous on impressionable minds. ## Frequently Bought Together - Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty - Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women - The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2484072-survival-of-the-prettiest-the-science-of-beauty](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2484072-survival-of-the-prettiest-the-science-of-beauty) --- *Product available on Desertcart Croatia* *Store origin: HR* *Last updated: 2026-10-02*