Narrator: She was one of the most influential women of the 20th century. A diplomat, activist, and First Lady who championed human rights and redefined the role of women in public life. Yet, late in her life, when asked if she had any regrets, Eleanor Roosevelt’s answer was startling. It wasn’t a political misstep or a personal failure she lamented. Her one regret, she confessed, was that she wished she had been prettier. This poignant admission from a woman of immense accomplishment reveals a deep and often uncomfortable truth about human nature—the profound, inescapable power of beauty. In her book, Survival of the Prettiest, psychologist Nancy Etcoff dismantles the modern notion that beauty is a trivial, culturally constructed myth. She argues that our obsession with appearance is not a product of social conditioning alone, but a deep-seated instinct, a biological imperative hardwired into our DNA.

Narrator: For decades, a prevailing cultural argument, championed by thinkers like Naomi Wolf, has been that beauty is a "currency system" and a "belief system that keeps male dominance intact." The idea is that our standards of attractiveness are arbitrary, created by society and media to control and oppress. Etcoff challenges this view head-on, asserting that while culture certainly shapes and exaggerates our preferences, the foundation of beauty is universal and biological. The human brain, she explains, is a beauty detector.

This instinct is so powerful that it can haunt even those who have achieved the highest levels of success in other domains. Consider the case of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her regret about not being prettier wasn't about vanity; it was an acknowledgment of a fundamental human desire. Etcoff argues that this desire is not learned but innate. It’s a source of intense pleasure, akin to our enjoyment of food or love, and it has been a driving force throughout human history. From the 696,000 Americans who underwent voluntary aesthetic surgery in 1996 to the 1,484 tubes of lipstick sold every minute, the pursuit of beauty is a relentless, global phenomenon. It suggests that our attraction to certain features is not random but is guided by an internal template, an ideal that evolution has etched into our minds.

Narrator: If beauty is an instinct, what is it detecting? According to Etcoff, it’s a proxy for health, fertility, and genetic fitness. In the high-stakes game of mate selection, looks are a crucial form of currency. While both sexes value attractiveness, men consistently prioritize it more. A 1989 study found that on a 3-point scale, men rated the importance of looks in a partner at 2.1, while women rated it at 1.67. This gap, Etcoff explains, is rooted in evolutionary pressures. A woman’s beauty, particularly signs of youth and health, historically signaled peak fertility.

This dynamic creates a powerful and often unequal marketplace. A man’s status, power, and resources can often compensate for a lack of physical attractiveness—as Henry Kissinger famously noted, "Power is an aphrodisiac." For women, however, beauty itself often becomes the resource to be exchanged for security and status, a fact starkly illustrated by the marriage of model Anna Nicole Smith to the elderly billionaire J. Howard Marshall II.

The actor Dustin Hoffman had a profound personal realization of this bias while preparing for his role in the 1980s film Tootsie. He worked tirelessly with makeup artists to become a believable woman, but he wanted to be a beautiful woman. When he finally saw himself as his character, Dorothy, he was disappointed. He told his wife he thought he was interesting, but he wouldn't want to talk to her at a party because she wasn't physically attractive enough. In that moment, Hoffman broke down in tears, realizing how many interesting women he had dismissed in his own life based on a superficial judgment he didn't even know he was making. His experience reveals how deeply these biological preferences run, influencing our social choices even when we consciously believe in equality.

Narrator: Our bodies are constantly broadcasting information, and sexual selection has favored traits that act as billboards for genetic quality. Charles Darwin observed that "Man admires and often tries to exaggerate whatever characteristics nature may have given him." This is driven by what biologists call the "handicap principle."

The classic example is the peacock. Its massive, iridescent train is metabolically costly to grow and makes it vulnerable to predators. But that’s precisely the point. By surviving despite this handicap, the peacock sends an honest signal to peahens: "I am so healthy and strong that I can afford this extravagant burden." Females, in turn, have evolved a preference for these exaggerated traits because they are linked to superior genes.

Humans are no different. Traits like height in men are strongly correlated with perceived power and success. In a study of Fortune 500 companies, more than half of the male CEOs were six feet or taller, while the average American man is five-foot-nine. This isn't just perception; it translates to real-world advantages, with studies showing that taller men earn significantly higher salaries. For women, the key signal is the waist-to-hip ratio. A low ratio, creating an hourglass figure, is a reliable indicator of youth, high estrogen levels, and fertility. It’s a preference found across cultures, from ancient sculptures to modern pinups, demonstrating its deep biological roots.

Narrator: If biology provides the blueprint for beauty, fashion is the cultural language we use to amplify it. Etcoff argues that fashion is fundamentally driven by two things: sex and status. As designer Katherine Hamnett bluntly put it, "Men and women both, to an extent, get dressed to get laid." Clothing is used to exaggerate our natural attractors—to make men appear broader and taller, and women to appear more curvaceous and youthful.

But fashion is also a relentless competition for status, governed by what economist Thorstein Veblen called "conspicuous consumption." The court of Louis XIV at Versailles provides a perfect historical example. The king’s daily dressing ceremony, the grand levée, was a spectacle where courtiers vied for the honor of handing him his shirt or gloves. This ritual sparked an arms race of fashion, with nobles bankrupting themselves on lace and jewels to signal their standing.

Today, this dynamic continues. As mass production makes clothing accessible, status is no longer signaled just by what you wear, but by the designer label attached to it. The demand is so high that counterfeiting has become a two-hundred-billion-dollar industry, proving that people desire the symbol of status even more than the quality of the garment. The ultimate status symbol, however, has become the "designer body" itself—a physique sculpted by expensive trainers, diets, and cosmetic surgery, the modern equivalent of the peacock’s tail.

Narrator: While visual beauty is a powerful force, Etcoff concludes that it is not the whole story. Human attraction is a rich, multisensory experience. Our ancient "beauty detectors" are easily fooled in the modern world, but our other senses provide a more nuanced picture.

Research shows that we are deeply influenced by non-visual cues. Psychologist Monica Moore studied flirting behavior and found that a woman's signals—her darting glances, hair flips, and coy smiles—were a better predictor of whether she would be approached by men than her conventional physical attractiveness. Voice plays a role, too. Just as the male proboscis monkey evolved a large nose to create a more resonant, attractive call, humans judge voices on their pitch and tone, associating them with likability and competence.

Most primal of all is the sense of smell. In a famous study, biologist Claus Wedekind had men wear T-shirts for two nights. When women were asked to smell the shirts, they consistently preferred the scent of men whose immune systems were most different from their own—a biological mechanism to ensure healthier, more genetically diverse offspring. These signals operate beneath the level of consciousness, shaping our attractions in ways we rarely understand.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Survival of the Prettiest is that beauty is not a frivolous distraction but a core part of our biological heritage. To deny its power is to deny a fundamental aspect of human nature. However, to worship it as the ultimate measure of human worth is equally dangerous. Etcoff argues for a balanced perspective, one that appreciates beauty without being enslaved by it. As the novelist George Eliot wrote, we should cultivate physical beauty, but also "love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret of proportion but in the secret of deep human sympathy."

The challenge, then, is not to pretend that beauty doesn't matter, but to consciously uncouple it from our judgments of character, intelligence, and goodness. We can acknowledge the primal thrill of a beautiful face or form while remembering that true connection is built on a foundation far deeper than skin. The real task is to broaden our definition of value, ensuring that in our search for the pretty, we don't overlook the worthy.