Why should we try to be more attractive? Because being attractive opens doors in every area of life. And we need to tell the difference between being good-looking and being attractive: beauty can fade, but attractiveness can remain once beauty has gone.
Attractive people don’t just have a better hand when it comes to winning someone over. According to science, an attractive person earns more money than average, finds it easier to get a job and is even less likely to be found guilty of a crime, because a jury likes them better simply for being attractive. In psychology this is called the halo effect: attributing qualities and abilities to a person simply because they are attractive.
What makes us seem less attractive?
First of all, we should be clear that attractiveness is not only a physical matter; it is also a matter of attitude and personality.
According to different scientific studies, there are some key points that can make a human being lose attractiveness: a loss of physical attraction, a loss of credibility, a loss of trust in the person. Basically, certain things can take us from being liked by someone to not being liked at all.
1. Arrogance, conceit, cockiness…
Sometimes we move along very fine lines, where we can go from being very self-assured to being arrogant, or from being very intelligent to coming across as conceited and full of ourselves.
Arrogance is the feeling of being superior to others. People tend to like humble people, so if you are seen as arrogant, conceited or cocky, you will have killed off any attractiveness.
2. Lying
You can cast doubt on 100 true things if you are caught in a single lie. And it doesn’t have to be a big lie. As a rule, hiding or lying about your age makes you look insecure, and lying about your profession or your position in a company, or saying you earn more than you really do, will make you look like a show-off. Clearly, liars are not usually trustworthy. It only takes one lie.
3. Laziness
Not only is it a deadly sin, but science says that people who display a sedentary, lazy lifestyle tend not to enjoy good physical health, which is usually visible at a glance.
4. Smell
These days, someone who smells good is not necessarily more attractive, but someone who smells bad has undoubtedly ruined any chance of being attractive. That day may be an exception, but the person you are meeting for the first time doesn’t know that, so they will automatically rule you out as someone with poor hygiene.
5. Lack of a sense of humour
A sense of humour opens doors because it shows that you are a cheerful, good-natured person. Nobody is attracted to people who are too serious, because they tend to seem less approachable than people who are fun. Often, though not necessarily, a person who is too serious can give the impression of being bitter. And nobody likes bitter people.
6. Forced body language
The problem with almost everyone knowing how important body language is these days is that many people force their postures to apply what they have learned, and so lose their naturalness and spontaneity. Naturalness is what makes us more attractive, so losing it has the opposite effect.
7. Stress
If you meet a dull person for lunch, sooner or later their boredom rubs off on you. If you meet someone who shows clear signs of stress, sooner or later they will stress you out. Stress also shows on our faces and sometimes in our body language, so the impression we make suffers.
8. Lack of sleep
Lack of sleep can make people perceive us in different ways, depending on the kind of person. It can make us look less attractive and less healthy, and even sadder. And if you are one of those people on whose face it shows more easily, the loss of glow, the sad eyes and the dark circles can set people speculating.
Beyond these key points, there are the more obvious factors: the way we dress, cheating with our footwear, the accessories on our clothes, and so on.
We explain all of this in 16 ways to be more attractive.
Featured image: Väinö Kannisto, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
