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Why Men Lie Up and
A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature Women Lie Down
by Satoshi Kanazawa

Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than

Other Women, But Black Men Are Rated Better Looking Than Satoshi Kanazawa is an
Other Men? evolutionary psychologist at LSE and
Why black women, but not black men? the coauthor (with the late Alan S.
Published on May 15, 2011 by Satoshi Kanazawa in The Scientific Fundamentalist Miller) of Why Beautiful People Have
More Daughters.
more...
There are marked race differences in physical attractiveness
among women, but not among men. Why?

Add Health measures the physical attractiveness of its Subscribe to The Scientific Fundamentalist
respondents both objectively and subjectively. At the end of Get new posts via email Subscribe via RSS
each interview, the interviewer rates the physical attractiveness
of the respondent objectively on the following five-point scale: 1
= very unattractive, 2 = unattractive, 3 = about average, 4 =
attractive, 5 = very attractive. The physical attractiveness of
each Add Health respondent is measured three times by three
different interviewers over seven years.

From these three scores, I can compute the latent "physical

attractiveness factor" by a statistical procedure called factor
analysis. Factor analysis has the added advantage of
eliminating all random measurement errors that are inherent in
any scientific measurement. The latent physical attractiveness
factor has a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.

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Recall that women on average are more physically attractive than men.
So women of all races are on average more physically attractive than the
"average" Add Health respondent, except for black women. As the
following graph shows, black women are statistically no different from the Recent Posts in The Scientific
"average" Add Health respondent, and far less attractive than white, Asian, Fundamentalist
and Native American women.
Why black women, but not black
In contrast, races do not differ in physical attractiveness among men, as men?
the following graph shows. Men of all races are more or less equally less
physically attractive than the "average" Add Health respondent.
The space-time continuum is the only
thing unkind to women
This sex difference in the race differences in physical attractiveness –
where physical attractiveness varies significantly by race among women,
but not among men – is replicated at each Add Health wave (except that Steven Pinker is the Einstein of
the race differences among men are statistically significant, albeit psycholinguistics
substantively very small, in Wave III). In each wave, black women are
significantly less physically attractive than women of other races.
Why strict, conservative churches are
strong
It is very interesting to note that, even though black women are objectively
less physically attractive than other women, black women (and men)
subjectively consider themselves to be far more physically attractive than I couldn’t have said it better myself
others. In Wave III, Add Health asks its respondents to rate their own
physical attractiveness subjectively on the following four-point scale: 1 =
not at all, 2 = slightly, 3 = moderately, 4 = very. As you can see in the More of The Scientific Fundamentalist blog
following graphs, both black women and black men rate themselves to be
far more physically attractive than individuals of other races.

What accounts for the markedly lower average level of physical

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Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than ... http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamenta...

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Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than ... http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamenta...

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attractiveness among black women? Black women are on average much

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Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than ... http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamenta...

heavier than nonblack women. The mean body-mass index (BMI) at Wave
III is 28.5 among black women and 26.1 among nonblack women. (Black
and nonblack men do not differ in BMI: 27.0 vs. 26.9.) However, this is not
the reason black women are less physically attractive than nonblack
women. Black women have lower average level of physical attractiveness
net of BMI. Nor can the race difference in intelligence (and the positive
association between intelligence and physical attractiveness) account for
the race difference in physical attractiveness among women. Black
women are still less physically attractive than nonblack women net of BMI
and intelligence. Net of intelligence, black men are significantly more
physically attractive than nonblack men.

There are many biological and genetic differences between the races.
However, such race differences usually exist in equal measure for both
men and women. For example, because they have existed much longer in
human evolutionary history, Africans have more mutations in their
genomes than other races. And the mutation loads significantly decrease
physical attractiveness (because physical attractiveness is a measure of
genetic and developmental health). But since both black women and black
men have higher mutation loads, it cannot explain why only black women
are less physically attractive, while black men are, if anything, more
attractive.

The only thing I can think of that might potentially explain the lower
average level of physical attractiveness among black women is
testosterone. Africans on average have higher levels of testosterone than
other races, and testosterone, being an androgen (male hormone), affects
the physical attractiveness of men and women differently. Men with higher
levels of testosterone have more masculine features and are therefore
more physically attractive. In contrast, women with higher levels of
testosterone also have more masculine features and are therefore less
physically attractive. The race differences in the level of testosterone can
therefore potentially explain why black women are less physically attractive
than women of other races, while (net of intelligence) black men are more
physically attractive than men of other races.

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Tags: add health, added advantage, asians, beauty, black women, blacks, bmi, body-mass
index, developmental health, general intelligence, genetic health, genomes, graph, health
measures, health wave, interviewer, interviewers, measurement errors, mutation loads, national
longitudinal study of adolescent health, native american women, native americans, nbsp,
obesity, overweight, physical attractiveness, race differences, respondent, respondents, seven
years, sex difference, standard deviation, statistical procedure, three times, wave iii, whites

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