为什么有些人会吸引我们？而我们对另一些人却毫无感觉，没有兴趣呢？专家说，容貌、性格甚至气味都会影响人们对可选择对象的感觉和喜爱程度。

 

I'm sure we all remember a time when we fell in love. For some it was a gradual realisation that the person you knew was actually amazing. For others, it was love at first sight – an instant lightning-bolt moment that you knew you'd met your perfect match.

 

What is it that makes someone instantly love someone? Physical attraction is an obvious answer but there are other reasons that can create affection for someone; compatibility, personality and a good sense of humour to name just a few.

 

But according to one expert, there is a more scientific explanation. Dr Anna Machin, an Evolutionary¹ Anthropologist² at the University of Oxford³ says men look for signs of fertility and good health in a partner "and the major indicator⁴ of that in women is the waist-hip ratio… the absolute ideal." This is believed to be 0.7 which is "really your classic hourglass figure." And what do women look for in men? Well other experts have discovered they look for men who are taller, with broad shoulders and a relatively⁵ narrow waist – so a 'V' shaped torso.

 

If you're worried your figure isn't the perfect shape, there could be other factors that will cause someone to fall head over heels in love with you – people also use their sense of smell to sniff⁶ out their ideal mate. Apparently⁷, we can detect whether people are genetically⁸ different to us by the way they smell.

 

Even if a potential partner's smell is a passion-killer, their facial expressions might make you infatuated with them. According to Professor David Perrett, at the School of Psychology⁹ and Neuroscience at St Andrews University, "we can change our faces by interacting with others and doing so in a pleasant manner, and that will aid our attractiveness and make others interested in us."

 

So it's good to know there are many reasons why we might be smitten¹⁰ with someone, but there is a problem; will the feeling be mutual¹¹ and if it is, how long will it last? Nothing is guaranteed and, we know from Shakespeare, the course of true love never ran smoothly¹²!

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