What is phys­i­cal beau­ty, in a per­son?

In re­cent years, much sci­en­tif­ic opin­ion has gath­ered in sup­port of a some­what dreary an­swer: beau­ty is just the av­er­age. 

There’s something to that, stud­ies show. Vol­un­teers gen­er­ally rate “av­er­age” faces, crea­ted by com­pu­ters as composites of many others, as bet­ter-look­ing than un­u­sual faces. Blend­ing even just a few faces—even un­at­trac­tive ones—tends to pro­duce sur­pris­ing im­prove­ments. (Try it your­self here).

But if it’s dis­heart­en­ing to pon­der the idea that our fan­tasies cen­ter on a qua­li­ty so, well, av­er­age—take heart. A new study may have re­stored a tou­ch of the old mys­tery that beau­ty once had.