pretty

It is one thing to look around a packed subway car, pick out the most attractive people - "attractive" meant conventionally - and realize that they aren't the happiest or most successful people.  That's obvious, trite, and our culture is geared to force that basic understanding on all but the very least observant.  But then, what advantage do the attractive have?  It isn't that they have the best sex lives, relationships, or are even in the best position relative to their sense of their own good appearance.

So is it anything?  What advantage is it to be very attractive physically?  This, I suppose: the residual animal fact of improved and accelerated mating possibilities - this in the procreative, or at least diverted procreative, sense, rather than in the hedonistic sexual sense.  And, I suppose, a boost to those good side effects of attractiveness - the need to exercise (in our culture, anyhow), to maintain good clothes, the attention to presentation (if not overdone).  And, above, a subtle plus in their interactions.  The attractive, other things equal, will be tended and listened to a little better, a little sooner, a little longer.  That, so long as the attractive keep other things equal, rather than leaning on their attractiveness, is a meaningful dividend.

(By the way, I suspect that, purely relative to physical appearance, the best sex lives are had by those who are attractive enough: that is, attractive enough to appeal, but not so attractive as to discourage pursuit.  And there's a bonus for being something of a "type", so that the subpopulation that takes an interest can key in quickly and easily.)