We are collectively obsessed with the idea that an attractive person is, first and foremost, someone who looks terrific. But that's to ignore the widespread phenomenon of the objectively good looking individual who nevertheless fails to hold much appeal - and vice versa. Here is a guide to the psychology of that too seldom earnestly-studied issue: hotness.

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“Understandably enough, our societies pay vast attention to the idea of ‘sexiness’; far more questionably, they tempt us to believe that it might be easy to understand what this quality consists of. The leading suggestion takes its starting point from the biological sciences: we learn that sex aims at successful reproduction and genetic fitness in the coming generation. Therefore ‘sexiness’ must logically comprise a host of semi-conscious signals of fertility and of resistance to disease: bilateral facial symmetry, large bright pupils, full lips, youthful skin and melanin-rich hair…”

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