Overview

A provocative and thoroughly researched inquiry into what we find beautiful and why, skewering the myth that the pursuit of beauty is a learned behavior.  In Survival of the Prettiest, Nancy Etcoff, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, argues that beauty is neither a cultural construction, an invention of the fashion industry, nor a backlash against feminism—it’s in our biology.  Beauty, she explains, is an essential and ineradicable part of human nature that is revered and ferociously pursued in nearly every civilization—and for good reason. Those features to which we are most attracted are often signals of fertility and fecundity. When seen in the context of a Darwinian struggle for survival, our sometimes extreme attempts to attain beauty—both to become beautiful ourselves and to acquire an attractive partner—suddenly become much more understandable. Moreover, if we understand how the desire for beauty is innate, then we can begin to work in our own interests, and not just the interests of our genetic tendencies.

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9780385479424

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Reviews

Authoritative and surprisingly entertaining. Chicago Tribune Survival of the Prettiest is the first book to pull all of the science on beauty into one lively yet thoughtful package, showing again that it's not just ax-grinding males who believe that biology continues to play an important role in our lives. The New York Times Book Review Through a series of global scientific studies, Etcoff . . . presents a compelling argument for why so many cultures are influenced by beauty. The Boston Globe Nancy Etcoff . . . writes confidently that today's culture of beauty is not a backlash against feminism. She delves into why we devour fashion magazines, agonize about waist sizes, and gaze longingly at objects of desire. Houston Chronicle [A] sprightly, spunky, well-written treatise on the Darwinian science of looking good. Entertainment Weekly

Authoritative and surprisingly entertaining. . . . -- Chicago Tribune <br> Survival of the Prettiest is the first book to pull all of the science on beauty into one lively yet thoughtful package, showing again that it's not just ax-grinding males who believe that biology continues to play an important role in our lives. -- The New York Times Book Review <br> Through a series of global scientific studies, Etcoff . . . presents a compelling argument for why so many cultures are influenced by beauty. -- The Boston Globe <br> Nancy Etcoff . . . writes confidently that today's culture of beauty is not a backlash against feminism. She delves into why we devour fashion magazines, agonize about waist sizes, and gaze longingly at objects of desire. -- Houston Chronicle

Authoritative and surprisingly entertaining. --Chicago Tribune Survival of the Prettiest is the first book to pull all of the science on beauty into one lively yet thoughtful package, showing again that it's not just ax-grinding males who believe that biology continues to play an important role in our lives. --The New York Times Book Review Through a series of global scientific studies, Etcoff . . . presents a compelling argument for why so many cultures are influenced by beauty. --The Boston Globe Nancy Etcoff . . . writes confidently that today's culture of beauty is not a backlash against feminism. She delves into why we devour fashion magazines, agonize about waist sizes, and gaze longingly at objects of desire. --Houston Chronicle [A] sprightly, spunky, well-written treatise on the Darwinian science of looking good. --Entertainment Weekly Authoritative and surprisingly entertaining. Chicago Tribune Survival of the Prettiest is the first book to pull all of the science on beauty into one lively yet thoughtful package, showing again that it's not just ax-grinding males who believe that biology continues to play an important role in our lives. The New York Times Book Review Through a series of global scientific studies, Etcoff . . . presents a compelling argument for why so many cultures are influenced by beauty. The Boston Globe Nancy Etcoff . . . writes confidently that today's culture of beauty is not a backlash against feminism. She delves into why we devour fashion magazines, agonize about waist sizes, and gaze longingly at objects of desire. Houston Chronicle [A] sprightly, spunky, well-written treatise on the Darwinian science of looking good. Entertainment Weekly Authoritative and surprisingly entertaining. . . . -- Chicago Tribune Survival of the Prettiest is the first book to pull all of the science on beauty into one lively yet thoughtful package, showing again that it's not just ax-grinding males who believe that biology continues to play an important role in our lives. -- The New York Times Book Review Through a series of global scientific studies, Etcoff . . . presents a compelling argument for why so many cultures are influenced by beauty. -- The Boston Globe Nancy Etcoff . . . writes confidently that today's culture of beauty is not a backlash against feminism. She delves into why we devour fashion magazines, agonize about waist sizes, and gaze longingly at objects of desire. -- Houston Chronicle Authoritative and surprisingly entertaining. . . . -- Chicago Tribune Survival of the Prettiest is the first book to pull all of the science on beauty into one lively yet thoughtful package, showing again that it's not just ax-grinding males who believe that biology continues to play an important role in our lives. -- The New York Times Book Review Through a series of global scientific studies, Etcoff . . . presents a compelling argument for why so many cultures are influenced by beauty. -- The Boston Globe Nancy Etcoff . . . writes confidently that today's culture of beauty is not a backlash against feminism. She delves into why we devour fashion magazines, agonize about waist sizes, and gaze longingly at objects of desire. -- Houston Chronicle

Authoritative and surprisingly entertaining. . . . -- Chicago Tribune Survival of the Prettiest is the first book to pull all of the science on beauty into one lively yet thoughtful package, showing again that it's not just ax-grinding males who believe that biology continues to play an important role in our lives. -- The New York Times Book Review Through a series of global scientific studies, Etcoff . . . presents a compelling argument for why so many cultures are influenced by beauty. -- The Boston Globe Nancy Etcoff . . . writes confidently that today's culture of beauty is not a backlash against feminism. She delves into why we devour fashion magazines, agonize about waist sizes, and gaze longingly at objects of desire. -- Houston Chronicle

Author Information

Nancy Etcoff has an M.Ed. from Harvard, a Ph.D. in psychology from Boston University, and has held a post-doctoral fellowship in brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. She is currently a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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