Where Does Attraction Stem From?

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Reka Morvay, I'm a psychologist and I'm going to talk to you today about where attraction stems from. Now there are lots of theories about what attracts one person to another and I can try to talk to you about where in the brain chemical processes occur that make a person more attractive to you than somebody else, but I really don't think that's the answer that you're looking for. And maybe this is a question that's more for the realm of poetry than for the realm of psychology because we have lots of theories but no definite answers about where attraction comes from. It may come from your biochemical makeup. It may come from past experiences that you've had. Maybe the stories that you saw or the movie heroes that you saw as a child that built up your idea of what an attractive person is. Definitely your parents ideas of what an attractive person is will influence your own decision. Whether you reject it completely and say I think that the complete opposite is attractive, or by mimicking it, those are the two options that you can choose from. So really there are a lot of factors that come into play when you see a person and what is attractive to you. Maybe something physical reminds you of the grandfather that you used to adore or maybe something that they said reminds you of this bedtime story that your mother used to read to you when you were a child. So all of these different factors build up into this complex thing, so there's really no one factor they can pinpoint and say this is where attraction comes from. It is an interplay among all these very different factors from beginning from your childhood to your biological makeup."