Every civilisation pursues beauty, even at enormous costs. Beauty's ability to provoke pleasure, rivet attention and impel action is what ensures the survival of our genes. Beauty is not only a human characteristic, though. We find beauty in a peacocks' tail, in a nightingale's song, in the setting of the sun and the rising of the moon. Poetry in all languages sings of beauty.
Nobody is immune to beauty.
Our beauty detectors scan the environment like radar. We can see a face for a fraction of a second and rate its beauty. The author discusses beautiful people's character and others' response to them. Good-looking people are more apt to win arguments and persuade others of their opinion. They tend to be more at ease socially, more confident.