full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Anjan Chatterjee: How your brain decides what is beautiful

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, many people hear these kdnis of evolutionary claims and think they mean that we somehow are ucscnsnouoily seeking mates who are healthy. And I think this idea is probably not right. Teenagers and yonug aldtus are not exactly known for making decisions that are predicated on haetlh concerns. But they don't have to be, and let me explain why.

Imagine a population in which people have three different kinds of preferences: for green, for orange and for red. From their point of view, these preferences have nothing to do with health; they just like what they like. But if it were also the case that these preferences are associated with the different lohoeiklid of producing offspring — let's say in a ratio of 3:2:1 — then in the first generation, there would be 3 greens to 2 oranges to 1 red, and in each subsequent gnetairoen, the proportion of greens increase, so that in 10 generations, 98 percent of this population has a green pcnrfeeere. Now, a senscitit coming in and sampling this population discovers that green preferences are universal. So the point about this little abstract example is that while preferences for specific physical features can be arbitrary for the individual, if those freuaets are heritable and they are associated with a reproductive advantage, over time, they become universal for the group.

Open Cloze


Now, many people hear these _____ of evolutionary claims and think they mean that we somehow are _____________ seeking mates who are healthy. And I think this idea is probably not right. Teenagers and _____ ______ are not exactly known for making decisions that are predicated on ______ concerns. But they don't have to be, and let me explain why.

Imagine a population in which people have three different kinds of preferences: for green, for orange and for red. From their point of view, these preferences have nothing to do with health; they just like what they like. But if it were also the case that these preferences are associated with the different __________ of producing offspring — let's say in a ratio of 3:2:1 — then in the first generation, there would be 3 greens to 2 oranges to 1 red, and in each subsequent __________, the proportion of greens increase, so that in 10 generations, 98 percent of this population has a green __________. Now, a _________ coming in and sampling this population discovers that green preferences are universal. So the point about this little abstract example is that while preferences for specific physical features can be arbitrary for the individual, if those ________ are heritable and they are associated with a reproductive advantage, over time, they become universal for the group.

Solution


  1. adults
  2. generation
  3. kinds
  4. health
  5. scientist
  6. young
  7. features
  8. preference
  9. unconsciously
  10. likelihood

Original Text


Now, many people hear these kinds of evolutionary claims and think they mean that we somehow are unconsciously seeking mates who are healthy. And I think this idea is probably not right. Teenagers and young adults are not exactly known for making decisions that are predicated on health concerns. But they don't have to be, and let me explain why.

Imagine a population in which people have three different kinds of preferences: for green, for orange and for red. From their point of view, these preferences have nothing to do with health; they just like what they like. But if it were also the case that these preferences are associated with the different likelihood of producing offspring — let's say in a ratio of 3:2:1 — then in the first generation, there would be 3 greens to 2 oranges to 1 red, and in each subsequent generation, the proportion of greens increase, so that in 10 generations, 98 percent of this population has a green preference. Now, a scientist coming in and sampling this population discovers that green preferences are universal. So the point about this little abstract example is that while preferences for specific physical features can be arbitrary for the individual, if those features are heritable and they are associated with a reproductive advantage, over time, they become universal for the group.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
attractive faces 4
pleasure centers 3
average faces 2
produces features 2
find women 2
women attractive 2
immune system 2
extravagant appendage 2
faces activate 2
activate parts 2
area called 2
neural activity 2
reproductive success 2
profoundly affecting 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
find women attractive 2
attractive faces activate 2
faces activate parts 2

Important Words


  1. abstract
  2. adults
  3. advantage
  4. arbitrary
  5. case
  6. claims
  7. coming
  8. concerns
  9. decisions
  10. discovers
  11. evolutionary
  12. explain
  13. features
  14. generation
  15. generations
  16. green
  17. greens
  18. group
  19. health
  20. healthy
  21. hear
  22. heritable
  23. idea
  24. imagine
  25. increase
  26. individual
  27. kinds
  28. likelihood
  29. making
  30. mates
  31. offspring
  32. orange
  33. oranges
  34. people
  35. percent
  36. physical
  37. point
  38. population
  39. predicated
  40. preference
  41. preferences
  42. producing
  43. proportion
  44. ratio
  45. red
  46. reproductive
  47. sampling
  48. scientist
  49. seeking
  50. specific
  51. subsequent
  52. teenagers
  53. time
  54. unconsciously
  55. universal
  56. view
  57. young