Are women getting more beautiful
The story is all over the net these days, see e.g. here, but are women really getting more beautiful?
Walking down town in the summer time I wouldn’t necessarily say no. They do look beautiful in their summer dresses and miniskirts, but still… the genetics would have to be a bit special for it to be true, and the statistics isn’t really supporting it.
My bet would be on a classical multiple testing problem, as described here (PDF). I’m not saying that multiple testing is all there is to it, but I would like to have that ruled out before I believe the story…
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209-208=+1
July 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Besides the statistical problems, there is also the cultural bias of modern society. The “beauty” of women in past generations was assessed by modern people by looking at period photographs. But things like miniskirts would have been scandalous at the turn of the 20th century; women then looked frumpy because their clothing was designed to hide their figures from purient eyes. Not to mention that women in early photographs looked stern because smiling in photographs wasn’t the style.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:21 am
I bet you could also make the argument that women become more beautiful due to global warming…
July 30th, 2009 at 9:12 am
well i am beautiful! ;-)