Common elements of sexual attraction in humans

Typically, sexual attraction refers to a person being drawn to another in order to have a sexual relationship. The concrete meaning of a sexual relationship differs across cultures and history. Because human social behavior is often highly complex, a sexual relationship may entail one which, at its beginning, has little or no sexual behavior, and only after a period of time, which can be a courtship period, or a threshold such as marriage, does sexual activity enter the interaction patterns.

Certain aspects of what is sexually attractive is universal agreed upon across the human species, or nearly universal among particular cultures or regions, while other factors are determined more locally, among sub-cultures, or simply to the preferences of the individual, which may come about as a result of a variety of genetic and psychological factors. Sexual attractiveness of a person to another person depends on both persons;

Much of human sexual attractiveness is governed by physical attractiveness. This involves the senses, in the beginning especially:

-visual perception (how the other looks)
-audition (how the other sounds, mainly the voice; what may also vary widely is how noisily somebody walks (also depending on the footwear, though this is not necessarily a big factor for sexual attraction)
-olfaction (how the other smells, naturally or artificially; the wrong smell may be repulsive).

Some studies suggest that one source of physical attraction of a human male to a human female is dependent upon a proportion between the width of the hips and the width of the waist.

As with other animals, pheromones may also enter into the picture, though less significantly than in the case of other animals. Theoretically, the "wrong" pheromone smell may cause someone to be disliked, even when they would otherwise appear attractive. Frequently a pleasant smelling perfume is used to encourage the member of the opposite sex to more deeply inhale the air surrounding its wearer, increasing the probability that the pheromones from the individual will also be inhaled. The importance of pheromones in human relationships is probably limited and widely disputed, although it appears to have some scientific basis.

A sexually attractive visual appearance in humans generally involves:

-a general body shape and appearance sanctioned by the local culture.
-a lack of visible disease or deformity.
-a high degree of mirror symmetry between the left and right sides of the body, particularly of the face.
-pleasing bodily posture.

However, these factors are complicated by many other factors. There may sometimes be a focus on particular features of the body, such as breasts, legs, hair, or musculature.