Letters
By Science News
Why good looks look good
The article “It’s written all over your face” (SN: 1/17/09, p. 24) made me recall another article (a couple of years ago, I think!) describing the work of researchers investigating an apparent human, obsessive need to identify patterns in our environment. The scientists studied stockbrokers with and without a specific type of brain injury. The results led the researchers to conjecture that this obsession is hardwired into our brains at a very basic, primitive level. Their thinking was that perhaps our pre-cognitive ancestors developed this obsession as a way of locating others of their species in the chaotic wilderness. Campsites, etc., brought an orderliness and organization to the wild, so if you observed a pattern, others like you might be nearby.