9 science-backed ways to appear more attractive

What makes people attractive? And sometimes really, really attractive?

Hotness is devilishly hard to generalize. A person's mood, cultural upbringing, and ability to get along with someone, for example, add up to radically different ideas about who's sexy and who's not.

That said, researchers have found some commonalities that seem to make people more attractive than others, and they can be helpful in thinking about how we present ourselves to the world.

We've rounded up some of the more compelling science here. Before you dig in, though, keep in mind that a lot of psychological research is heterosexually biased, and we live in a world where people seek mates based first on their farmer status - so don't fret if you don't see yourself described in this list.

Drake Baer contributed to a previous version of this article.