Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Take a look at this image.

What do you see?

Most people would agree they see a couple embracing,

but we've got a question for you.

Quick.

Do you see a woman embracing a man?

Or a man embracing a woman?

Or do you see both?

How you see this illusion says a lot

about your brain and attraction.

And the reason why will really open your eyes.

This is a show about your brain and attraction.

MAN: Cool.

NARRATOR: We're going to mess with your mind

as we put you through a series of games and experiments

designed to show you affairs of the heart

actually take place in your brain.

MAN: She saw my picture and she thought I was hot.

NARRATOR: You'll see why instant attraction

may be more math than chemistry...

WOMAN: I don't know. It must be something up here.

NARRATOR: ...and that opposites don't always attract.

WOMAN: Yikes.

MAN: Oh, God. Are you kidding me?

NARRATOR: And if you play along,

you may even learn the secret to "happily ever after."

It's time to fall in love with Brain Games!

Anyone who's been in love

knows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Yet, whether it's a work of art, a sunset, a panoramic view,

or a model on the cover of a magazine,

the fact is that many of us

behold the same things as beautiful.

And the reasons why you're attracted to one thing

over another are more universal than you might want to believe.

There.

Ready to see it?

WOMAN: I am so ready.

Oh, my gosh, it's beautiful! You've captured me perfectly.

Hey! Is my medulla oblongata really that big?

JASON: Uh...huh...

Remember this illusion we showed you earlier?

Did you see a man with his head on a woman's shoulder?

Or a woman with her head on a man's shoulder?

No matter if you saw the man or the woman

in this illustration first,

what's more significant is that your brain

quickly and efficiently perceived a face at all.

How your brain is hardwired to see and value human faces

is the first step in understanding

how you determine what's attractive.

We're all guilty of doing a double-take

when we see a pretty face.

Advertisers know it, magazine editors know it,

and film and TV producers know it.

Yet, the majority of the population doesn't look anything

like the people in the ads, magazines or movies.

Sure, most of us tend to be influenced

by the trends set by the media,

but science tells us that the media is influenced

by the trends set by your brain.

But what your brain considers attractive

is determined by a surprisingly narrow formula,

and it comes to its conclusions

faster that you can probably imagine!

To test if this is true, we recruited some volunteers.

But first, we want you to be part of the experiment.

All you have to do is rank these faces from one to five

in order of attractiveness,

with one being the most handsome in the group.

But you only have ten seconds to make your choice.

Ready?

Go!

Alright, remember the ranking you chose

and let's see how it compares to these guys.

WOMAN: Ready? Go!

WOMAN: Okay. Oh!

Oh, boy, this is tough.

WOMAN: Five seconds.

WOMAN: He's cute. He's, he's very cute.

WOMAN: And time's up!

WOMAN: Woo!

JASON: Are your rankings in line with our volunteer judges?

Even if you're not totally in sync,

you can probably see that a pattern of favorites

is emerging.

Next, we'll switch it over to judging female faces.

You have ten seconds to rank them in order of attractiveness

from one to five,

with one being the most good-looking in the group.

Ready? Go!

Now remember the sequence you chose

and see if it matches with what these people decide.

WOMAN: Oh, my gosh! Okay.

MAN: Yeah.

WOMAN: She's like a model, she's the girl next door.

WOMAN: And time.

JASON: How about you?

What quick conclusions did you make?

The most common ranking our participants chose was this.

Do you agree with their choices?

Well, they definitely agreed with each other.

Here are the final results.

Aside from a few exceptions,

most of their rankings were the same

no matter if they were judging the same or opposite sex,

regardless of their sexual preference.

In mere seconds, they agreed on the same sequence

88% of the time.

But why are their choices so consistent?

WOMAN: I don't know. It must be something up here.

JASON: That's right.

And that "something" in your brain

is an area specifically dedicated to recognizing faces.

It's called the fusiform gyrus,

and its job is to quickly identify a few features,

categorize them as a face, and then direct that information

to other parts of the brain for further processing.

So why do so many of us find the same faces attractive?

You might be surprised to learn

that what your brain finds attractive

is not a person's eyes, hair, or skin.

In fact, it might not be about the person at all.

According to some scientists,

it might just boil down to basic math.

Crazy, right?

When it comes to attraction,

your brain is drawn towards a very specific measurement

known as the golden ratio.

And your brain is always on the lookout for it

without you even realizing it.

The golden ratio is a naturally occurring set of proportions

which appears in everything, from nature, to architecture,

to the human face.

To see how the golden ratio works, let's play a game.

The features on this face are going to move, like this.

Your job is to identify when you think the face

is most attractive and remember the number on the counter

at the point that the face looks best to you.

Ready? Go.

Do you have a number in mind?

Is that number seven?

If you chose seven, or close to it,

then your brain is automatically responding to the golden ratio,

which is amazing considering you might not even know

what the golden ratio is!

The golden ratio roughly equates to a face

being one and a half times as long as it is wide.

And can be applied to the distance

between all facial features,

such as the distance between your pupils

in relation to the whole width of your face.

So why is a simple set of measurements enough

to get your brain all hot and bothered?

Here to put a human face on beauty

is Coren Apicella of the University of Pennsylvania.

COREN APICELLA: You might think that the golden ratio

is this rare set of mythical measurements

enjoyed only by a few people in the entire population.

But the truth is actually far more surprising.

It turns out that these ratios aren't attractive

because they are so different.

It turns out that they're attractive

because they're more average.

WOMAN: Hmm.

JASON: Wait a minute--since when is average the new attractive?

It might seem counterintuitive,

but time and again it's been proven

that both males and females find average proportions

more attractive than those that are unusual or extreme.

And what you might consider an "average face" really isn't.

Some scientists believe that average characteristics

are preferred because they indicate

a healthy mate or tribe member.

And a healthy mate has a much greater chance

of helping you create healthy offspring.

Of course, there are numerous indicators of good health,

so you don't have to be movie-star gorgeous

to attract a mate.

Still, it couldn't hurt to put your best face forward, right?

The golden ratio isn't the only hidden calculation

your brain makes when deciding what you find beautiful or not.

To find out more, we're going to play another game.

Look closely.

Which of these two faces do you find most attractive?

If you picked image number one,

it's probably because in that image

the face has been manipulated to be perfectly symmetrical.

We've mirrored the right side of his face.

Now what happens if we add this third picture?

Do you prefer your original choice,

or is this third image slightly more attractive?

Take a close look.

Here's one...

two...

three.

Well, guess what.

That new third image is also symmetrical,

only this time we've mirrored the left side.

Research shows the left side of the face

is more active and expressive than its right side counterpart,

which is mirrored in choice number one.

The majority of people we surveyed

preferred the third image when given all three choices.

Pretty wild!

COREN: Facial symmetry is signaling your ability

to withstand environmental insults.

It's basically signaling good genes.

JASON: So far, all we've been talking about

is immediate, impulse attraction,

more like infatuation, really, than love.

Like when you see a pretty girl's picture online

or a cute guy on a TV show.

And this all takes place

in one of the most primitive parts of your brain,

the amygdala.

But while the most primitive part of your brain

drives pure physical attraction,

a different part of your brain is at work

when it comes to love.

The caudate area of your brain becomes flooded with dopamine

when you experience feelings of deep affection and devotion.

But how do you recognize your Miss or Mr. Right?

They say opposites attract, but is that true?

Or are you really looking for someone just like you?

To find out the answer, we're going to play a game.

For this next game, you're going to meet four couples.

They're all going to tell you a little something

about their marriage.

The problem is, three of the couples are actors

who have never met before.

Your job is to spot the real married couple.

Think you can figure out which of these couples

has really tied the knot?

JUSTIN: Hi, my name is Justin.

SANJAY: And I'm Sanjay.

JUSTIN: We've been married for four years,

been together for seven.

SANJAY: And we don't have any children yet.

JUSTIN: Yes, we plan on having some children sometime.

SANJAY: In the near future.

JUSTIN: In the, in the future.

JULIA: I knew him when I was a little kid,

and then he popped up in my social media feed,

and so I added him as a friend.

And then we started chatting and...

CRAIG: She saw my picture and she thought I was hot.

JULIA: I did, I think.

CRAIG: That's why she friend requested me.

JULIA: And he thought I was hot back.

JOHNNY: We've been married for five years.

HEATHER: In January.

JOHNNY: When we were broken up,

I just, I knew that I couldn't live without her,

and so I knew that I had to be with her

for the rest of my life.

DARLENE: Mark and I met on a blind date through a friend.

Every time he would get up to use the restroom,

they would say, "He really likes you, he really likes you."

I'm, like, "Yeah, okay." You know?

MARK: Yeah, it was the same thing with me.

It's like, "She really likes you."

And I was like, "Yeah, I don't get this, she's so beautiful."

[laughs]

JASON: Before we reveal the answer,

let's see what some folks on the street had to say

when we asked them to spot the married match.

MAN: I'm going with couple four.

WOMAN: I'm not sure whether it's couple number two

or couple number three.

MAN: I think it was couple number one.

The guy looked like he freaked out

when his girl asked him something about kids.

WOMAN: I'm torn.

I'm looking at three and I'm looking at four.

WOMAN: I definitely think it was couple number three.

MAN: Definitely, 100%, number two.

MAN: Yeah, number four.

WOMAN: Definitely going with two.

JASON: These people are all over the map with their answers!

And when we revealed the real couple in the group,

some of them were pretty surprised.

MAN: Ah!

MAN: Oh, God. Are you kidding me?

JASON: Do you think you did better than our participants?

If you're having a tough time deciding who's really a couple,

maybe you just need to know what to look for.

COREN: Couples, after they've been together for many years,

they begin to react in similar ways to life events

as one another.

They begin to copy each other's facial expressions

as a sign of communication,

as a form of empathy with one another.

JASON: Do you see any shared expressions?

Any smiles that look the same?

Another clue to help you identify a real couple

is how they're positioned.

Any two people can sit close together,

but happy couples tend to lean towards one another

as a sign of empathy.

So now that you're armed with some scientific clues,

the true married couple should come as less of a surprise.

Are you ready to make another choice?

Watch the same four couples closely.

Do you notice any leaning toward one another?

Or matching gestures and expressions?

Do you want to change your answer from before?

Did you choose couple number three?

If so, good eye!

These two have been married for five years.

Was it easier to detect this time?

MAN: Now that you mentioned that,

it's definitely number three.

JASON: Did you notice the way they mimic each other's smiles?

See how they lean towards each other?

Two sure signs of a real couple.

And get this--in order to guarantee the survival

of your offspring, your brain subconsciously chooses a mate

who matches you and your genes

down to some pretty tiny physical details.

And if you're watching with a long term partner,

compare your middle fingers and your ears.

You might be surprised to find you have more in common

than you thought!

And just like bodies and body language can send signals,

body proportions are equally as telling,

as you're about to see in this next game.

Take a look at this image of a male figure.

As it changes proportions,

try to take note when you think he looks most attractive.

Use the number on the counter below to make your pick.

Are you ready?

Go.

Do you have a number in mind?

If you chose five, or close to it,

then you're like 92% of our audience.

Your brain automatically identified the ideal proportions

without using any math.

Because just like the faces we showed you earlier,

bodies, too, have a preferred proportion.

For women, it's a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7,

meaning the waist measurement is 70% that of the hip measurement.

So far, you've seen how your brain makes

split-second decisions regarding attraction.

But as the years go by,

does your brain retain that same spark?

Or does your level of attraction diminish over time?

We've brought in NYU cognitive neuroscientist Suzanne Dikker.

She's helping us run an experiment

to try to solve the mystery of long-term attraction.

SUZANNE DIKKER: Today we'll be using the Emotiv headsets

to compare the brainwaves of two people in real time.

Our brains contain a network of about 80 billion neurons

that send information to each other

and to the rest of our body via tiny electrical signals,

whenever I have an emotion,

when I'm talking to you, even when I move my arm.

And so when groups of neurons fire in sync,

you can measure this on the scalp with EEG.

And it's these electrical patterns

that scientists refer to as brainwaves.

JASON: To determine if being in sync

is the key to lasting romance,

Dr. Dikker will use these headsets to measure

how many times each couple achieves

perfectly matching brainwaves.

SUZANNE: And if their brains are perfectly in sync,

there will be a perfect overlap, and their heads will turn blue,

and their score will go up.

JASON: So which pair of brains do you think

will make the best match?

Will it be the couple undergoing this experiment

on their first date, revved up by the spark of new attraction?

CHAP: It's kind of scary putting yourself out there.

ALLISON: Yeah, I don't want to freak you out.

JASON: Or will it be our newlyweds,

riding high on their first year of marriage?

JOANNA: And I think I sort of knew

this was going to be, like, it.

MATT: Yeah, I think that's pretty much,

that's pretty much how it went.

JASON: Or will our 25-year married couple

be the most in sync,

having spent two and a half decades together?

PAULA: That's one thing we do well, is fun.

AL: Is live in the moment.

PAULA: Yeah.

JASON: So which of these couples will be in sync?

And which of these couples will be sunk?

The answer just might surprise you when we play "Sync or Sunk."

First up, our first date couple.

ALLISON: I've never done online dating.

CHAP: I haven't either, but my mom met her husband that way.

ALLISON: No way. CHAP: Mm-hmm.

ALLISON: It's hard to find, like, the one,

you know what I mean?

Like, a person that you could stand for more than a night.

CHAP: Right, that's true.

ALLISON: Yeah, it's crazy.

JASON: So did it seem like they were on the same page to you?

Now, watch our newlyweds.

JOANNA: The trip was delayed two weeks

because of Hurricane Irene.

MATT: Yes.

JOANNA: And I could not figure out why you were so upset

about this trip being delayed.

MATT: Yeah, because I had the ring already.

And I was already to, yeah, to go up to the farm

and wait until sunset and stuff and then the trip...

JOANNA: Which you did.

MATT: Which I did, it just happened to be two weeks later.

JASON: Do our newlyweds seem like they're in perfect harmony

more than the first-date couple?

Finally, check out our long-term couple married for 25 years.

AL: This last trip when you were away, I really missed you.

PAULA: Yeah, I kind of missed you.

AL: It was weird, it was like, "Whoa, what's this?"

PAULA: I think we sort of like each other.

AL: What's this weird feeling all of the sudden?

JASON: Are they riding each other's brainwaves

or are they just going through the motions?

Have you made your decision

about which couple seems most in sync?

Let's see how your answer compares to the results

from the EEG measuring headsets.

Remember, the software portrays how similar the brainwaves are

by showing how close the blue brain images are.

SUZANNE: What this measures is when both people's brainwaves

are going up and down at the exact same time.

CHAP: There go the brainwaves!

JASON: Alright, the scores are in.

And one of our couples won by a landslide!

So who are the winners of our "Sync or Sunk" experiment?

If you said the 25-year married couple was most in sync,

you're like 80% of volunteers we showed the same clips to.

And like them, you're sunk!

[buzzer] CROWD: What?

JASON: Surprise!

In first place, the newlyweds,

with a score of 16 on our brain sync scale!

SUZANNE: What we typically see

is that people who laugh together sync up,

because mostly people match their rhythms when they laugh.

MATT: Cool!

JASON: In the number two spot, the first date couple.

ALLISON: Woo!

CHAP: Alright.

JASON: They only scored four syncs, far behind the newlyweds,

not surprising since they just met.

What is surprising is our 25-year couple!

They came in dead last with one measly sync.

So what does this surprising result tell us

about the secrets of long-term attraction?

SUZANNE: So in the case of this couple,

we saw a lot of moments where their brains

weren't perfectly overlapping so their score wasn't going up.

But the correlations between their brainwaves

were actually still pretty high.

JASON: So even though they were not exactly in sync,

they were nearly in sync a lot of the time.

And maybe that's the key to lasting attraction.

AL: Maybe this is going to work out.

JASON: There's no doubt that much of love and attraction

is a mystery.

And sometimes love doesn't look like what we expect.

In this next game, see if you can tell the difference between

the animals who are lovers and the ones who are fighters.

It's not as easy as it sounds.

Are these sea lions doing a mating dance

or a fighting stance?

Think these two penguins are trying to snuggle or strangle?

Are these giraffes coming in for a kiss

or coming in for the kill?

If the laws of attraction have yet to lead you

to your one true love,

don't worry, there are plenty of fish in the sea!