I'm a fair skinned male who has always been attracted to darker complected girls. Usually blonde hair but recently I've been more attracted to more of an ethnic look and am currently dating an African American girl (she prefers 'black' because she's not from Africa). Anyway, we've had conversations about kids and I've always thought the most opposite physical features generally produce the most beautiful offspring. The further away two people's ancestors come from, the better. JMHO.

Every time I have dated a girl with similar features as mine: blonde hair, lighter skin, ect. It's lasted about a month. Red heads and dark hair, darker skinned girls? Actual relationships (as in longer than a week-month range). In all fairness though, I'm quite the handful, and so it could possibly be the blondes were smarter than society gives them credit for and got the hell out of Dodge as soon as they realized what a jackass I was. Paleo cures a lot of things, bad relationships NOT one of them.

Here is the link from my favorite anthropologist Helen Fisher. Please watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFmp3D1CZ14

On a personal note, I am attracted to all kinds of men, but especially to Dutch guys. It is a torture for me to go to Holland because I feel like I am surrounded by gorgeous men. They are just so unbelievably sexy! I feel bad even admitting it, but it is stronger than me. There is nothing I can do about it, just avoid going to Holland altogether.

I am Eastern European myself but I don't find Eastern European men very appealing. Not sure why. (The girls are nice-looking though).

I have no idea as to the answer, but I find this question incredibly interesting. I'm a tall, olive-skinned guy with dark brown hair and green eyes who almost invariably finds light skin, hazel or brown eyes, and brown hair on a girl to be most attractive. I've never even dated a blonde girl, actually. Obviously my preferences aren't very different from my own features, so if your genetic diversity theory is correct, I'm an evolutionary screw up, hah.

A cool study i remember.

There were 6 men and 6 women. all reasonably young and single. each had their DNA tested. each were required to wear the same plain white undershirt each day for 5 days. no deodorants, no perfumes. they could shower each night, but only with unscented soap. at the end of the week, the shirts were gathered. each man was required to smell each females shirt and rank them most attractive to least attractive. Same for the women, with the mens shirts.

as is turned out, the rankings coincided with genetic difference. The men tended to prefer the shirt smell of the females who were the most genetically different from them. same with the women.

I wish i could remember where i saw it. i think it was explained on a science show i watched ages ago. So i cant really verify any of it properly, but still...

I'm 5'3, with freckles and green eyes, and my husband is 6'4, olive-skinned, with dark hair and brown eyes. We will have some interesting mutt kids :)

I've never had a particular attraction to any specific type of " look ". I believe all ethnicities can definitely be beautiful. Hispanics,whites, African-Americans. I myself am an interesting mix. Costa-rican and German. I've been attracted to pale skinned blue eyes blondes as well as brunette's and red-heads.

For me, cute doesn't come in a color and I've dated every color in the rainbow.

However, "cute" does come in a specific shape.

I'm not attracted to tall lean men, preferring the "thickish" rugby player over the tennis pro or ballroom dancer.

I've always jokingly told my friends that I have a preference for Neanderthals, so it wasn't surprising for me to learn I'm 3% Neanderthal. Maybe it IS in the genes?

As far as things like hair and complextion I think those preferences are formed at an early age and influenced by those around us at the time that for whatever reason hold a sopecial place in our lives. It could be an older sibling, a teacher or baby-sitter that we held in high regard. At least that's the way my tendencies lean. Of course you could be right and those hard wired preferences were in place evan in my youth.

There are two ways to go on this. First, genetic sexual attraction (look up the wikipedia article on it) implies that there is attraction to people who share your genes. The sexual attraction to close relatives only happens when they are raised apart. There is an aversion to have sex with someone one grew up with. The second is that mating instincts value mating with someone with a different major histocompatibility complex. MHC has to due with the immune system coding. That is, it benefits one's genes to create a copy with a different immune system.

I'm Ethiopian dark skin brown eyes 5'5 and though I think there is a ton of attractive Ethiopian men, I was also drawn to people who looked different to me from different cultures. My boyfriend of 7 years is 6'2 Irish/Swedish, and when he has his beard on I don't think I've ever seen anything sexier. So it seems to be true for me :)

Opposites attract.

I've heard, although perhaps I'm wrong, that people with similar coloring tend to be attracted to one another. Except for redheads. There don't appear to be many redhead couples that I've seen but gingers aren't very common either. Don't know why that is though.

I can appreciate the beauty of lots of different kinds of men. I think some African American men are the most beautiful of all (like our downstairs tenant with his slightly graying 3 foot long dread locks, oh man is he beautiful). I always end up with really dorky men. I don't think I've ever been with a really good looking man. It's always men I hardly find physically attractive at all. One had really short arms and legs and walked annoyingly on his tip-toes. One I was attracted to was a dwarf. My current BF is an old man, kind of short, with silver hair, a beard and a small belly, looks like some random guy who works in an office. Usually they have other qualities I like better than appearance.

I'm a small, light-haired, fair, blue-eyed Swede and I married a super buff Korean. The people I've dated have been all over the map appearance-wise, but just about every single one that I had a meaningful relationship with has been exceptionally intelligent and very into physical fitness. I guess I'm more attracted to broad shoulders, abs, and brains than any particular eye color. ;)

Well, I am not just attracted to features per se, but how the personality comes through those features. If you have ever seen an actor play twins with different personalities, you know what I mean. You could take a handsome guy, and if he looks nasty and scowling I am not going to be attracted. Take a handsome guy who is smiling or looking intense and I go for that.

Yes, it's pretty common. Also I've read recently that more stressed individuals tend to select more dissimilar couples, while non-struggling ones select people more alike to them.

I'm going to opt for a nurture over nature perspective on this one.

I think we all have an idyllic vision of a partner - which I have noticed that as I get older and more experienced with relationships has shifted to include more and more aspects of personality, demeanor, thinking style, and depth of character. Nonetheless I don't think it uncommon to have a vague (or not so) physical profile that seems to repeatedly stand out to a person.

Despite that, I'd argue that is NOT genetically predetermined; as Paleoplegic said, I think it is probably learned from those that love us and that we can depend on in our early years - our earliest definitions of "attraction."

I'm not sure where exactly I met my first fair-skinned, black-haired female, but she certainly stuck...

For some reason I seem to be attracted to the French.

I'm attracted to women that are attractive and look like they want to have my babies.

Ohhh, boys who speak Finnish and like Folk music... With bronze skin and ash-blond hair... And a strong, Swede-nose

I'm definitely attracted to people that look different from me, but I feel like this was in part a learned response to who I myself attract! So who knows. I'm blue-eyed and blonde, and I disproportionately attract for whatever reason non-native born Americans. I'm in general attracted to darker-skinned men.