From precious metals and diamonds to lip gloss and fireworks, human beings have a big crush on shiny things. Okay, for us at Love Lemonade, it’s more “love” than “like,” but we digress… Have you ever wondered why you’re so attracted to objects that shimmer? New scientific evidence suggests a surprisingly simple answer, but you’ll have to travel back a few thousand years to get it.
Everyone knows that all that glitters isn’t gold, yet we spend exorbitant amounts of time polishing everything from our nails and boots to our silverware and cars. Some believe that we do these things because of the influence of advertising or a simple desire for cleanliness, but researchers recently came up with a very different driving force for such behavior.
New scientific evidence suggests that our tendency to look at and be drawn to shiny objects is the result of a few millennia of evolution. Before there was Evian, Fiji, or even Roman aqueducts, humans developed these traits to help us find clean drinking water. Now, an attraction to all things that glitter and shimmer is innate and subconscious in all of us.
Although the scientific community is just getting hip to our styling ways, great women throughout human history have wielded the hidden psychological power of sheen, including Cleopatra, Coco Chanel, and Lady Gaga. Will you join them?