All language subtitles for Brain Games S03E02 Laws of Attraction

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!