Editing Human physical appearance (section)

{{short description|Look, outward phenotype}}
'''Human physical appearance''' is the outward [[phenotype]] or look of human beings.
[[File:Human_Body.jpg|thumb|Image of a European female (left) and an East Asian male (right) human body seen from front (upper) and back (lower). Adult human bodies photographed whose naturally-occurring pubic, body, facial, but not head hair have been deliberately removed to show anatomy. Retouched with anterior and posterior views.]]

There are functionally infinite variations in human phenotypes, though society reduces the variability to distinct categories. The physical appearance of humans, in particular those attributes which are regarded as important for [[physical attractiveness]], are believed by [[anthropologist]]s to affect the development of personality significantly and [[social relations]]. Many humans are acutely sensitive to their physical appearance.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson-Fye|first=EP|url=https://modificazione.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/anthropological-perspectives-on-physical-appearance-and-body-images.pdf|editor-last=Cash|editor-first=Thomas F.|title=Anthropological Perspectives on Physical Appearance, and Body Image|chapter=Anthropological Perspectives on Physical Appearance and Body Image |date=2012|department=Body Image and Its Disorder in Anthropology|publisher=Academic Press|volume=1|page=19|doi=10.1016/B978-0-12-384925-0.00003-1|isbn=9780123849250|access-date=August 9, 2018|quote=[Cases] of immigration have repeatedly shown that if a person who is obese believes that their body is beyond individual control but is placed into a medical system that assumes individual rational actors in its treatments, adherence is likely to be low and those treatments are ineffective...[Young] ethnic Fijian women associated the thin body ideal with a particular lifestyle that they found desirable}}</ref>  Some differences in human appearance are [[genetics|genetic]], others are the result of [[Ageing|age]], [[Lifestyle (sociology)|lifestyle]] or [[disease]], and many are the result of personal [[adornment]].

Some people have linked some differences with [[Race (classification of human beings)|ethnicity]], such as skeletal shape, [[prognathism]] or elongated stride. Different cultures place different degrees of emphasis on physical appearance and its importance to social status and other phenomena.