Benefits of being beautiful, a $280 wagyu steak and Grape Grazing in the Yarra Valley Attractive people are judged to be smarter, kinder, more honest and trustworthy. Kobe beef creations at Cut restaurant, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Try Grape Grazing at Yering Station cellar door in the Yarra Valley. Hyundai introduces the 2015 Genesis at the Detroit motor show last week. BEAUTY: RESEARCH has shown that from an early age - in both sexes and numerous cultures - attractive people are judged to be smarter, kinder, more honest and trustworthy. Obviously, our bias towards thinking that "what is beautiful is good" makes for some bad mating decisions. In politics, we are also more likely to believe those who are attractive. Ditto for hiring them. And when it comes to justice, numerous studies from the 1970s to the 90s found that more attractive individuals were less likely to be convicted of crimes and, if convicted, receive shorter-than-average sentences. Why should this be? Some have suggested that, since it is pleasurable to meet someone attractive and someone good and honest, we unconsciously conflate the two. But research shows it's actually because the brain confuses the metaphorical and the literal - a fairly common sort of error, because brain regions often multitask. The same region, for instance, is involved in processing physical and emotional pain and in "feeling" someone else's pain. Another brain region is central to both gustatory disgust (responding to the taste of rotten food with reflexes that make you feel sick to your stomach) and moral disgust (responding to some appalling act by making you feel sick to your stomach). Work by Takashi Tsukiura and Roberto Cabeza of Duke University in the US shows something similar with looks: The medial orbitofrontal cortex of the brain is involved in rating both the beauty of a face and the goodness of a behaviour, and the level of activity in that region during one of those tasks predicts the level during the other. In other words, the brain does similar things when contemplating beautiful minds, hearts or cheekbones. And it assumes that cheekbones tell you something about minds and hearts. It's a discouraging finding. But there's also some good news in this story: the brain can get confused in both directions. In other words, the same neural wiring that gives rise to "what is beautiful is good" also generates "what is good is beautiful." -WSJ GRAPE GRAZING: AFTER a four-year hiatus, one of Victoria's best loved wine festivals, Grape Grazing, returns to the Yarra Valley on the weekend of February 14 to 16. And it's bigger and better than ever, with 60 events taking place from special tastings at the region's wineries to small producer showcases, a pop-up wine bar in a gallery, balloon flights, comedy and music performances and a focus on the region's new beer and cider makers, many of whom weren't even producing the last time Grape Grazing happened. grapegrazing.com.au. - MAX ALLEN CARS: HYUNDAI will make a pitch for the Australian buyer of large luxury sedans when it imports the Genesis, unveiled at the Detroit motor show last week, starting in the third quarter. Expected to be priced from about $60,000, it's the second generation of the car after the original Genesis, from 2009, was named North American Car of the Year. Built in Korea, it will come with a 248kW 3.8-litre V6 driving the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic. The price will include leather seats, satnav and technology such as a head-up display. It's the second time Hyundai has offered something in this segment, after the less-than-convincing Grandeur was discontinued two years ago. - PHILIP KING FOOD: AND you thought a good steak was pricey in Australia. At Cut, Wolfgang Puck's flagship restaurant at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, a 230g rib-eye will set you back $S310 (about $280). It is, however, one very rare piece of cow, and we're not talking about the cooking method. Cut is the first restaurant in Singapore to serve the prized, and rarely exported, Japanese Kobe beef - think Wagyu with a double degree and impeccable character references. And, no, you can't get the real thing in Australia yet. At Cut, an initial two-month allocation of Kobe - also available as striploin and tenderloin, at slightly lower cost - has been extended due to demand. - NECIA WILDEN