the psychology of beauty
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I created this slideshow for my English Lesson. Hope you enjoy.TRANSCRIPT
What is beauty?
One may as well dissect a soap bubble. We know it when we see it—or so we think. Philosophers frame it as a moral equation. What is beautiful is good, said Plato. Poets reach for the lofty. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," wrote John Keats, although Anatole France thought beauty "more profound than truth itself."
Psychology understaning of beauty
We know it when we see it—or so we think.
Beauty is something intuitive and common for people.
Research show that even 6 month old babies “understand and see beauty”
Research
Infants ranging from two to six months of age prefer to look longer at faces rated as attractive by adults than at faces rated as unattractive by adults. We've also found that 12-month-olds prefer to approach and play with a stranger with an attractive face compared with a stranger with an unattractive face. (Langlois, 1990)
What makes a face beautiful?
Symmetry Youthfulness Averageness as fundamental and
necessary to facial attractiveness
Image morphing
College students rated the male and female composite faces as significantly higher in attractiveness than the individual faces used to create them, if the composites had at least 16 different faces in them. Thus, averaged faces are attractive. Note that when we use the word, "average," we mean the arithmetical mean, and not an average-looking person. If, for example, you take a female composite (averaged) face made of 32 different faces and overlay it on the face of an extremely attractive female model, the two images line up almost perfectly indicating that the model's facial configuration is very similar to the composites' facial configuration.
Which face is the most beautiful?
4 face composite 8 face composite 16 face composite 32 face composite
Which face is the most beautiful?
4 face composite 8 face composite 16 face composite 32 face composite
Proportions, symmetry
Human perception of beauty is mainly a matter of proportions and symmetry
But, symmetry is not as important when we perceive visual art
In visual art symmetry is replaced by equilibrium
Equilibrium (Arnheim 1960)
A system is in equilibrium when the forces constituting it are arranged in such a way as to compensate each other, like the two weights pulling at the arms of a pair of scales.
Equilibrium is a feature of every fine work of art
Grave's test
On the first scheme a is well balanced because combination of square and rectangle is so strongly attached to each other that none of elements should change its place.
B is based on too little proportions On the second scheme b is considered to be
better.
Myths about beauty
Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? No
Raters agree about who is and is not attractive, both within and across ethnicity and culture. Beauty is not merely in the eye of the beholder.
There may be universal standards by which attractiveness is judged.
Do we really never judge a book by its cover? No
Attractive adults and children are judged more favorably than unattractive adults and children, even by those who know them.
Attractive adults and children are treated more positively than unattractive adults and children, even by those who know them.
Myths about beauty
Is beauty only skin deep? No
Beauty may be more than skin-deep: Although both attractive and unattractive people exhibit positive behaviors and traits, attractive people exhibit more positive behaviors and traits than unattractive individuals
What are some other interesting results of the meta-analysis?
Attractiveness is just as important in influencing our judgments and behavior toward others when we know them as when we do not.
Attractiveness is as important for males as for females in judging people we know.
Attractiveness is as important, if not more so, for children than for adults
Beauty as projection and wish fulfillment
The perception of beauty is not only a mental process but also a deeply personal one
We tend to project our inner fancies on other people
The wish fulfillment theory is also equally true when we want to be like someone in terms of talents or certain qualities
Beauty as innocence and charm
A person who has the inherent ability to attract individuals with the sheer force of personality and presence is considered highly attractive
Beauty as a product of culture and society
The concept of beauty seems to change with time as society changes and the perception of beauty varies in different cultures.
Beauty as a product of culture and society - examples
Dark skin is considered very attractive in Western societies
Whiter skin is considered as attractive in Eastern societies
Feet and hair of women are important features in Eastern cultures whereas in the West, the woman’s lips, and hips are considered important
How do we perceive that?
The breasts of women are important indicators of beauty in all cultures
Men’s body and chin or jaw and certain masculine sharpness are also considered as attractive
According to the surveys
Women tend to prefer dominant looking men during the first follicular stage in their reproductive cycle but prefer men with softer more feminine features when they are in their menstrual and ovulation stages
Research
Men who read female so-called lad magazines such as Maxim have more body-image problems than others
While it is fairly well-known that women feel worse about their bodies after viewing other females in Cosmopolitan or Glamour, men apparently have the same feelings after perusing the lingerie-clad women spread across the pages of e.g.Maxim