The Science of Beauty
Although it has been determined that the human imagination creates beauty ideals, these ideals must be derived from some truth. In this case, that truth is science. Beauty is not simply an abstract concept, but is actually something much more complicated that can be traced back to the primitive need to survive and evolve.
Innate Beauty Recognition
Culture has developed beauty into an evolutionary process, with human instinct and preferences being molded to fit ideals created by the culture one grows up in. However, learned beauty preferences may only affect the brain’s preference so much. Originally, beauty was seen as a social construct, influenced by media and society (Hollywood movies, magazines, and models, to name a few from the United States). Interestingly enough, a study done by Judith Langlois, a psychologist at the University of Texas, Austin, shows that recognition of beauty may be innate. In her study, Langlois first showed pictures of people with different facial measurements to adults, and had them pick which ones were the most attractive. Next, she showed the same pictures to infants. The infants stared for a much longer time at the faces that were deemed attractive by the adults. The faces that were seen as unattractive by the adults were not looked at for as long by the infants as well (1).
What is extremely interesting is that the faces that were shown in this study were faces of people with all different types of ethnicities. There were “traditionally” Caucasian faces, “traditionally” African faces, “traditionally” Asian faces, etc., and the children stared at all of the attractive faces with no notice to the differences in facial types. This means that in the beginning stages of development, the human brain does not recognize differences in facial shape, color, or gender as a reason to deem someone attractive or unattractive.
Measuring Beauty
So, what made the infants stare at some faces longer than others? The answer lies in mathematics, of course. While the brain initially does not recognize facial types, the brain does respond to symmetry and proportion. For the brain to recognize a face as attractive, the face must have a type of proportion, and thus, a type of symmetry that pleases the brain. This leads to the question, what is this ideal ratio that causes someone to be seen as universally attractive? Interestingly enough, the human race has been in pursuit of the measurements for this “golden proportion” since measurements have existed. The Greeks attempted to make statues that captured the ideal angle for beauty. Unfortunately, they were not successful in finding the ratio, as their statues only captured the ideal European face, and not the rest of the world’s. This led to the realization that if one uses mathematical ideals of beauty rather than cultural ideals to determine the “golden proportion”, it may be easier to find. Mathematical studies have found that for a face to have the “golden proportion”, the ratio of the smaller section of the face must be the same as the larger section, which is the same as the whole. What is interesting is that although this ratio makes sense on paper, models, who are arguably seen as the most attractive people on earth, do not always fit this ratio.
Images 1 and 2: Florence Colgate has the mathematically defined
"golden proportions".
This means that there is something else, other than the “golden proportion” that makes someone attractive. This something else may in fact be symmetry. Symmetry leads to attractive bodies and faces, and thus demonstrates that a person is healthy and fit (taking us back to primitive biological needs to reproduce with a healthy mate) (3). Studies done where men were asked to report on their sexual history show that men with symmetrical bodies reported having sex 3-4 years earlier than less symmetrical men. In 2005, a study was conducted on 86 heterosexual couples to determine if symmetry was in fact helpful in sex. It is. Females and males with more symmetrical bodies had more orgasms during sex, and had a higher chance of orgasming. However, it is extremely difficult to achieve the ideal symmetrical shape. In a study done at Harvard University, people were shown faces and were asked to modify them until they thought the face was acceptable, most pleasing, and unacceptable. Moving a feature by one twenty fifth of an inch could change the brain’s decision from pleasing to unacceptable, or vice versa (1).
Average is Beautiful
Above: Male and female averaged faces from around the world (5).
Symmetry and proportion are not the only ingredients needed in order to be attractive. In a study done by Sir Francis Galton in the 1870s, faces of people with all different facial types were put together to form a composite face. When these composite faces were shown to others, they agreed that it was more attractive than the individual faces (4). This makes sense once one thinks about it. If all the ideal facial characteristics from different people are put together, logically one would expect to have a beautiful person as the end result. So, is the most beautiful face the most averaged one? This is certainly a valid theory; however, proportion and symmetry must also play a role in order for someone to be seen as truly beautiful, not just above average.
Cultural Influence on Beauty Recognition
So, now that we know that the recognition of beauty is innate and, in the beginning, non-discriminatory, how does culture play into the brain’s perception of ideal attractiveness? The answer lies in similarities. The human brain favors faces that resemble its own. As the face is typically the first thing the brain registers, the brain is designed to gather information about the person from simply the face to make sure that they are not dangerous. If the face is similar, then the brain assumes that the person behind the face is not dangerous. This means that people who have grown up around a certain type of person in terms of facial characters will automatically think that this person is less threating, and thus, more attractive. Anthropologists Douglas Jones and Kim Hill visited two isolated tribes: the Hiwi Indians of Venezuela and the Ache Indians of Paraguay, and asked them to describe their ideal beauty standards. Although the two tribes were not extremely close to each other and did not have any contact with each other, their ideal beauty standards were the same (1). This study was done with three western cultures as well, who also had the same beauty standards. Interestingly enough, although the faces described as ideal in these cultures were different in terms of skin color and some distinct characteristics, all the cultures asked were attracted to similar geometric proportions. The ideal proportions for females were small chins and delicate jaws, with large eyes in relation to the body. The ideal proportions for males were oval or rectangular faces, heavy brow ridges and prominent chins.
Right: Averaged male and female face made up of over 100 different faces from Sydney, Australia (5)