What makes a face attractive? This question has been asked for countless years. Several say that symmetry or youthfulness makes up an attractive face. Others say that familiarity and averageness is more attractive. Which side is right? Both sides can agree that expressions play a role in how attractive a person is. What most don’t know is that many find averageness attractive, even if they don’t know that the person is “average.”
One of the first scientists to truly ask “What’s in a face?” was Francis Galton. Galton was focused on vegetarians and criminals. His main aim was to understand if there was a similar facial appearance for both. To do this, he made photographic composite images of both faces. In other words, Galton overlaid numerous images of faces onto a single plate. This created one final composite face that had characteristics of each original face. The resulted average face proved no evidence toward the criminal tendencies of vegetarians, but Galton noticed that the composite face was much more attractive than the original faces. “This phenomenon is now known as the averageness effect, where attractive faces tend to be indicative of the average traits of the population.” (What’s in a Face, 2002)
There are two main explanations (that follow the symmetric theory) that explain the attractiveness of the composite face. The evolutionary advantage theory proposes that individuals with symmetric faces tend to be more attractive. It draws upon the fact that they look healthier than those with unsymmetrical faces. Human genes are created to develop symmetrically. Asymmetric faces are formed from defects and small imperfections created before and after birth. Those who have strong immune systems and can therefore be deem...
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...iful with more extreme features. Symmetry, expressions, gaze direction, familiarity, averageness, and youthfulness can all play enormous factors in how attractive a person is perceived as. “This demonstrates the incredible sophistication of the mechanisms and processes that are involved in face perception.” (Jones, B. C., DeBruine, L. M., Little, A. C., Conway, C. A. & Feinberg, D. R.(2006).)
References
Jones, B.C., DeBruine, L.M., Little, A.C., Conway, C.A. & Feinberg, D.R. (2006). Integrating physical gaze direction and expression with physical attractiveness when forming face preferences. Phsycological Science.
Rhodes, G. & Tremewan T. (1996, March). Averageness, Exaggeration, And facial Attractiveness
[Electronic Version]. Psychological Science, 7(2), 1-7.
Sciencebuddies.org. What’s In A Face?N.p.:n.p., 2006. N.pag.sciencebuddies.org. Web.15 Mar. 2014.
There is a famous saying that states, “ we should not judge a book by its cover”, but oftentimes the first thing noticed on a person is their looks. One’s “physical beauty” strongly influences people’s first impressions of them. As a whole, we tend to assume that pretty people are more likeable and better people than those who are unattractive. Around the world, we believe that what is beautiful is good. There is a general consensus within a culture about what is considered physically appealing and beautiful. “Physical beauty” is associated with being more sociable, intelligent, and even socially skilled. Society shares this common notion of who has and who does not have “physical beauty”. Thus, “physical beauty”, as seen
Facial symmetry is also linked to agreeableness, extraversion and conscientiousness, so good-looking people generally find it easier to make friends and hold down jobs. Attractive people are most likely to succeed because some companies are looking for models to be on the cover of their magazines. They are always making money just to be on the cover of a book that people always complain about and they would just say that should I try this product do you think it will help my stubborn fat and try to lose it by taking this daily with food or water. Researchers say that they can tell if people are attractive or unattractive because they watch guys looking at women and giving facial expressions to tell the other person what they think about the girl or girls.
According to recent research, there have been people who have found that this effect can be present in the media. Reporters and journalist are more likely to report the news of attractive people rather than no eyed-catching people. The article “Better-Looking Politicians Get More Media Coverage” published by ScienceDaily explains and presents the results of these studies, which have been performed by the University of Haifa’s Department of Communication. The results of these researchers have shown that better-looking, political tenure, seniority and army rank get higher frequency of TV news coverage. With this statement, we can infer that not only the appearance counts, but also what kind of people merit respect for inhabitants inside the society.
Pupils' Effect on Humans' Attractiveness Abstract -------- In order to investigate whether our pupils affect how attractive we are, an experimental technique was used, variables were manipulated and data recorded. The aim of this study was to investigate how the size of our pupils affect how attractive we are perceived to be. The method involved fifty participants who looked at two pictures and rated their attractiveness. It was hypothesised the pictures of people with dilated pupils will be rated more attractive.
“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart” (Kahlil). People focus more on the outward appearance instead of the inward appearance. One’s inward appearance is comprised of their character, values, morals, and the true nature of their heart. On the other hand, the outward appearance is composed of one’s dress and grooming. The inward and outward appearance determines whether or not a person is ugly or beautiful. The choices that we make also define whether or not one is ugly or beautiful; choices made in the past can sometimes be repeated in the future.
In an opposite view, Dan Eden, in his article “What Makes Us Attractive,” explains the psychological aspects of beauty. Is it natural? Can it mean popularity?
on a scale from 1 to 3, the importance men gave to good looks rose from 1.50 to 2.11. But for women, the importance of good looks in men rose from 0.94 to 1.67. In other words, women in 1989 considered a man look’s more important than men considered women’s looks 50 years earlier
...alth. Males tend to have greater physiological health than those who have asymmetrical facial features (Manning, 1995). A study conducted by Grammer and Thornhill (1994) found that facial symmetry signalled health in males faces. However Shackelford and Larsen (1997)found a few significant negative links of facial symmetry with psychological, emotional and physiological health variables, but these findings did not replicate over their two samples. Also both males and females who have symmetrical facial features are rated as more physically attractive than those asymmetric individuals (Grammer &Thornhill, 1994). Many studies conducted on attractiveness using software such as image manipulation techniques, have found preference for faces that were changed to be more symmetrical (Little, Burt, Penton-Voak, &Perrett, 2001). In these studies only facial symmetry was
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Meeting someone for the first time is much different than knowing them for a while. Firstly, people tend to notice appearance before all other characteristics even become a thought. Today, appearance plays a major role in the way people perceive us. One’s image, nowadays, is becoming increasingly more important to others, rather than personality or intelligence. This may be the case because modern society is greatly influenced by one’s beauty. Style and facial structure are the first things a majority of people take note upon when encountering others. This “silent judgement” of others becomes a main factor into why people, especially women, put so much thought into their
As the practice is becoming increasingly popular, mainstream acceptance has given birth to a society that values appearance over ability and ultimately leading on to discrimination in practically every field. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that indicates that appearance has become a vital contributor of success at the workplace and even in educational institutions for that matter. A study by researchers from Rice University and the University of Houston indicated that candidates with facial scars and blemishes faced lower odds of being remembered by their interviewers which lowered their ratings and evaluations (as cited in ...
The beauty halo effect has become a strong phenomenon in social psychology nowadays. The beauty halo effect can also be called “the physical attractiveness” stereotype and the “what is beautiful is good” principle (Lewis-Beck, Bryman and Liao, 2004). The halo effect makes reference to the tendency of people to better rate attractive people for their personality traits than the individuals that are qualified less attractive (Lewis-Beck, Bryman and Liao, 2004). The psychologist Edward Thorndike first wrote about the halo effect phenomenon in his paper The Constant Error in Psychological Ratings in 1920. He noticed in his work that “ratings were apparently affected by the tendency to think of a person in general as rather good or rather inferior and to color the judgments of the qualities by this general feelings” (Lachman and Bass, 2001). The halo effects explain the fact that early aspects influence the interpretation of later aspects (Forgas, 2011). Since the first definition of the halo effects made by Thorndike in 1920, this concept has been the subject...
To test the theory out I showed my family members, and friends the same exact pictures and amazingly enough they all said left for both faces. But if we didn’t have the Internet, the chances are we would prefer the images on the right! The reason many people prefer the faces on the left for image 1 is because of the stereotypes men are given. A man is supposed to be more masculine, have a more defined jawline, and tough skin; from social medias perspective at least. For the picture portraying the female I also chose left, that’s because of how social media portrays the perfect woman, soft, thin, and less masculine. There was a test done surveying 200 men and women (ages 18-25). Before the test was conducted there was a survey to see who had Internet access, or any type of social media access. Those who didn’t have any access to the Internet mainly picked the images on the right, meanwhile those who had access to the Internet mainly focused on the images to the left, the reason behind this is because of the stereotypes men and women are given. Stereotypes have developed our preferences of how a human should look like. If it wasn’t for the Internet,
Peters, Sandy, and Thomas Peters. "How Important are Good Looks?" TOPICS Online Magazine. Mar. 2001. 13 Nov. 2001. http://www.rice.edu/projects/topics/Electronic/Magazilie.html.
Throughout history many researchers came up with ideas on what makes a person beautiful and what cause them to be unattractive. Plato, a famous philosopher, argued that the face that held the golden proportions was what made a person beautiful. “The width of the ideal face would be two –thirds its length and the nose no longer than the distance between the eyes” (Espejo 24). These are only a few things that make up the golden proportions. Researchers claim that averageness is what makes a person good looking (Espejo 24). However, according to Lisa DeBruine an experimental psychologist, “When it come to some key features, such as big eyes and small chins in women, being distinctly nonaverage can be better” (qtd. in Espejo 24). Big eyes and small chins are feminine traits. How masculine or how feminine a face is could determine how attractive the person is.
The first and most popular interpretation of the word “beauty” is seen as outer appearance. On that perception, “beauty” and “attractiveness” have a significant difference even though they are word cousins. A beautiful looking person may be attractive, but an attractive person does not need to be beautiful. One person may look at someone beautiful with “deep satisfaction in the mind” because that person admire how beautiful the other is. Someone, who is not striking beautiful looking, may attract other people just by how they express their personalities. The others who are attracted to that particular individual because they feel connected, happy, and comfortable around that person. While attractiveness may result in long lasting relationships, physical beauty only brings short term pleasant feeling in the mind. Yet, beauty as outer look conquers many societies around the world. For instance, American culture tends to value the way a person look. That value is transmitted from one generation to the next by families, peers, and media in the process of enculturation. Young children come to adapt ways of thinking and feeling about physical beauty from their families first. The show