The concept of “beauty” is elusive. What does it mean for you to feel and look beautiful? The many concepts of beauty are embedded in an understanding of our perceptions of beauty that are rooted in our history, ethnicity, sex, and individual cultures. The vision of Beautify.com is to expand our understanding and explore the many visions and expressions of beauty, past, present, and future including who and what is influencing our current and future perceptions of beauty.
What Is Perception?
The way human beings perceive their environment is based on our five senses: touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste. According to psychologists, there are other senses that allow us to perceive things including social perception, “the ability to identify and use social cues about people and relationships.”1
What are our perceptions of beauty? There have been many clinical studies and articles detailing the fact, “people feel better about themselves when they think they are attractive to others.”2 The study further says, “we devote portions of our brains to evaluating characteristics of attractiveness that are remarkably similar among cultures. Our bodies are shaped not only for function but also to match the image of attractiveness to others.”
The images of attractiveness to others is based on features that signal reproductive fitness known as Costly Signals, which are specific to one sex, or the other are subject to strong sexual selection. Costly Signals of fitness for humans include health, youthful appearance, and ideal proportions. “The brain has evolved modules to perceive facial and body shapes, interpret their meaning, and then assign value—beautiful and attractive, or not. A key finding is that people of all cultures agree on which men and women are attractive and who are not.”3
The science of perceptions of beauty has given birth and sustains the multi-billion-dollar beauty, fitness, and anti-aging industries while also creating legions of so-called beauty and lifestyle influencers.
Beautify.com will help you explore the complex notions of beauty and help you discover your own beauty!
1Kendra Cherry, “What Is Perception?” Kendra Cherry, Verywellmind.com, July 9, 2020 (Medically reviewed by Psychiatrist, Steven Gans, MD)
2Daniel B. Yarosh, “Perception and Deception: Human Beauty and the Brain,” Behav Sci (Basel). 2019 Apr; 9(4): 34
3Miller G. “Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior,” Penguin Group; New York, NY, USA: 2009. [Google Scholar]