Teacher MarThe Biology of Beauty
"The Biology of Beauty"
Looking good is a universal human obsession. How do we perceive physical beauty, and why do we place so much stock in it? When it comes to choosing a mate, a female penguin knows better to fall for the first creep who pulls up and honks. She holds out for the fittest suitor available - which in Antarctica means one chubby enough to spend several weeks on newly hatched eggs without starving to death.
Is our corner of the animal world different? That "looks count" in human affairs is beyond dispute. Studies have shown that people considered attractive fare better with parents and teachers, make more friends and more money, and have better sex with more (and more beautiful) partners. Every 400,000 Americans, including 48,000 men, flock to cosmetic surgeons. In other lands, people bedeck themselves with scars, lip plugs or bright feathers. "Every culture is a 'beauty culture'," says Nancy Etcoff, a neuroscientist who is studying human attraction at the MIT Media Lab and writing a book on the subject. "I defy anyone to point to a society, any time in history or any place in the world, that wasn't preoccupied with beauty."
It's widely assumed that ideals of beauty vary from era to era and from culture to culture. But a harvest of new research is confounding that idea. Studies have established that people everywhere - regardless of race, class or age - share a sense of what's attractive. And though no one knows just how our minds translate the sight of a face or a body into rapture, new studies suggest that we judge each other by rules we're not aware of.
This isn't to say that our preference are purely innate - or that beauty is all that matters in life. Most of us manage to find jobs, attract mates and bear offspring despite our physical imperfections.
The new beauty research does have troubling implications, though. First, it suggests that we're designed to care about looks, even though looks aren't earned and reveal nothing about character. Second, women are designed to favor dominant males over meek ones, and men are designed to value women for youthful qualities that time quickly steals.
What does it mean?
1. Looking good is a universal human obsession.
2. That "looks count" in human affairs is beyond dispute.
Comprehension Check-up
> In what ways studies shown that appearance matters?
> What society is known as the exception to the "beauty culture" rule?
> Is physical beauty a determinant of species survival?
What do you think?
> Do you think beauty is just superficial, or is it a personal asset people admire?
> Would you go ahead with cosmetic surgery to become more beautiful?
> If your child were ugly and wanted to have cosmetic surgery, what would you do?
> Would you seek a beautiful partner in marriage or choose some other criterion?
> Do you think we can judge someone's character by looks? Do looks reveal anything about character?
> Do you think looks affect social success for both men and women?