Is Our Perception of Beauty Based on Our Experiences?

Beauty is most likely subjective. A new study showed why people have different perceptions on facial attractiveness.

The study, titled "Individual Aesthetic Preferences for Faces Are Shaped Mostly by Environments, Not Genes," was published in the online journal Current Biology. The new research is included in a previous study conducted by the same group, which delved on the universal features of attraction.

The findings showed that a person's perception on attractiveness or beauty is generally based on his personal experiences and environment. There are certain traits of human faces that are universally known to be attractive. However, the extent will be different depending on the beholder.

The study involved analyzing the facial preferences of 35,000 individuals who visited the website "Test My Brain". The research team viewed 547 sets of identical twins with 100% identical DNA and 214 fraternal twins with half similar genes. The participants were requested to rate the attractiveness of 98 male faces and 102 female faces with the objective of measuring the difference in ratings among participants.

i4u cited that on average, two random individuals agreed that a face was attractive 48 percent of the time, and disagreed 52 percent of the time. This means that half of the time, people have different views on beauty. The results showed that environmental experiences have more effect on a person's perspective on beauty, than genetics.

"This fits the common intuition that on the one hand, fashion models can make a fortune with their good looks, while on the other hand, friends can endlessly debate about who is attractive and who is not," stated joint study leaders Laura Germine of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, and Jeremy Wilmer of Wellesley College.

The ratings involving the identical and fraternal twins provided some data on how genes and environment contributed to a person determining face attractiveness.

Germine added that the kinds of environments that are vital are those that are much subtler and personal, influenced by experiences with friends and social and popular media. The huge effect of experience on individual face provides more insight into the architecture and evolution of the social brain. The recent findings show that environment and experience truly affect one's notions on what is beautiful. It also explains why different people have different views and ratings on facial attractiveness.

Sydney Morning Herald wrote that future related studies might provide information on the factors that affect people's preferences for other activities and things like music, pets and art.