Beauty has shaped history, politics and countries in ways
unimaginable. Cleopatra, Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe are known till date
for their exceedingly good looks. Hollywood make over movies turning ugly
duckling into swan top the list of rom-coms.
One truth that guides human race since eternity is our desire to
look beautiful. We groom ourselves to varying degrees to look good.
Grooming has a very direct role in evolution. In one of my earlier
posts called "No country for the average man" I discussed in detail about our
innate need to look our best. Biologically it boils down to our need to attract
the most potential mate.
But what about beauty? Does that have a genetic basis? It sure
must have. It is a physical attribute and like any other physical attribute it
must be coded by some genes. However to unravel this mystery we need to
extrapolate our journey from physical to psychological. Physical beauty is
perceived by a psychological angle. Our brain tells us whether the person we
are seeing is pretty or not. Hence to understand the biological basis of beauty
we need to understand "perception of beauty".
What is it that comes across as beautiful to us? Is there an
evolutionary role play here? Do our genes fool the brain into perceiving
something as pretty? Is there a checklist to beauty?
Now I say that there must be some rules to beauty because a
beautiful person is usually considered beautiful by majority. E.g. majority of
us agree that Marilyn Monroe was pretty. This means that 99% of the “brains”
perceive her as pretty. Biologically it indicates that "perception of
beauty" pathway is somewhat ubiquitous. So what is this pathway then?
A
lot of research has gone into how the brain responds to physical attractiveness.
In an experiment where babies were shown faces, it was seen that babies spent
more time gazing at pretty faces. Babies were a perfect model to study as they
are not conditioned culturally. Also since only faces were being shown, no
chance of subconscious input of information in form of olfactory pheromones was
meddling with decision making. Hence, it was concluded that beauty in fact had
an evolutionary basis as complete newborns could identify beautiful faces from
a pool of faces shown to them with ranging level of attractiveness.
Structural
decoding of these “pretty” faces identified by the babies has led to a whole
new area of research called facial aesthetics. Last two decades has seen a
great deal of study being done in this direction. So what is it that the babies
liked in the beautiful faces?
Facial symmetry
Which of the two faces you find more attractive
above? a or b?
Face “B” is the same person. However, using computer
graphics, his face has been skewed and made asymmetrical. On seeing closely,
the nose is bent to one side, the eyes are not shaped or distanced equally from
the nose and the right side of the lips is dragged out.
Though these changes seem subtle but our brain perceives
them immediately and tells us that face “A” is more attractive.
Averageness
Going back to the baby
gazing experiment, it was seen that babies stare more at composite of images
rather than one face image. If a facial image was made by superimposing many
faces, the babies stared at that resultant face more.
This is called averageness.
It doesn’t mean the looks of the person is average. It means that facial structures
that are an average of many faces are more attractive.
Face “A” is made by
superimposing three faces. Face “b” is made by superimposing shapes of nine
faces. Hence, we find B more attractive than A. Face “c” is made by
superimposing not only shapes but also facial color of nine faces. Hence it is
the most beautiful among the three.
Secondary
sexual characters
More feminine faces
with smaller nose, narrower chin and high cheekbones give rise to a pretty
face. Similarly in men, more masculine features like broader jawline and
prominent brow ridge make for a more desirable man.
Photo courtesy: A.C.Little et al, Facial attractiveness:
evolutionary based research
Face “b” has been made
more feminine/masculine from their face “A” counterpart. It also shows that
more feminine/masculine features are considered more beautiful in general.
These three rules are not to give rise to “Laws of
Shallowness”. Equation for beauty! How vain
is that! However, these laws have evolutionary significance. That’s why the
babies are choosing them.
Perfect genes give rise to perfect symmetry. Hence
individuals with perfect symmetry have healthier and sturdier genes. This would
mean that choosing such people as your mate would allow these sturdy genes to
be passed onto your offspring.
Averageness of looks arises from the fact that the
individual has almost all alleles of genes present in the population. S/He has
the maximum chance of having genes of resistance to diseases and parasites prevalent
in that population. Again, good choice for a mate.
Secondary characters like pinched nose or thinner
chin arise in women due to higher estrogen level. And estrogen is directly
proportional to the fecundity of the female. She is most likely to give you
healthy offsprings. And many numbers of them! Good choice, once more!
So, as in all my posts, I rest my case again. All
social beliefs (good or evil) are a result of our genes controlling us to give
rise to healthy offspring. And beauty, which most morals speak against, is one
such thing.
Billions of dollars worth cosmetic industry is
thriving on it. The fashion industry is making fortunes off it and so is
Bollywood and Hollywood.
I find it best not to fight my evolution. So I will
not live in a genetic gut feeling vacuum. However, though I cant control what
my genes wish me to pass on to my offspring, I do have control over one very
important aspect of evolution. Thought
evolution.
Recently a lot of research has gone into the
psychology of personality attractiveness for mate selection. A person whose
personality we find magnetic seems to be our choice of mate selection. The
classical beauty might force us to croon our neck for a minute extra to get
his/her glimpse in a subway but the longer terms selection of a mate has many
psychological aspects to it.
Personality, self-esteem, happy temperament play
equally important roles in humans’ mate selection. And the good news is that
recent scientific studies have shown preliminary data on how attributes like a
smiling face are translated by our genes are “good future parent”. Hence what i can surely do is focus on my daughter's personality development, intellectual skills, self esteem and happiness quotient
Thus, while on one hand I do support the anti- Fair
and Lovely cream campaign; I feel genetically you cant deny what beauty does to
you. Hence no matter how evolved you might feel you are socially; the matrimonial
will still read “Gori, beautiful, and thin” for a very long time to come!