Brain and Behavior

For our assignment this week, we got an in-depth look at how the condition of the brain affects a person's behavior and their reactions. Dr.Selvaraj (my introduction to psychology professor) assigned a series of TED talk videos that correlated with the weekly objective. The one that I would like to delve into in this post is "How your Brain decides what is beautiful" by cognitive neurologist Anjan Chatterjee.

The final face of Galton's experiment is
surprisingly charming despite the
original images used. 

Chatterjee began his speech by sharing a story of Sir Francis Galton, the father of modern eugenics. In 1878, Galton spoke to the scientists at the anthropological institute of Great Britain and Ireland about his new technique for creating composite photographs from the combination of multiple portraits. He was trying to find the "face of criminality" by combining the pictures of criminals, but he accidentally created a portrait of beauty and normality instead. The reason why the final image is visually attractive is because it complies with two factors that are considered beautiful: 

• Average: The face includes the traits of several faces to cancel out anomalies
• Symmetry: The face can be almost been vertically mirrored perfectly

Social constructs can define
the meaning of beauty and
mold people to be different
from their true selves.

There are a few theories to explain why these factors (along with the influence of hormones) make up the criteria for the standard of beauty. The Evolutionary Theory states that these traits can be a sign of health or sexual fitness and that we are biologically inclined to be looking out for these signs. When someone sees an attractive person, without even consciously thinking about it, their visual cortex (the part of the brain that registers sight) and their amygdala (the part of the brain associated with emotion and pleasure) are both stimulated, suggesting that they find the person desirable and more worthy of their attention.

There is also the theory that social constructs define the standard of beauty. Samantha Tamburello, writer for The Odyssey website, says that your idea of beauty is most likely an "idea of a default human being that you have in your mind, and you're just not quite fitting the quota". This idea is integrated into the subconscious by advertising, social media, television productions, and other influences. These influences are repeated over and over again until the neurons in our brains that are dedicated to these social constructs have been reinforced and an underlying thought has been made semi-permanent. It takes conscious effort to undo it's effects.

This is applicable to both the negative and the positive side of beauty. While in most media, a smooth and symmetrical face is given to the protagonist, the face of the antagonist is often distorted. This creates the connotation that beauty should always be associated with good people and anything less than that is from evil. This leads to less opportunities for less attractive people because the more attractive ones are given special treatment and advantages.

Should we let our subconscious thoughts distort our
view of ourselves and other people?

Despite the premise of these theories, it's quite clear that beauty has an impact on our cognitive states and how we act towards other people. We should all do our best to consciously choose to judge people on their character rather than their appearances because their looks alone cannot contribute to a safer society, loving others, or even maintaining a steady job performance. Just as the world around us changes, so should our approach to beauty and how much we let our instincts control us.

Adios!

Sources

Why Beauty is a Social Construct
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/beauty-social-construct

The Neuroscience of Pleasure and Addiction
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201405/the-neuroscience-pleasure-and-addiction

Composite Photos

http://galton.org/composite.htm

Psychology and Neuroscience Beta

https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/5740/are-there-recent-theories-on-physiognomy

Composite Types

http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/ncc375/galton/index.html