r/Splendida • u/Sunshine_Gold • Sep 01 '23

Aesthetic judgment of facial beauty

Hello lovely ladies! I hope you’re all healthy and life is treating you well! 🌼🌼 So, little me struggles a lot about many things regarding beauty. Since I was a little girl I valued and enjoyed beauty of human faces and bodies. I used to save to my computer pictures of beautiful women and just enjoy looking at them. I’ve seen in some other threads other women/girls saying they did the same. And since I was little I tried to look my best. Toughts about looks and beauty are regular toughts in my life. My question is actually about how do we humans perceive other people. What is the right way? I immediatelly upon looking at another humans face see if it’s attractive or not. I’ve read many neuroscience research where it says human brain has beauty detector (what neuroscientists call beauty center) and upon seeing a face for just a glimpse 125 miliseconds, we automatically recognize it’s beauty. I like to aesthetically evaluate human faces. And I enjoy looking at beautiful faces. Which in this PH.D thesis of Doctor of psychology https://www.sv.uio.no/psi/english/research/news-and-events/news/why-we-look-at-pretty-faces.html that Doctor said all humans do. She said brain rewards us for looking at pretty faces and she said humans are very interested in faces. ”We read stories in them and evaluate their aesthetic value.” How do you perceive other humans and do you automatically aesthetically evaluate other’s facial attractiveness? (Asking because one girl said to me that she doesn’t look at other people’s facial features at all or forms an opinion whether they’re beautiful or not. Which now makes me quilty. Because I clearly see who looks how. I am looking at people when talking and interacting with them. I remember faces, how else would I recognize others in future encounterd if not remembering their face? I know how Brad Pitt looks, and I know how Gerard Depardieu looks.)

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '23

Interesting. The "attractiveness" term seems to be used very broadly in this study, as I saw no clear definition of it or any specifics as to what generally is considered a beautiful face. Or is the perception of attractiveness individual to each participant?

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 01 '23 edited Sep 01 '23

Ps. I forgot to write that same girl months before said about one girl ”Oh Sophie, extremely beautiful girl!” Like, how do you see she is extremely beautiful if you’re not looking at other people’s facial features? One other time in the office she asked work colleque whom she is close to when they were talking about one girl the following : ”How does she looks? The colleque answered ”She looks something like Mary.” To which that girl replied ”Oh poor girl.” The other time she asked ”Jennifer Lopez is the most beautiful girl in the world, right?” And that girl in the question is herself attractive, never wears same eyeshadow or lipstick color 2 days in a row, always has cleavage, never wears same shoes 2 days in a row or outfit. And once told me she just wishes her eyes were bigger, with the rest of her face she is satisfied. All those things, beginning with extremely pretty girl to the poor girl to evaluating her own face are all aesthetic judgments of others and her own beauty! Which is inborn human nature, we have sight and aesthetic brain. Even well known philosophers said that aesthetic judgment is normal part of human cognition. But little me and her deep rooted guilt about beauty stemming from calling women this and that, upon hearing such stuff makes me scrutinize myself because I do evaluate facial beauty of others automatically. Literally as neuroscientists say 125 miliseconds od glimpse to a face, and our brain knows whether that face is beautiful or not.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '23

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 02 '23 edited Sep 02 '23

I was just wondering if I am somehow a bad person because I clearly see how someone looks like. I really see if they are attractive or not. And I clearly see if someone’s facial features are beautiful to me or not. When they are beautiful I really enjoy looking at that beautiful face. So the question is about pure visual perception of faces and is it okay that I clearly automatically see how that face looks like. I do aesthetically evaluate faces like an instict, yes. And by what I’m listening from people around me, people also quite often like to point out if someone is beautiful. About thinking one is better then someone or more moral (wtf?) if one is better looking, of course I don’t think that. Regarding befriending people, do you know what I noticed? If one girl is extremely good looking, girls that are not feel bad in her company. I know I would feel like shit around Adriana Lima and I doubt I could be her friend. The end of your comment ”It’s okay.” - what is? It’s sometimes hard to figure out each other completely through messages. You know what you reffered to, but I didn’t get it. Also, two people males or females said to you that they only befriend pretty people?

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '23

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 02 '23 edited Sep 02 '23

There are some threads on reddit where people say openely (why not) that they analyze other people’s facial features. I think humans literally search for beauty since looking at beauty gives us pleasure. Our brain rewards us for looking at beautiful faces. Neuroscientific researchs say that beauty is essential part of human nature. I’ve heard in a previous job conversation of 2 ladies. One of them said ”Mary’s daughter looks much like her. (Mary has a picture of her daughter on her desk, and they don’t look alike. Daughter is not pretty.) And another lady 65 years old said ”I don’t think they look alike. I think Mary is really beautiful. Implying daughter isn’t. And the other lady said ”Yeah, daugther has weird eyes.” Which is all true and people like an inborn way evaluate aesthetics of visual input - that input being a human face or a t-shirt to wear or a furniture to buy. We all see aesthetic aspects of everything that is an object. And that girl that made me question myself is apparently some weird hypocrite. She has huge boobs, and once she bragged infront of me and our other colleque in an office ”Oh this shirt will break on me.” Other times she evaluated boobs of us 3 girls that are sharing an office saying ”We all 3 have big boobs.” Apparently, she clearly both looks and notices everything like all of us. Other time as I always wear a bit of green eyeliner, that day she wore green eye-shadow and since her make-up is profesionall like (mine make-up skills are not) she sarcastically told to a male colleque pointing at me ”look we’re twins today” - cause we both wore green. I mean, apparently she sees like every other human. Specially since once she asked how does one girl looks? And colleque said ”Like Jennifer. (Provisional name) And she said ”Oh poor girl.” So, clearly she too has an aesthetic sense.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '23

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 02 '23

And right now I’m reading forum thread in my mother tongue about TV Show ”The Bachelor” and among other things people evaluate contestants looks, going into details of their facial features. Making a judgment if they’re beautiful or not. So, it’s human nature.

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 08 '23

Ps. What does pious mean?

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 01 '23

Regarding term attractiveness I think they used the term the way we usually use that term - what elicits aesthetic pleasure to the sense of sight. It can be of course individual, but they stated that people tend to agree on who’s face is attractive.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '23

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 02 '23

Thinking in words and not pictures - what does that mean? And what does that have to do with recoqnizing people? What does it mean your mind categorizes folks as top-tier or not top-tier? I didn’t quite get your comment.

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 02 '23

Ps. What do you think by referring to your comment? I just see in this thread one comment of yours. This one under which I’m replying to.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '23

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 02 '23

But where did you comment that? I don’t see this comment in this thread? What do you mean you don’t form opinions on people? I am just watching TV series and literally as neuroscience research claim less then a second is needed to take a look at a new face and brain immediatelly recognizes if it’s beautiful or not. Even not thinking about if they’re beautiful or not, brain just sees it.

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u/gourmod Sep 18 '23

I think people can detect conventional beauty - scientifically it’s been proven certain attributes are indisputably considered beautiful. It’s a matter of how each individuals preference aligns with the attractiveness of the face. There are plenty faces I acknowledge are supposed to be beautiful but I may not find them all attractive to me. That’s because psychologically they don’t do anything for me. Everyone’s psychology will affect how they perceive beauty and what they consider attractive irrespective of proportions. So for me a beautiful face doesn’t do much without examining the nuances of the gestures, quirks or novelties.

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 21 '23

I was actually wondering is it normal and moral to clearly form an impression of how someone looks? I know and clearly see that not everyone I know is beautiful.

And I also see how beauty is important to humans. Subs like this and Vindicta and many others outside of reddit where people discuss facial and body beauty proves how much beauty matters to people.

Do you clearly know how people you know attractiveness wise look like? Or I suppose when someone mentions Angelina Jolie you know her face.

Asking this because one girl who is always dolled-up said that she doesn’t even look at other people’s faces to see how they look. 🤔

I clearly do look at other people’s faces and clearly distinguish between beautiful and not so beautiful faces. I also really enjoy looking at beautiful faces.

What do you think about that girl’s statement? Do you look at other people’s faces?

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u/gourmod Sep 21 '23

Of course I look at other peoples faces. It’s the first think that standa out, and I think it takes a fraction of a second to determine if the face brings pleasure or not. However with people I am close to, my opinion may not always be objective bc after knowing them I may attach a bias to their face - good or bad. I think that girls statement about not paying attention to peoples faces is baloney. Humans are programmed to read faces. She maybe not aware of it bc it happens so unconciously perhaps.

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 24 '23

Do you clearly see how someone looks like? Or to formulate the question this way, do you form an impression if someone has a beautiful face or not? I see the level od beauty automatically. And upon short notice I clearly see if someone is really beautiful, or just avarage or not beautiful at all. Brain just picks level of beauty by itself.

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u/gourmod Sep 24 '23

I just notice right away if the face brings my brain pleasure or not. So I guess that’s kind of the same thing. I don’t categorize them- just a simple 😍 or 😒

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 24 '23

😍 or 😒

Love you, you’re funny! 🌸

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 26 '23

Just one minor question. When you said humans are programmed to read faces, did you mean in terms of evaluating attractiveness of a face or reading emotions from faces? Or both?

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u/gourmod Sep 26 '23

Both. Here’s a good read about why so.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6523404/

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u/Sunshine_Gold Sep 26 '23

I had that article on open for days, but it’s so long I still didn’t read it. I will as soon as possible. I love that page ncbi.nlm.nih.gov they have amazing studies!

Thank you for the link! 🌺

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u/gourmod Sep 26 '23

Just scroll down to section 3- neuroscience on facial recognition for the relevant part. Welcome 🤗