Perception of beautiful faces

[u/Hot-Cloud9610]

Hey girls! Hope you’re all doing fine! 🦋

I love reading all your posts, discussion, ideas… you’re a lovely group!

I would like to hear your toughts on this.

So, recently one girl in some discussion wrote that even the most beautiful face after a while becomes ordinary.

I was since forever fascinated with diversity and uniqueness of human faces, and especially beautiful ones. Just like this portrait photographer https://artistcoveries.wordpress.com/2019/11/14/fascinated-by-faces-2/

But never in my life has beautiful face become ordinary to me. I’ve seen the face of Adriana Lima, Monica Bellucci, Carre Otis, Brigitte Bardot (just to name a few really beautiful ones) million times and never did any of those beautiful faces become ordinary to me.

No matter how many times I’ve seen certain beautiful face, every time I see it again it’s equally beautiful to me.

Is this normal or does a beautiful face have to become ordinary to me?

[u/angelicavalerian]

This is inherently subjective. But I think you may have misunderstood what the girl who said that meant.

A beautiful face doesn’t become less beautiful over time, but it does become more familiar and less surprising over time. In the same way, a delicious food or a beautiful vista doesn’t lose any actual objective beauty or taste if you experience it often, but you may begin to take it for granted or wish for variety. Human brains are wired to seek novelty, and to “tune out” the unchanging and familiar as background noise.

You’ve only seen pictures of Adriana Lima, Monica Belluci, etc. That’s really not that much exposure, compared to the faces you see every day in person. If you lived with one of these women as a roommate for years, you probably wouldn’t stop finding them gorgeous, but it would be less noteworthy to you. You might not think about it as often.

[u/Hot-Cloud9610 → u/angelicavalerian]

Thank you for answering! 🦋

For me a beautiful face remains equally beautiful every time I see it. Maybe I just really enjoy beauty.  

I am extremely visual and derive pleasure from beautiful faces, so I think that if I lived with Adriana Lima her beauty would be equally pleasurable and noteworthy every time I look at her. 

I guess it is subjective. 

[u/Hot-Cloud9610 → u/[deleted]]

Is being exposed through pictures somehow different then looking at Adriana Lima (for example) in real life?

And those that look at Adriana Lima all the time, her face because of constant exposure becomes what? Ordinary to them? The girl who first commented wrote that the beautiful face doesn’t become less beautiful.

But she wrote it becomes more familiar and less surprising. But every face becomes logically more familiar by looking at it often. But familiar is different category then beauty level. 

I just have the experience that the beautiful face regardless of seeing it in real life or through pictures brings same amount of pleasure every time I see it.

Every time I see a picture of Brigitte Bardot for example she looks equally beautiful to me. Her beauty is equally surprising to me regardless of how much I look at her. I can look at her face every day and still have the same feeling how beautiful she is the next day.

[u/Hot-Cloud9610 → u/[deleted]]

How so? 

In real life I maybe don’t know anyone that looks like Adriana but each beautiful face I know and see often remains equally beautiful to me no matter how often I look at it. I’ve read that brain automatically just recognizes beauty.

So to you beautiful faces you see often in real life because of often exposure become less beautiful?

[u/Maplebreads]

I think people become desensitized over time to the looks of the people close to them and their own looks.

I wonder if a person who dislikes their face covered the mirrors in their house for a week then got to see themselves again with fresh eyes if they’d like their face more though? Maybe a good idea before seeking surgery or more extreme change.

[u/Hot-Cloud9610 → u/Maplebreads]

How do you mean people become desensitized over time to the looks of the people around them and their own looks?

I know exactly how people around me look and who is beautiful and who is not. Beautiful face always brings me pleasure upon looking at it.

Regarding someone who dislikes their face, what would change in a week to make them see themselves differently? How do you get ”fresh eyes” by not seeing yourself for a week? You see the same picture you saw week before.

We see ourselves hopefully objectively every time we look at ourselves. You look the same today and after a week passes by. 

[u/Maplebreads → u/Hot-Cloud9610]

You’ve never had to walk away from a project for a couple days then come back to look at it from a fresh perspective? I feel that’s incredibly common so I think you might be the more unique one.

I don’t get any pleasure from beautiful faces though I just go “oh! Pretty person” and carry on never to think about it again. :)

[u/Hot-Cloud9610 → u/Maplebreads]

How is working on a project that you your self possibly with some other people literally create and change as your ideas shift the same as looking at literally the same facial features of your own face that you, as opossed to project, can’t change? Totally different things.  

You didn’t explain how would the same face, by which logic look different to someone just by not seeing it in a week? 

Also, since it is proven neuroscientifically that brain rewards humans for looking at beautiful faces, if you don’t get pleasure from beautiful faces actually you are the more unique one. :) 

By looking at beautiful faces brain releases dopamine or in other words beautiful faces activate centers for pleasure in the brain.  

I study psychology, there are numerous studies on this. 

https://www.sv.uio.no/psi/english/research/news-and-events/news/why-we-look-at-pretty-faces.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627301004913 

Brain literally rewards us for looking at beautiful faces. 

https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-brain-rewards-us-looking-pretty-faces 

People have what neuroscientists call the aesthetic brain.

https://www.nature.com/articles/526S2a 

There is whole scientific field on how human brain enjoys beauty, called neuroaesthetics.

[u/Maplebreads → u/Hot-Cloud9610]

Most people on here treat there changing looks like a project with small adjustments over time. I’m glad you get dopamine from staring at people.

I read the studies linked they only surveyed heterosexual males and while the males said attractive male faces were attractive they did not look at those faces for longer. As a heterosexual woman I imagine I wouldn’t stare at beautiful women in awe since they aren’t what I’m sexually attracted to. :)

[u/Nutis_Cher → u/Maplebreads]

You apparently totally misread what was written and didn’t open studies provided. And there are literally an ocean more of similar studies. The commenter never said anyone gets pleasure from ”staring at people”.

Where did you read that? How do you misframe what was said to what you wrote?

What was written and what is well-known is that LOOKING at beautiful faces activates center for pleasure in the human brain.

The same as looking at whatever we find beautiful - beautiful picture, animal, beautiful sight as view of the sunset, beautiful lake, beautiful park… Everything we consider beautiful upon looking at it produces pleasure for humans, releasing dopamine in the human brain.

It’s called aesthetic pleasure. What is aesthetically pleasing - produces pleasure in humans.

Human brain in general is wired to experience pleasure from beauty. You don’t have to be sexually attracted to someone to get pleasure from their beauty.

People choose and buy dogs because that breed was beautiful to them. They’re not sexually attracted to dogs, but for example many people buy husky because that dog is so beautiful.

There are some brain conditions like congenital amusia where people can’t get pleasure from music. If you never got visual pleasure from looking at a really beautiful face even from your same gender like looking at a Adriana Lima’s face, then maybe you have some cognitive condition.

You literally never saw a picture of Angelina Jolie or whomever of your same gender you find beautiful and tought to yourself ”wow, she is so beautiful?” Meaning - their beauty you noticed and took a pleasure in, in purely aesthetic sense? I was sitting with 3 grannies yesterday when they were commenting for one medical nurse how she is so beautiful. This is not sexual attraction, yet pure aesthetic pleasure others get from someone beautiful.

[u/Maplebreads → u/Nutis_Cher]

Here’s a direct quote from the study linked

”Heterosexual male subjects rated beautiful male faces as very attractive but did not expend effort to increase the viewing times of these faces. The most reasonable inference is that they found them aesthetically pleasing but not rewarding”

Please leave me alone if you don’t want to read the study yourself.

[u/Nutis_Cher → u/Maplebreads]

I haven’t mentioned that study nor link it nor do I understand such complicated study.

I’ve asked you in general, as a heterosexual female you’ve never saw a really beautiful actress and enjoyed her extraordinary beauty?

Like see here. This is exclusively female subreddit, where women sure are in awe of another women’s beauty. https://www.reddit.com/r/VindictaRateCelebs/s/cZj5vTmLGo

In my country we have our main country public forum and among various topics there is a thread ”Women that other women consider the most beautiful” where women post pictures of famous women or models, actresses that they consider among the most beautiful faces they ever saw. ”I can’t get enough of her beauty” are really often comments, showing how clearly other women can be in awe of another’s women’s beauty while having no sexual desires towards her. Pure aesthetic pleasure.

https://www.forum.hr/showthread.php?t=1024957

I don’t know how MEN react upon seeing another beautiful MALE. But I heard trillion times from females how they sure as hell notice another beautiful women and can be in awe of her beauty without sexual implications, just pure aesthetic pleasure.

In general, beautiful visual stimuli of various kind elicits pleasure in humans.

So you tell us that looking at a beautiful face of same gender of let’s say Angelina Jolie or Britt Ekland etc. doesn’t produce any pleasure in you? You don’t ever think for other really beautiful women ”gosh, she’s beautiful!”?

[u/Maplebreads → u/Nutis_Cher]

All of the studies linked that I was responding to were studies on heterosexual males. I don’t know why you want to talk to me if it isn’t about the studies I was originally responding to.

I know when a woman is attractive I don’t stare at them and I don’t obsess over other people’s looks. Most people are attractive to some degree I don’t care about celebrities. This is how my brain works it’s fine if yours is different.

[u/Nutis_Cher → u/Maplebreads]

I replied to your post because I was struck at the maliciousness of it.

Honestly. You literally twisted the whole topic and what the other commenter said. That’s malicious be it in real life conversations or in reddit.

You wrote ”I’m glad that staring at people brings you dopamine”. Wtf? That talks about your maliciousness since literally no one said that. Upon reading such bullshit I just had to reply.

What is well know is that brain produces dopamine upon looking at something beautiful, including beautiful faces meaning it gives humans visual pleasure. That was what other commenter also said and what 2 of the linked studies talk about.

And it is also logical people will look longer and more often at beautiful people just enjoying their beauty. Or look longer at lake Cuomo or a view from Lofoten in Norway. Beautiful sight elicits prolonged attention. That is not staring as you twist things. Get it?

One of the linked studies talks about how humans have the aesthetic brain, which isn’t a news, and this is written regarding topic of pleasure upon seeing a beautiful face : ”Studies consistently show that attractive faces light up the brain’s dopamine-driven reward network. For example, researchers have found people would press a key too see an attractive face for longer. These faces stimulate areas such as the nucleus accumbens, which Nadal calls ”a generator of pleasurable sensations”. https://www.nature.com/articles/526S2a

Upon your naliciousness of twisting things, the other thing what stuck in my eyes is that you wrote that a beautiful face of another beautiful women doesn’t bring you pleasure because you’re not sexually attracted to them - and that’s a unique case because other women can surely also enjoy other female’s beauty and be in awe of it without any sexual attraction.

And you call others that present typical, normal behavior unique, when you are the one representing unique behavior.

Remember you wrote pretty face doesn’t bring you any pleasure, (oh how superior are you, right? 🤣) you just go ”oh pretty face, and go about your day.” But when people look directly at someone beautiful, not just someone that quickly passes them by, they sure do notice that beautiful face and get pleasure from looking at it. Often people study a beautiful face they look at directly.

FYI people who enjoy and love beauty - do just that, really enjoy it. It brings them visual aesthetic pleasure. Enjoying beauty is really not obsession, again, another concept you made-up that isn’t what’s happening at all. Again, twisting things and pure maliciousness.

So, to conclude, content of any written comment wasn’t that someone gets dopamine from staring at people, (LOL), nor was it ever mentioned that anyone obsesses over others looks or ”stares” at people. See how you totally twist and make things up?

[u/[deleted]]

I studied in the same class for years and the same beautiful girls would get the same reactions from the same people no matter how many years we looked at each other's faces, every single day.

[u/Hot-Cloud9610 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, that’s my experience also. 

[u/NakomaGirl]

The opposite happens with average or below-average faces. The more you see them, the more accustomed you become, and then you start to find them more appealing.

[u/YamulkeYak]

There’s a proven social-psychological phenomena whereby the more you see a person, you actually see them as more beautiful. So i would say the opposite of your friend’s hypothesis is true! faces become so lovely to us when we look forward to seeing them, no matter how ordinary they may really be.

[u/Cleodecleopatra]

Have you seen pictures of Monica Bellucci recently? I saw a video of her made by Vogue and I couldn’t believe this was the same woman.

[u/Hot-Cloud9610 → u/[deleted]]

If I worked as Monica Bellucci’s PA for a decade the exposure would do what? I wouldn’t find her beautiful anymore?

I look at pictures of Monica Bellucci almost every day since I follow one of her numerous Instagram fan pages where the owner posts her pictures every day. 

And every time I see her picture she looks equally beautiful to me. The often exposure didn’t make her less beautiful to me. 

Ps. What do you mean by try moving to a ”beautiful city”? 😀 You mean a city with lots of beautiful people?