Science of Beauty, Part IV

To bring our "Science of Beauty" series to a close, let's take one last look at the work of psychologist, author, and professor David Perrett. Last time, we talked about Perrett's work on face perception and his recent book, "In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attraction." We discussed Perrett's views on the general rules that attractive faces and bodies follow, including symmetry, the waist-to-hip ratio, averageness, and femininity in female faces, as well as the ways in which a face can indicate positive qualities in potential mates, like health and fertility.

This time, we're going to look at the ways ageing, social learning, and our parents can affect the perception of attractiveness, and attempt to answer the question "Does your face create your personality, or does your personality create your face?"

Age And Beauty

In his book, Perrett writes that "We're at our cutest at about 8 months of age, and after that it's all downhill." Through his research, Perrett found that 8 months old, when babies have extremely large foreheads and very small chins, is the point at which the majority of people find human babies most attractive. After 8 months, the face grows at a rapid pace and develops features that are considered less and less cute.

What is the evolutionary reason for this finding? When we think infants are cute, we are subconsciously driven to take care of them - so the more attractive a baby is, the more likely he or she is to receive the care and nurturing he or she needs to grow into a healthy adult.

Social Learning And Beauty

Our perception of beauty is influenced strongly by our peers. When we see our peers focusing a large amount of attention on a person, that person, more often than not, will become more attractive in our eyes. The celebrity culture of Hollywood, Perrett notes, is an excellent example of this phenomenon. We don't necessarily view celebrities as attractive because they are objectively good-looking individuals. Many of them might be, but there's a lot to be said for the influence of other people - like their PR reps - telling us that they are.

Parents And Beauty

It's been said many times that men marry their mothers and women marry their fathers, but Perrett's research has found evidence that this adage is based in scientific reality. If we get along with our parents, we have a tendency to choose partners who resemble the opposite-sex parent. Perrett found that people are generally attracted to partners of a similar level of attractiveness to themselves and with faces of a similar shape, and that subjects also showed a preference for partners whose hair and eye color matched their opposite-sex parents'. "Observers found it surprisingly easy," Perrett told Lemondrop, "to match up the pictures of a man's mother with the pictures of the man's wife."

Personality And Beauty

Research suggests that 75% of people believe that personality is revealed in the face, despite no evidence confirming that particular facial features indicate a predilection for specific personality traits. Perrett believes that, rather than certain features being signs of certain characteristics, the face with which an individual is born influences the person he or she will eventually become. For instance, a baby boy who looks especially masculine may elicit fewer nurturing actions from his family and may be treated as though he is more mature. This, in turn, will cause him to develop traits that are traditionally considered more masculine, like self-reliance and independence.

Perrett also believes that "As we get older, we get the faces we deserve, because our dominant expressions create wrinkles in the face and these get lined in" (Sydney Morning Hearld). A person who is angry all the time will develop a permanently knotted brow and a perennial scowl, whereas a person who smiles a lot will develop crow's feet and deep laugh lines.

In the long run, the powerful effects of evolution and biology are no match match for a genuine connection: "The experiences you have with someone - friendship or more intimate - really affects how you see them," Perrett claims. "No matter what their face, the chemicals in our brain can lock us onto one person."

Check out Perrett's work here, at the Perception Lab website, where you can test your knowledge of face perception.

Related Story: The Science Of Beauty, Part III