After centuries of investigations, researchers have finally provided us with the first scientific definition of beauty. The current research has confirmed the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but investigators have also managed to understand what are the criteria that people use when establishing whether a person is beautiful or not.
Women and men spend all their resources on beauty products that guarantee to improve their physical traits. Scientists, however, are of a different opinion; they believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder and no two persons will ever agree on one person’s beauty.
The old saying was recently verified with the help of a thorough investigation involving the participation of 35,000 visitors, who have entered the website ‘Test My Brain’. In addition, 547 pairs of identical twins and 214 pairs of non-identical twins have been co-opted for the current experiment.
Researchers analyzed the facial traits of the twin groups and compared them with the answers provided by the 35,000 web visitors. The latter took part in an online survey where they were asked to name their facial preferences and to rate 98 men and 102 female participants.
At the end of the research, scientists wanted to look at the data and draw conclusions. Much to their surprise, it was almost impossible to make suppositions due to the large number of opinions. To be more specific, two individuals agreed that a person was beautiful on 48 percent of the cases and disagreed in 52 percent of the situations.
Judging from the answers they have provided, it is safe to say that beauty is based primarily on subjective opinions and not on genetics. Scientists agree that there are certain beauty standards that are generally acknowledged, but they are rarely accepted by people who do not work in the fashion or entertainment industry.
Most of the times, people tend to assess a person’s beauty, based on their personal preferences and their past experiences. Some people will use their past experience and the social environment in which they live to label a person as attractive or unattractive. Recollections of first love experiences play a major role in determining whether a person is beautiful or not, researchers have concluded.
Image source: www.bbci.co.uk