A thing of beauty is a joy forever – John Keats
The study of beauty is as old as human civilization. This discipline is given the name “Aesthetics”. The mind’s eye is drawn to beauty. The appreciation of beautiful people, things or places is almost instantaneous. Scientific studies have demonstrated that the human brain recognizes a beautiful object, face, person in less than one second. Yet the definition of beauty is something that escapes us. The words to describe this are illusive. While we instinctively know what appeals to our own sense of beauty — we know it when we see it — defining what determines attractiveness is not always easy. In frustration, we often give up and claim that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Surprisingly, people from a variety of different ages, races and cultures agree on what is and isn’t beautiful.
Two common components of the interpretation of beauty are facial symmetry or proportion and smoothness of skin. Although true facial symmetry is very rare, the more symmetrical the features the more beauty is perceived. This beautiful face demonstrates the classic features of beauty that include facial symmetry and smoothness of skin (see fig. 1 in full article). The photo of a beautiful face demonstrates the symmetry of the eyes and central face. Other details of the beautiful face narrow the scope of our visual inspection such as eye shape and width, brow position and cheeks. This central area of the face while only a small percentage of the total size, control the vast majority of attention. Moving downward we then notice the nose, lips jawline and neck. Smooth flowing lines without breaks or irregularities are a hallmark of beautiful faces.
