Applying the Perception of Beauty to Our Lives

Research on the perception of beauty across cultures can be applied to people’s everyday lives by giving us a better understanding of cultures unlike our own. It is important to have an understanding of other cultures so that when we are around people of these cultures, we respect them and do not act in any way to offend them. As the Indian culture is becoming more and more popular in the western media with Bollywood movies and dances, it is important for the western society to be able to have a sense of respect for this entertainment. Westerners may be able to see why the entertainment is perceived as beautiful in the Indian culture and they may even be able to appreciate it. The same can be said for America’s culture influencing India. Even though this has been going on for a while, the Indian culture can learn to appreciate America’s perception of beauty. Appreciation for both cultures makes one better rounded and in my eyes, only has benefits.

It is important to learn about other people’s cultures because I realized how much of the world is not seen through one who lives without the knowledge of the way others live. One who does not have an understanding of other cultures may be strongly close-minded. I have now realized how materialistic the western culture is, and how down-to-earth Indian culture may be. Although I did not think of myself as judgmental before researching, I will continue to not be judgmental toward people of different cultures. Even though I cannot change the way the media is, I can now change the way I perceive others. I believe that although beauty can be seen all around externally, it really comes from within.

Further Research in the Area of Perceiving Beauty

I think that research on the topic of perceiving beauty should focus more on comparing the people of India’s perception of beauty to other cultures’ perception of beauty, including more research on the western culture. I did not find as much information on this topic as I expected to. I thought that because the western society and India are two major places of interest and both encompass visual beauty, I would be overwhelmed with information, however this was not the case. India’s culture is becoming more popular in the media of the western world, so I thought I would easily be able to compare and contrast these two cultures in the area of perceiving beauty. It would be interesting to obtain results from an experiment that involved people of Indian decent living in western societies and westerners living in Indian culture for an extended period of time. The comparison of these results may be able to give insight on how out-groups develop and adapt to perceive beauty in other cultures. This may be done with various cultures as well as the western culture and Indian culture. The research could also go further to explore how people of a culture perceive beauty of non-living things. These may include monuments, buildings, works of art, scenery, aspects of religion, songs, poems, etc. This can be done within cultures and between cultures. It is important for research to continue because perception is an in-depth concept of psychology that is difficult to explain individually. If groups of people participate in studies, we will have a better understanding of how beauty, among other things, is perceived.

Cultural Differences in Perception of Beauty

While there are many similarities to discuss in the perception of beauty across cultures, there seem to be more differences. To begin comparing western and Indian cultures, we can start with the location. King (2005) states, "what is normal, is defined by the community in which we live." People, especially Americans, tend to exhibit ethnocentrism, or the viewing of one's own culture's behaviors and beliefs as correct. In western societies, being thin is perceived as beautiful. The media is persistent in portraying skinny celebrities and fashion models, but as soon as a typically thin celebrity gains a noticeable amount of weight, she is automatically thought to be pregnant, lazy, or sick. Westerners believe that the more one weighs, the less socioeconomic status they posses, and the less healthy they are (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). There is a great deal of pressure in western societies to be thin. This however, is untrue in Indian cultures. Indians often see thinness as unhealthy and unattractive. To Indians, thinness is associated with illness and sometimes death. Instead, they prefer curves. Young and adolescent girls are often fed high-calorie diets to gain weight in order to become more attractive in parts of India (King, 2005).

Westerners often perceive beauty and attractiveness through a limited amount of clothes. Advertisements illustrate this through the sight of bare tanned legs, a bare stomach, etc. Westerners seem to be attracted to bare skin and the body, instead of the look of clothes. On the other hand, Indians generally prefer to be covered up. They wear long sheaths called Saris of brightly colored materials. The bright colors, patterns, and the type of fabric are what they perceive to be beautiful. This also indicates wealth (Jones, 2004).

According to the Oprah Winfrey special on Beauty Secrets from Around the World, Indian women are experts at many homemade remedies to make their skin and hair more attractive. Turmeric is a popular herb used in India that is known to enhance the skin (Winfrey, 2008).

A custom in India is for married women to wear a bindi on their forehead when they get married. These days, a bindi may be worn for decorative purposes, as well. It is also likely for Indian women to have facial piercings, usually on the nose. However, in America, it is usually frowned upon for people to have piercings or any type of body art. In addition, it is typically difficult for one with visible piercings or tattoos to be hired for a job, although it is slowly "working their way through suburbia" (Balderrama, 2009).

Time also affects how cultures perceive beauty. Only a few centuries ago, in western societies, women weighed more and were considered beautiful. Consider the painting, "Venus of Urbino," done in 1538 by Titian. This painting depicts a nude, plump woman who was considered beautiful in her day. Now, if one has the slightest bit of unwanted skin, he or she may go to great lengths to remove this, either by not eating, or by going through a cosmetic procedure to fix this. It is estimated that one in four women have had a type of eating disorder in America, whether it is minute or extreme. In 2004, over 11.9 million cosmetic procedures were performed (American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, as cited by Kenrick et al., 2007). This is most likely due to the media portraying thin celebrities who may be role models. To Indians, time has transitioned the purpose of the bindi. The bindi used to be only for traditional purposes, but now it may be worn for decoration. Many styles and colors of the bindi exist today for Indians of all ages.

Even though cultures differ, they may also influence each other. For example, the Indian culture has practiced a cultural dance called Bharatanatyam for centuries. Each individual movement in this dance has a meaning that is beautiful to those who understand it. Indians have introduced the western society to this dance. We know it as Bollywood. It is growing more popular as it is seen in movies, such as Slumdog Millionaire, and on popular television shows, such as So You Think You Can Dance. People from non-Indian cultures are able to learn and perform it while wearing the proper apparel.

Westerners also influence Indians in many ways. One example of this is that Indians strive to have lighter skin, similar to that of westerners. They associate light skin with status and class. White skin symbolizes beauty and purity (Arif, cited as Li, Min, Belk, Kimura, & Bahl, 2008). Li et al (2008) performed a study to analyze skin whitening and lightening product advertisements in India. Evidence found indicates that the Indian models in these advertisements tended to have lighter skin and features than the rest of their culture. This implies that the models in the advertisements are whom other people of their culture attempt to resemble in terms of skin color.

These cultural differences are just a few of the many that exist today between western and Indian societies. It is safe to say that due to they way people from different areas perceive beauty, the perception is culturally learned (King, 2005).

References:

Balderrama, Anthony (2009). Piercings, Tattoos, and Mohawks at Work. MSN Career Builder. Retrieved from: http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2065-Workplace-Issues-Piercings-Tattoos-and-Mohawks-at-Work/

Jones, Dorothy (2004). The eloquent sari. The Journal of Cloth and Culture, 2(1) 52-63. Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxytu.researchport.umd.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=8&hid=101&sid=2dfd0678-5bd0-4570-93a4-e34a3833e52d%40sessionmgr112

Kenrick, D. T., Neuberg, S. L., & Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

King, Bruce M. (2005). Human Sexuality Today (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Li, Eric P. H., Min, Hyun Jeong, Belk, Russell W., Kimura, Junko, & Bahl, Shalini (2008) Skin lightening and beauty in four asian cultures. Advances in Consumer Research, 35. Retrieved from:http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v35/naacr_vol35_273.pdf

Winfrey, Oprah (2008). Beauty Secrets From Around the World. Retrieved from: http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081024_tows_beauty/8

Cultural Similarities in Beauty Perception

Universally, a few aspects of beauty are perceived similarly. The most widely researched beauty component seems to include symmetry. Bodily symmetry is the degree to which both sides of a body are equivalent. This is perceived as attractive throughout western and Indian cultures, as well as throughout other cultures from the results of extensive research. For example, Rhodes, Proffitt, Grady, and Sumich (1998) found that a higher level of symmetry in a face increases participants' ratings of its attractiveness. Also, Langlois and Roggman (1990) suggest that people from many cultures give consistency in their views of symmetrical faces being attractive. An experiment performed by Gangestad and Thornhill (as cited by Kenrick, Neuberg, and Cialdini, 2007), concluded that people with high degrees of symmetry even behaved differently than those with lower symmetry. They began participating in sexual behaviors earlier and they had more partners. The reason for this is because symmetry contributes to attractiveness, which leads to being desirable. This suggests that symmetry is perceived universally as biologically adaptive, indicating that one is attracted to a mate with healthy, appealing genes to produce offspring more fit to survive (Langlois & Roggman, 1990; Kenrick et al., 2007). It is said that the higher the symmetry, the higher the chance is of a strong immune system (Shiraev & Levy, 2010; Feng, 2002). Health is another universally accepted aspect of beauty, as most people relate health with surviving. Also, to go along with the biology of beauty, research suggests that universally, people tend to choose mates who posses a similar level of attractiveness (Kenrick et al, 2007).

Across cultures, expressions and behaviors can alter one's beauty. Positive facial expressions, gestures, and behaviors such as smiling, laughing, and helping can increase one's perception of beauty of another (Zebrowitz & Rhodes, as cited in Kenrick et al., 2007). When seeking relationships with others, people want a positive experience. These impressions may be cues to their internal affect.

The mere exposure effect is seen throughout cultures. The mere exposure effect states that the more frequently one is presented with a stimulus, the more positive one will feel about it. This may be the reason why celebrities, popular songs, paintings, etc. are perceived as beautiful. To focus on celebrities, they most likely have a high degree of symmetry in their appearance, and the fact that they are seen time after time in the media increases their chances of one perceiving them to be beautiful. In western societies, Angelina Jolie is considered beautiful. It may be because she is frequently portrayed positively in the media. In India, Aishwarya Rai is a reoccurring symbol of beauty. She is frequently seen and is a former Miss World of 1994.

This will be broken down in the discussion pertaining to differences among cultures, but generally speaking, across cultures women who are perceived to be the most beautiful by men are those with a smaller waist and larger hips because they are perceived to be more fertile and posses good health (Singh, as cited in Kenrick et al., 2007; Feng, 2002). In western societies and in India, most people are somewhat proportionate in height and weight, but this will be discussed in further detail.

A similarity specific to western and Indian cultures includes the portrayal of culturally beautiful women in both societies modeling in subordinate poses in magazines of their own cultures (Griffin, Vismanath, & Schwartz, cited as Frith, Shaw, & Cheng, 2005). These models tend to advertise in areas that their culture sees as acceptable, and they may be even more accepted because they are perceived as beautiful in their cultures.

References:

Feng, Charles (2002). Looking good: the psychology and biology of beauty. Journal of Young Investigators, 6.

Frith, Katherine, Shaw, Pink, & Cheng, Hong (2005). The connection of beauty: a cross-cultural analysis of women's magazine advertising. Journal of Communication, Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy-tu.researchport.umd.edu/ehost/detail?vid=9&hid=103&sid=f3036a9d-1c1e-4e51-900c-fc359c03d02d%40sessionmgr113

Kenrick, D. T., Neuberg, S. L., & Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Langlois, Judith H., & Roggman, Lori A. (1990). Attractive faces are only average. Association for Psychological Society, 1(2) 115-121.

Rhodes, Gillian, Proffitt, Fiona, Grady, Jonathon M., & Sumich, Alex (1998). Facial symmetry and the perception of beauty. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5(4), 659-669. Retrieved from http://www.psychonomic.org/backissues/2139/R403.pdf

Shiraev, Eric B., & Levy, David A. (2010). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

What is Beauty?

The perception of beauty is an intriguing concept that is not easily defined for several reasons. When simply typing the word "beauty" into a search engine, endless links become available, from the history of beauty, to the titles of popular songs, to photos of scenic places, to tips on how to become more beautiful. We hear the word beauty more than we realize each day. Do the sayings, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and "beauty is only skin deep" sound familiar? These phrases have been around for a long time, yet one may not take the time to actually let the thoughts sink in. A simple dictionary definition of beauty states that it is "a quality that provides pleasure to the mind or senses" (Beauty, n.d.). Of course, beauty is so much more than that. Although beauty may be felt with all of the senses, it is commonly associated with sight and it also typically relates to positive descriptive characteristics or emotions. Everyone perceives beauty differently. What one may see as beautiful, another may see as ugly or unappealing. Subconsciously, we go through life perceiving beauty in a similar way that the culture we belong to does. Everyone has aesthetic experiences, or feelings of pleasure evoked by stimuli that are perceived as nice, attractive, rewarding, or beautiful, but the way we appreciate them differs across individuals and across cultures (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). For example, Westerners comprehend beautiful stimuli and occurrences in a manner different than those of Indian culture. Although much research has been done contrasting the two cultures, a few similarities have also been found. Sometimes, one culture can influence the other culture as well in perceiving beauty.

Researchers have been studying the perception of beauty across cultures for centuries. They attempt to answer many questions about this topic, some simple, yet some difficult. Researchers want to know what aspects make one beautiful. To further this question, they ask why certain things are perceived as beautiful. They attempt to answer why some people see things as beautiful, but others do not. One way to answer these questions is by comparing two or more cultural groups– the western culture and the Indian culture.

References:

Beauty. (n.d.) in The Free Online Dictionary. Retrieved from: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/beauty

Shiraev, Eric B., & Levy, David A. (2010). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.