Dr. Grywacz’s (2019) study “Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder or an Objective Truth? A Neuroscientific Answer” concluded that there are both evolutionary-based objective and learned subjective forces that determine beauty. The study found a sound argument for objectivity rooted in the processing fluency theory postulating that the more fluently one can perceive something the more positive their aesthetic response is. During the pre-Enlightenment era, the concept that beauty was purely objective and mathematical prevailed. However, as time and society advanced a greater emphasis was placed on individuality and the subjective view gained popularity. Continuing this trend, our modern society had turned beauty into an almost purely subjective topic. We as a society are trying to push past the objective factors that some cultures deem are important in determining beauty such as a fair complexion or a fit body. The idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is more relevant than ever; however, is there more than just visually based stimuli that add to our perception of beauty? Or is beauty in the eye, nose, and ear of the beholder too?
In “Attractiveness Is Multimodal: Beauty Is Also in the Nose and Ear of the Beholder” published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology, Groyecka (2017) delves into this exact topic. It turns out that beauty may be more objective than society would like to believe. Your individual construct of beauty is built by the modalities of vision, olfaction (scent), and audition (voice). Visually, humans prefer a high degree of sexual dimorphism and symmetry. Olfactory cues allow one to assess sex, fertility, health, age, personality, and genetic compatibility to name a few. Lastly, audition allows one to process one’s voice to determine masculinity/femininity. These three key modalities build on each other to help form your first impression (builds your percept) of the beauty of another person becoming a powerful predictor for the attraction you feel towards someone. There is also an evolutionary backing to these findings since each modality represents an adaptation that gives you a unique property about an individual. When combined, our senses can quickly create a much more complete understanding of an approaching stimulus when compared to using only one modality. Additionally, brain imaging studies revealed that there is an amplified neural response when the three modalities are activated simultaneously when compared to the sum of the response of each individual modality. Findings also show that in the complete absence of a visual stimulus, an attractive voice and pleasant odor increase prosocial behavior increasing your view on the other person’s reproductive and socioeconomic success. A point for subjectivity is made too however since men and women ascribe differing amounts of importance to traits when assessing a mate. Therefore, everyone’s individual construct of beauty is different due to preference.
Based on these findings, I believe it is safe to say that there is more to beauty than our traditional view of it would lead us to believe. Building on Dr. Grywacz’s (2019) and Groyecka’s (2017) findings, there is a strong argument in support of the objective view since the visual, olfactory, and auditory factors we prefer are rooted in evolution. However, one can not underestimate the subjective forces in determining beauty since what a society deems beautiful can only have that meaning if we ascribe it. By this I mean that beauty is as much a social construct that we can mold, learn, and build as it is an innate thing that humans seek out. For further studies, it would be interesting to see how the processing fluency theory would relate to a multimodal assessment. Naturally, it would make sense that a percept built multimodally (versus unimodally i.e. vision) would help you perceive something even more fluently. I hypothesize that if Dr. Grywacz’s analysis were applied to Groyecka’s (2017) study, one would find a greater aesthetic response towards an individual if they were perceived multimodally versus unimodally.
(I accidentally unpublished this so I had to republish it)
Works Cited
Aleem, H., Pombo, M., Correa-Herran, I., & Grzywacz, N. M. (2019). Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder or an Objective Truth? A Neuroscientific Answer. Springer Series on Bio- and Neurosystems Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity, 101-110. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-24326-5_11
Groyecka, A., Pisanski, K., Sorokowska, A., Havlíček, J., Karwowski, M., Puts, D., Roberts, S.C., Sorokowski, P. (2017). Attractiveness Is Multimodal: Beauty Is Also in the Nose and Ear of the Beholder. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00778
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