The neuroscience of beauty: What your brain finds beautiful – and how this shapes your thoughts (2024)

Much of what we find beautiful is highly subjective. However, experts who have interviewed large numbers of people and analysed some of the world’s most revered works of music, art and architecture have identified common attributes among the things we find beautiful. These universal qualities include simplicity, pattern, rhythm, symmetry, certain juxtapositions of colour, specific combinations of musical notes and physical elements arranged in certain ratios and geometries.

Neuroscientists also know a bit about what happens in our brains when we perceive beauty. In one study, volunteers inside a brain-imaging fMRI scanner were asked to rate pieces of visual art and music as either ‘beautiful’, ‘ugly’ or ‘indifferent’. When the participants experienced beautiful images or music, the researchers saw activity in a region of the brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, which plays a role in our feelings of reward and pleasure. Other studies have identified that part of the region known as the striatum – also involved in reward and judgment – responds to beautiful faces.

But why do we experience beauty at all? Does it have a purpose? The leading theory is that we’re hardwired to appreciate forms and patterns that are pervasive in nature, such as fractals, the Golden Ratio and symmetry, because they helped our ancestors survive.

A symmetrical face, for instance, suggests good health and strong genes in a potential mate. Our brains recognise plants that grow in fractal patterns as healthy and safe to eat, and make us wary of those that grow askew. Things that help us survive activate the reward centre in our brain, inducing feelings of pleasure and, in doing so, cause us to attach value to them.

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The neuroscience of beauty: What your brain finds beautiful – and how this shapes your thoughts (2024)

FAQs

The neuroscience of beauty: What your brain finds beautiful – and how this shapes your thoughts? ›

The leading theory is that we're hardwired to appreciate forms and patterns that are pervasive in nature, such as fractals, the Golden Ratio and symmetry, because they helped our ancestors survive. A symmetrical face, for instance, suggests good health and strong genes in a potential mate.

How does the brain respond to beauty? ›

A few studies have also indicated that, unlike other regions such as the orbitofrontal cortex, the amygdala may respond to attractiveness in a non-linear way — the reaction gets stronger the more beautiful or ugly a face is, and weaker for more neutral-looking visages.

What does science say about beauty? ›

Indicators of Personality. People were rated as more attractive when their features seemed to indicate socially valued traits such as kindness, contentedness, or cheerfulness. Faces shown smiling are almost always rated as more beautiful than neutral faces.

What is more attractive beauty or brain? ›

Intelligence. Intelligence has a beauty that physical beauty can only envy. And if you are intelligent enough, you can figure out ways of looking more beautiful physically. It's beauty vs brain!

What happens in human brain when we see a beautiful object? ›

Zeki found, by examining MRI images of his subjects' brains, that when people look at something they find beautiful, a portion in the front part of the brain called the medial orbito-frontal cortex “lights up.” That is, there's increased blood flow in this area. He believes it's a near-universal response to beauty.

What does beauty with brain or brains mean? ›

There's a common stereotype that people (men included) can either be attractive or smart, and not both, so "beauty with brain" means that their beauty does not detract from their intelligence.

What is the real definition of beauty with brain? ›

Beauty and brain means that the person they are referring to is both physically beautiful and mentally intelligent. Some people assume that if someone's beautiful then that means they may not be intelligent, and vice versa. But this phrase underlines that the individual does have both of these characteristics.

What truly defines beauty? ›

1. : the quality or group of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or the mind : loveliness.

Why do attractive people get treated better? ›

Conceptualized further, the phenomenon known as the “halo effect” suggests that attractive people are treated positively because they are perceived as being good or as possessing more socially desirable traits [9, 16–18]. Findings from research on attractiveness and trustworthiness generally support these contentions.

Do we look prettier than we think? ›

Psychology research shows that people, overall, tend to rate themselves as more physically attractive than strangers rate them. However, it seems that not everyone overestimates their attractiveness to an equal degree.

What makes a face attractive? ›

The concept of a “perfect” face leans heavily towards symmetry and balance. Typically, features such as larger eyes, a slender nose, pronounced cheekbones, plump lips, and overall harmonious proportions are deemed attractive. However, beauty is subjective and varies across cultures and individuals.

Why is beauty with brains rare? ›

Pretty obvious. If one in ten people are beautiful, and one in ten people are brainy, and the two qualities are unrelated, then just one in one hundred people will be both beautiful and brainy.

How does your brain decide what is beautiful? ›

So what part of our brain responds to beauty? The answer depends on whether we see beauty as a single category at all. Brain scientists who favor the idea of such a “beauty center” have hypothesized that it may live in the orbitofrontal cortex, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex or the insula.

Is there a science behind beauty? ›

These universal qualities include simplicity, pattern, rhythm, symmetry, certain juxtapositions of colour, specific combinations of musical notes and physical elements arranged in certain ratios and geometries. Neuroscientists also know a bit about what happens in our brains when we perceive beauty.

What is the science of beauty called? ›

aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in terms of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated.

What happens to your brain when you see someone beautiful? ›

The brain then produces elevated levels of dopamine, which plays a role in how people experience pleasure, and norepinephrine, resulting in a faster heart rate, restlessness and loss of appetite — all signs of attraction.

How would you describe beauty with brains? ›

“Beauty with brain” — Beauty: is the cuteness one observes when he/she sees someone, and the brain: is the knowledge/intelligence one has got in mind. The girl with both of these qualities is given a compliment, “beauty with brain”.

Do beauty and brains go together? ›

Beauty is considered as an external thing while the brain is internal , these both play a vital role in one's self-confident. If someone has these both B's in right proportion they know where to use beauty and brain. Nowadays these both B's have major contribution in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).

How does the brain find someone attractive? ›

Certain features of people's bodies, like facial symmetry and youthfulness, can play a role in physical attraction, but physical beauty is not the only component. Chemicals like sex hormones, pheromones, and neurotransmitters can also cause you to become physically attracted to someone.

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