Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
The malleability of beauty: perceptual adaptation
Mayra B C Maymone1, Melissa Laughter2, Jeffrey Dover3
1Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Abstract:
Beauty has many facets, and research shows that there are many biologic, psychologic, cultural, and social aspects that influence how beauty and attractiveness are perceived. Beauty preferences are, in part, an effect of a rudimentary cognitive process that appears quite early in life, with humans having a seemingly automatic ability to categorize a person as beautiful or not. This instantaneous capability of human beauty categorization is partially determined by a function of physical features, such as facial averageness, symmetry, and skin homogeneity. For decades, the mass media platform has introduced certain criteria to what establishes beauty, and more recently, social media, instant photo sharing, and editing apps have further influenced how society adapts to beauty principles.
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