Beauty, Biology, and Society Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Beauty, Biology, and SocietyWhat is bang? How do human beings decide who is attractive and who is not? Society is full of messages congress us what is beautiful, but what are those definitions based on? Do we consciously decide whom we are attracted to, or is biology somehow involved? The issue of beauty and how we define it has been studied for centuries. Scholars from all fields of study have searched for the formula for beauty. Darwin in his book The Descent of Man wrote, It is certainly not true that there is in the mind of man any universal standard of beauty with respect to the human body. It is however, possible that certain tastes in the course of time befit inherited, though I have no evidence in favor of this belief. (1) Science has tried to look at beauty beyond the conscious level. It has tried to determine what roles biology plays in human attraction. Scientists have discovered that symmetry and scent play a role in defining human attraction. (3) precisely while th is can begin to explain beauty on the most basic of levels, what accounts for variations in the standard of beauty? The idea of beauty varies within contrastive societies and communities. Do these cultural preferences have a biological basis? What is the relationship between biology and society in relation to the idea of beauty? How do they relate to each other, and how do they differ? In particular what role does science play in the preference that many societies, (in particular South Asian, tocopherol Asian, and North American Cultures), have for fairer skin? Beauty is experienced through visual stimuli. The human beings intake of beauty is through both conscious and unconscious(p) decisions. (4) (4) The question is what motivates our unconscious decisions... ...t/html/astrid/femphers.html3) Evolutionary Psychology of Sexual Attractionhttps//cognet.mit.edu/login/?return_url=%2Flibrary%2Ferefs%2Fmitecs%2Fthornhill.html4) The Biological Purpose of Beautyhttp//www.beautyworlds.co m/beautybiological.htm5) The Role of Afrocentric Features in Person Perception judgement by Features and Categories , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology http//www.colorado.edu/iblair/Blar_features.pdf6) When Black Isnt Beautiful, , The Guardian.http//www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3899316,00.html7) Whats In a Colour?.http//www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/98-2/issue1/colourbar.html1/8) The Colour Bar of Beautyhttp//www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/98-2/issue1/colourbar.html1/9) Races and racialism http//serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web2/)%20http//www.geocities.com/pak_history/racism.html