Aesthetic Delusions: An Investigation into the Role of Rapid Visual Adaptation in Aesthetic Practice

Abstract

Background To date, the process of adaptation in the setting of aesthetic medicine has not been investigated. The combination of complex advanced feedback in the current intense social media milieu, in conjunction with easily accessible and effective aesthetic treatments, has produced pockets of overtreated patients and over-zealous practitioners. We examine whether aesthetic assessments of attractiveness and what appears natural can be distorted by the cognitive process of adaptation. Methods Forty-eight female participants were exposed to photographs of female faces in whom lip fullness had been strongly under- or over-exaggerated, while remaining within the bounds of natural appearing lips. Before and after evaluation of the exaggerated images, participants were asked to rate an alternative set of faces in terms of attractiveness (reflecting direct assessment of effective beauty impression) and naturalness (reflecting indirect assessment of beauty norms). The evaluation set consisted of six base faces that had been digitally altered to create a systematically varying 11 step set of lip sizes from extremely thin, to the original version, to very full. Results Second-order polynomial fits indicated clear shifts of the subjects’ facial aesthetic assessments towards the specific lip fullness of the adaptors. In contrast, such adaptions were not found for ratings of face naturalness. In contrast to research demonstrating mathematical foundations and unchanging rules governing perceptions of beauty, we show that simple viewing of exaggerated feature morphologies can rapidly result in recalibration of a person’s assessment of attractiveness. Conclusion This paper provides evidence that facial attractiveness is fluid, and that there are psychological mechanisms that cause an aesthetic bias. Over-exposure to exaggerated features can lead to significant changes to a person’s ideas of attractiveness.

Photo-Editing Software and the Mere Exposure Effect in Dermatology and Aesthetics

“…4 Emerging dermatologic evidence and anecdotal experience suggests that repeated rapid imagery exposures, as would be seen in Instagram, may be able to retrain our brains to redefine what we perceive as attractive through visual adaptation . 5 Now, after short exposures to exaggerated facial features (e.g., overfilled lips, overly chiseled jawlines), our patients may actually unconsciously recalibrate their brains. After exposure, they might appreciate unnatural imagery as more attractive than their previous preferences and what is anatomically within the range of normal.…”

The perception bias of aesthetic providers

“…This malleability of visual systems, known as visual facial adaptation, has been investigated in a recent study by Goldie et al 22 The study demonstrated how the perception of attractiveness of different lip sizes may be shifted by an average of 20% toward larger lips after a short exposure of a face with very large lips. 22 This temporary but long-lasting visual adaptation is a subconscious process which can lead to more extreme provider bias where sub-groups can become over-treated and their parameters of attractiveness are inaccessible to the population as a whole.…”

“…The malleability of the visual systems, which normally helps us to adapt and appreciate the local aesthetic norms also presents a potential for error in aesthetic practice as technological image manipulation or emersion among over‐treated faces can create a skewed and extreme visual diet which can profoundly effect the practitioners’ ability to achieve natural and beautiful outcomes. This malleability of visual systems, known as visual facial adaptation, has been investigated in a recent study by Goldie et al 22 The study demonstrated how the perception of attractiveness of different lip sizes may be shifted by an average of 20% toward larger lips after a short exposure of a face with very large lips 22 . This temporary but long‐lasting visual adaptation is a subconscious process which can lead to more extreme provider bias where sub‐groups can become over‐treated and their parameters of attractiveness are inaccessible to the population as a whole.…”