The Riddle of Attractiveness: Looking for an ‘Aesthetic Sense’ Within the Hedonic Mind of the Beholders

Abstract

Beauty, my dear Sir, is not so much a quality of the object beheld, as an effect in him who beholds it. Spinoza, 1674Spinoza, (1901, Letter to Hugo Boxel Abstract Darwin conceived the theory of sexual selection in order to explain beauty in animal Kingdom. He hypothesised that most of the male ornaments had been developed to correspond to a female 'sense of beauty'. His successors developed a theory of mate choice in which the aesthetic sense was left out. The male sexual ornaments were considered as salient cues that evolved because they are indicators of males' fitness, which stimulate the female to mate. As a consequence "good genes" would spread to future generations. Such a perspective left no place for the males' appearance and displays as a source of pleasure for females. More recently, authors have considered that male traits might evolve because they make discrimination, stimulus recognition, memorability and learning easier. The winner is the most attractive not necessarily the 'strongest' male. Moreover, male traits might be favoured because they happen to fit an already existing bias in the female sensory system. Such a sensory exploitation determines the direction of a "runaway process". Today, the "aesthetic sense" is back, the neurosciences study the chemistry and circuitry that support pleasure in the brains of humans and animals; social psychology and animal cognition focus on emotions, categorisation and prototype used for mate choice. Animals and humans in order to make a decision, have to evaluate both

Processing bias: extending sensory drive to include efficacy and efficiency in information processing

“…Historically in evolutionary biology, the mechanisms that link stimulus and behavior have been modeled using simplified frameworks that ignore the complexity of brain processes [112]. This simplified approach has been motivated possibly by a fear of anthropomorphism, but also because brain processes were once considered elusive and unpredictable (but see [113,114]).…”

How live stream content types impact viewers’ support behaviors? Mediational analysis on psychological and social gratifications

“…Second, live stream viewers’ affective and social integrative gratifications increased when they were watching beauty influencers. Prior studies have well-documented the hedonic value derived from esthetic appreciation, especially when human faces and bodies are involved ( Kreutzer and Aebischer, 2015 ; Swami et al, 2018 ). Moreover, search costs can be economized and sense of loneliness can be mitigated if it is easy to find discussants, with whom live stream viewers are able to share thoughts and feelings about a good-looking streamer, which explains why people happen to favor the most popular stars from an economic perspective ( Adler, 1985 ).…”

Estimation of Facial Attractiveness as Biomarker of Ovulation Using Facial Photogrammetry during Phases of Female Sexual Cycle

“…In this study, photogrammetry was applied in order to evaluate facial attractiveness of females during menstruation and ovulation phases of their sexual cycles. This is to ascertain whether facial beauty/attractiveness maybe deduced as an indicator for ovulation; since unlike other animals that has visible signs of ovulation [14,15], visible indicators of ovulation is not fully elucidated. Considering the preference of the males which tilts towards the facial picture during the ovulatory phase in this study, it was suggested that enhanced facial beauty/attractiveness could be a biomarker of ovulation as there was positive significant correlation of facial proportions of the subjects during the various phases of their sexual cycle.…”

“…Reports suggest that females are more attractive in the fertile phase of their sexual cycle [12,13]: in animals; redness of waist, colourful plumes,etc. are biomarker of ovulation that makes them attractive as well as makes mating possible [14,15]. In humans reliable indicators of ovulation is not fully explained.…”