Attractive Features

Intro:

The face is often seen as the mirror of the soul, reflecting who we are. While the essence of a person can't be fully conveyed, a glimpse of their face can sometimes offer a hint of judgment. Sometimes it's just the muscles and facial features. But sometimes they can reveal a great deal about one's state of mind. Like the smile lines or the natural lines of the face.

Why The Face Hold Power :

From infancy, humans are hardwired to recognize faces. A skull is vital for social interaction. The face becomes a canvas for emotions, conveying joy, sadness, anger, and more with remarkable clarity. This innate ability to decipher facial expressions forms the foundation of empathy, facilitating deep connections with others.

Decoding facial features:

Every feature of the face carries significance. Eyes, often termed as windows of the mind, reveal much about a person's emotional state. The mouth, through smiles or frowns, offers insight into mood and intention. Understanding these cues enhances interpersonal understanding and communication.

VISUAL WEIGHT:

There is a misconception about visual weight that it is synonymous with body fat/muscle mass. Instead, visual weight tells us how people look at your face.

Like well-defined jawline, bigger eyes, and prominent cheekbones can both alter the front and side profile view. contributing to a higher visual weight as a very salient feature. Less prominent, softer, and flatter features like smaller eyes, smaller and shorter nose, smaller mouth and lips, and less-defined bone structure contribute to a low visual weight especially when it is on a bigger face. This is according to Pamela Gordon (2019), Art matters: A contemporary approach to art appreciation. Oxford University Press.

BEAUTY SPOT :

A mole is often referred to as a beauty spot when located in aesthetically pleasing positions on the body. From a dermatological perspective, a mole, or nevus, is a cluster of pigmented cells known as melanocytes. And they can form at birth or even later in life due to hormonal changes and sun exposure.

So do they contribute to enhancing beauty or do they make you look less attractive?

The answer is, it depends. A tiny mole located at the areas like the lip, chin, and cheek can accentuate the natural facial features and symmetry. For example, Marilyn Monroe the iconic actress, and the mole located just about her lips draw attention to her beautiful lips. But it completely depends on the size and quantity of the mole. Like larger moles in a greater quantity cannot draw attention to the good part of the face. But still can ruin face symmetry.

FACIAL ROBUSTICITY:

Facial robusticity, is actually a biological term. It helps to get a chiseled look by removing buccal fat. Feng. X and Peng, G (2022). Female facial attractiveness and its relation to facial characteristics evidence from eye movement study. Frontiers in psychology is one of the multiple studies that were done. Shows that lots of definition along the cheekbones and jawline can detract from facial attractiveness. So buccal fat removal can give the face a more chiseled and contoured look. It makes the face slim and angular. And overall enhances the facial structure. Contoured cheekbones or strong jawline may contribute to a more dominant look and can symbolize empowerment.

But why we judge people by their facial features:

We often judge people by facial features due to evolutionary psychology. We subconsciously associate certain traits with social interaction. This instinctive process can influence our perceptions, leading to snap judgments about personality, trustworthiness and competence based on someone's appearance. One of the main reasons is Facial Feedback Hypothesis. Facial Feedback Hypothesis tells us, the particular face expression which we have at a particular time influences our emotional state. That means if you are angry, that’s because you’re frowning or making an angry face. But at the same time if you start smiling, even keeping a pen in your teeth, that will force you to smile . Your brain will interpret the particular expression that is on your face. And on the other hand if you are really happy and you are smiling, that’s because your brain is releasing happy chemicals like dopamine, serotonin. Skeletal muscle (which are organized muscle fibers, or simply the muscles which help our skeleton to move) feedback from facial expression plays a causal role in regulating emotional behavior. So our emotional experience can be influenced by facial movements. And emotion is the experience of changes in our facial muscles. So when we are happy, we show it by smiling. Another reason for trying to understand a person is Cognitive psychology, that is a branch of psychology that deals with reasoning, remembering and how people think. It is a study of how people perceive various shapes, and how they learn language. It is the study of mental processes and complex behaviors. The most prevalent metaphor within cognitive psychology is that the human mind is the ‘command and control system’ of our body, that means it is a biological computer. So in our daily life as a social being when we have to communicate we try to understand the shapes, the sounds. Like broad cheekbones are associated with aggression, rebellious tendencies and power. And a person with broad cheekbones looks powerful and our brain can interpret that subconsciously. Actually it is not very new for human beings, it is in our genetics. Human brain developed for understanding natural phenomena and social behaviors. Anthropology, the study of human societies, cultures, and their development tell us about cognitive learning or the process of knowing.

Although understanding human behavior fully is a very complex and kind of impossible thing. It is like a game of chess, without knowing the rules, but only watching someone playing the game. Ultimately, facial features such as high cheekbones, full lips and defined jawline are often subconsciously related with health, youth and trustworthiness. But attractiveness is diverse and subjective. Let’s be assertive in our efforts to create a world where everyone is treated fairly and equally, regardless of their physical appearance.