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Zusammenfassung von Survival of the Prettiest

Name: Survival of the Prettiest
Rating: 4.5 (28 reviews)
Author: Nancy Etcoff

Nancy Etcoff

The Science of Beauty

4.5 (28 Bewertungen)

15 Min.

Kurz zusammengefasst

'Survival of the Prettiest' by Nancy Etcoff is a thought-provoking exploration of the biological and cultural factors that influence our ideas of beauty, from evolutionary psychology to the media.

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What’s in it for me? Dive into the evolution of beauty.

When Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was asked whether she had any regrets in life, she said that she wished she’d been prettier. A poignant statement, especially coming from one of the most accomplished, respected and admired women in history. Sad but true: people are obsessed with beauty. Why?

Well, we have a deep-seated biological drive to identify what is beautiful, and to desire it. You might be thinking: Hasn’t humanity moved away from such biological biases? But here’s the thing: even though we’ve become more aware of our biases, they still influence us; they are present from babyhood onward, and trying to ignore them often only serves to enforce them.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how even small babies have a preference for people classed as beautiful;
why small children are so cute; and
that beautiful people are more impatient than less beautiful people.

The sciences have neglected the study of beauty – a topic that deserves a closer look.

Modern-day science seems to have an answer for just about everything. However, it hasn’t had much to say on the subject of beauty.

In 1954, American psychologist Gardner Lindzey wrote the classic Handbook of Social Psychology, which became a standard reference book for the field. But on the subject of beauty, there’s only one entry, covering “physical factors.”

This aversion to the subject probably stems from failed attempts to find connections between physical attributes and behavior.

For example, Johann Kaspar Lavater’s 1772 Essays on Physiognomy tried to tie certain facial features to specific character traits – a project that modern science thoroughly debunked.

Furthermore, social scientists have historically shown very little regard for the subject of beauty.

The Standard Social Science Model (SSSM), which greatly influenced social sciences in the twentieth century, may be to blame for this disregard. The SSSM viewed the mind as a blank slate that is shaped exclusively by environmental factors and social conditioning; biology doesn’t come into play at all.

An influential book by Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth, makes arguments in exactly this vein. Examining the subject of beauty through a feminist lens, Wolf argues that beauty is a purely social construct, that it’s used to uphold a patriarchal society and generate profits for cosmetics companies.

But this is a limited view of beauty, since it focuses solely on modern perceptions. It omits an undeniable fact: the story of the formation of the human mind covers more than ten thousand years of evolutionary history.

But oversimplifications are typical of the SSSM model, which misguidedly separates biology and culture and ignores beauty’s true complexity.

Even when considering cosmetics, we can see this complexity at work.

Roger Bingham, a science reporter, makes a connection between biology and beauty rituals: He suggests that when women apply makeup to their cheeks to imitate a natural blush, they are signaling nubility, youth and sexual innocence – a mix of culturally and biologically valued attributes.

While there’s no denying that beauty has existed throughout history, the question remains: What is beauty exactly?

Beauty can’t be precisely defined, but people recognize it instinctually.

If someone asked you to define beauty, what would you say? When Aaron Spelling, the creator of Baywatch and Melrose Place, was asked this question, he said, “I can’t define it, but I know it when it walks into the room.”

That’s because our ability to recognize beauty is probably an inborn trait.

The ability to detect beauty is a survival mechanism.

Humans enter the world with many biological imperatives. For example, we immediately like sweet foods because they provide energy, which helps us survive. Same goes for our sense of beauty: it promotes the survival of our species.

Our innate response to beautiful babies is crucial. Their soft skin and hair, large eyes, petite noses and chubby cheeks inspire tender, protective feelings in us because we’ve evolved to recognize such traits as signs of helplessness and vulnerability.

What we universally perceive as beautiful is a result of evolution.

So, what exactly is it that we’re responding to when we find ourselves attracted to beauty? After all, humans don’t exactly have the colorful plumage of a peacock.

Studies show that humans likely have a universal set of sensual preferences informing them what beauty is.

Beauty comes with many social benefits.

If you’ve ever heard a story about a pretty woman charming her way out of a speeding ticket, then you’re familiar with some of the ways beauty can influence society.

Even research shows that the beautiful are seen as inherently good.

Combining the biological and social construct theories is the best way to combat our beauty biases.

As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But this raises a complicated question: who’s doing the beholding?

We see images of beautiful people every day. But who has selected these images and what prejudices do they reinforce? Biological beauty may be indifferent to race, but prejudice and class struggles are continually reflected in beauty trends and media images.

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Worum geht es in Survival of the Prettiest?

Survival of the Prettiest (1999) explores why people prefer things that are beautiful, revealing that our aesthetic tastes are not merely a matter of environment and culture. For instance, what we find beautiful has a lot to do with our innate desire for a strong and healthy child. And even three-month-old babies know beauty when they see it!

Bestes Zitat aus Survival of the Prettiest

No pair of happy young lovers… probably ever courted each other without many a blush. - Charles Darwin

—Nancy Etcoff

Wer Survival of the Prettiest lesen sollte

Social psychologists interested in scientific and feminist perspectives on beauty
Those who’ve wondered why an hourglass figure is thought to be attractive
Anthropologists who want to know more about our innate ability to detect beauty

Über den Autor

Nancy Etcoff is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She has a Master of Education degree from Harvard, a PhD in psychology from Boston University and has studied the brain and cognitive sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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