Beauty perception: A historical and contemporary review

Abstract

The power of beauty influences many aspects of modern society and daily life-perceptions surrounding beauty date back to ancient philosophers and have evolved significantly throughout history. Still, there appear to be universally accepted physical characteristics of beauty that span different cultures. Human beings have an inherent ability to distinguish between attractive and nonattractive based on physical features that include facial averageness, symmetry, skin homogeneity, and sexual dimorphism (sex-typical characteristics). Although beauty standards have changed over time, youthful appearance has remained a permanent influential component of facial attractiveness. Each person's perception of beauty is influenced by environment and perceptual adaptation, an experience-based process. Perception of beauty varies by race and ethnicity. We discuss typical features of White, Asian, Black, and Latino beauty. We also review the effects of globalization on spreading foreign beauty culture and discuss how social media change traditional beauty stereotypes within the different races and ethnicities.