Definition of Beauty
There are many definitions of beauty. At MBA, in order to have a clearer picture of what we are dealing with, we have redefined beauty by combining the best of the previous definitions, (particularly those of the philosopher George Santayana, who believed that beauty is “… pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing.”) and then expanding the result to encompass a more scientific view and approach to the definition. The new definition is as follows:
BEAUTY: That quality or combination of qualities (or characteristics) in something that evoke in the perceiver a combination of strong positive emotion and a high degree of attraction.
WHERE: The “combination of strong positive emotion and a high degree of attraction” is known as the “Beauty Response”.
AND: Any “Quality” which evokes the “Beauty Response” is said to be a “Beautiful Quality“. The stronger or more intense the evoked beauty response is, then the more beautiful that quality is said to be.
Similarly any entity which contains a beautiful quality or qualities may be said to be beautiful, at least in part. The more of these beautiful qualities that the entity contains and/or the more beautiful these qualities are, then the more beautiful that entity itself is perceived to be.
Personal Beauty and Facial Beauty
Personal Beauty
When we say someone is beautiful we of course can be talking about either inner beauty or physical beauty. However to be honest, if we are told that someone is beautiful, our first instinct, right or wrong, is generally to assume that they are physically beautiful.
Similarly when we discuss physical beauty, we can be discussing the physical image as a whole, or individual parts as the legs, torso, face, etc.
Again though, to be frank, if we are told that someone is beautiful our first and most immediate response is to assume that they have a beautiful face. Indeed if we assume that they have a beautiful face, we frequently will also assume that they have an attractive body. However we first associate the word beautiful with their face.
In general, then the personal beauty is generally assumed to imply facial beauty.
Definition of Facial Beauty
Definition of Facial Beauty
Facial Beauty: That quality or combination of qualities (or characteristics)in a face that evoke in the perceiver, a combination of strong positive emotion and a high degree of attraction.
WHERE: The “combination of strong positive emotion and a high degree of attraction”is known as the “Beauty Response”.
AND: Qualities that evoke the “Beauty Response” are said to be “Beautiful“.
The Qualities of a Face
The visual perception of any object, including the face, is a function offour qualities.These qualities can be placed into four categories. These Categories are:
- COLOR
- TEXTURE
- SIZE
- FORM (OR SHAPE)
The more these four qualities evoke the “Beauty Response”, the more beautiful an object will look.
The Known Qualities Of A Beautiful Face
Interestingly, we have known for millennia what the first (3) of the (4) preferred or most beautiful qualities are, for the face. Specifically, studies show that most people from most cultures prefer:
COLOR – brown – various shades
TEXTURE – smooth
SIZE – height 1/7 to 1/8 the height of the body
In fact, they find that these are the qualities of color, texture and size that a face must have to be judged as “beautiful”.
So if you have these specific qualities – you are off to a very good start.
In fact, cosmetic makeup has for centuries been used to improve the color and texture of the face and make those qualities more “beautiful”.
Similarly, clothing and acccessories such as hats, as well as hair styles, have helped give the illusion of a more pleasing facial size.
The Unknown Qualities of the Beautiful Face
The unknown qualities of the beautiful face
Unfortunately, however, the ideal “FORM (OR SHAPE)“- that quality which has the most profound effect on a face’s overall attractiveness, has never been clearly defined or understood.
If we knew the perfect “Form” of the face – we could truly create the perfect face.
So for the past several millenia the search for perfect beauty has really been the search for the perfect “Form” of facial beauty.