There's scientific truth behind the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". (Photo : Flickr)
A new study reveals evidence how the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" also involves a scientific truth with new research.
In this new study that involves twins, researchers found out that the reason why there is a difference in opinion when it comes to considering someone is beautiful or not, is because of personal experiences even between two genetically similar people.
However, there are many physical attributes like facial symmetry that most people find attractive or not, some significant points of disagreement are also noted in ths study. In this new study, scientists investigate what are the origins of these individual preferences by studying twins, where the team can identify the crucial roles of genetic and environmental factors in their preferences.
According to co-author of the study Laura Germine from the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University along with Jeremy Wilmer from the Wellesley College carried out a face preference survey of more than 35,000 volunteers for an online test on their website.
When they gathered enough data from this analysis, the researchers developed another efficient test to determine the participants' individual face preferences. This data was then applied to 547 pairs of identical twins and 214 pairs of fraternal twins of the same gender where they were asked to rate the attractiveness of 200 faces.
Results revealed that each individual's perception of beauty is based on their personal experiences and not dictated by their genetic makeup.
Similar prior studies that involve twins and families had participants that possess the same genetic traits that involve personality, interests and skills however, these studies examined more of face recognition instead of face preference.
Germine explains how different types of environment are crucial for an individual which do not necessarily mean that they are the same environments that were shared while growing up in the same family, but more importance is placed into subtle individual experiences. Factors that play a big role in facial preferences are unique experiences with own set of friends along with social media.
Researchers also note that these preference factors are also not about the neighborhood one lives in or school one went to or socioeconomic status of their parents but facial preference is about unique encounters involving social interactions and exposure to such faces in social media or even based on the face of the one's first love.
Ultimately, researchers believe that these findings can provide new insight about the evolution of the social brain where they can study essential environmental factors and other origins of human preferences such as music and even pets.This new study is published in the journal Current Biology.
