Photo filters such as Facetune, Dog filters, Mei Tu Xiu Xiu, have drawn backlash from the body positivity movement. Filters have been blamed for the advancing anxiety amongst teenagers. Ironically, your pretty filters are more likely to get you fewer likes. So why do we post pretty-fied Instagrams of ourselves to get flame emojis?🔥
I will sidestep from the trite explanation of social acceptance/industry marketing and explore the biological side of it.
Why the heck are we drawn to beauty? Maybe if we could understand ‘why’, we can steer ourselves away from this alluring trap and acknowledge the difficulties that lay ahead.
Beauty & our ancestors
A lot of things can be beautiful and we know that it is not tangible. One thing is certain: it brings us pleasant feelings.
The obsession with beauty did not start from the renaissance where men awoke to a new appreciation of art. Early humans had their shot at beautification too.
Early hunters and gatherers made certain tools in a teardrop shape because they loved it. Making them teardrop shape had the same level of practicality as commenting with a flame emoji — None.
Interestingly, this sense of beauty tends to follow a common set of features including symmetry, complexity, proportion, contour, brightness, and contrast across all cultures. In essence, beauty is something we seek across cultures.
Beauty & our happiness
There are two particular features of beauty that could help us understand why it sparks joy: 1. Fractal patterns & 2. Symmetry.
Fractal patterns: Patterns that occur again and again at different scales and sizes. We generally feel calm and pleasant when encountering fractal patterns as this pattern pointed to our ancestors that the water/food was safe for consumption. Non-fractal patterns like storm clouds or boiling streams would make us flee for survival.
Symmetry: Seeing this in nature tells us the food is healthy. Symmetrical plants or a deer with symmetrical horns signalled it was safe/healthy for consumption. Symmetry is familiar to our brains and activates our reward centres, making us feel at ease.
Therefore it is no surprise that our brains assume that symmetrical faces are more likely to belong to a fertile & healthy mating partner. One might quickly point out that asymmetry can be beautiful! I agree, but more often than not, beautiful asymmetry is the exception that proves the rule.
Beauty & photo filters
So how does our love for these beauty patterns tie to photo filters? As we are inclined to look for symmetry, photo filters help us achieve that with a swipe. The human mind processes the face of symmetrical faces people easily and this gives the mind a relief.
Beyond increasing symmetry, the photo filters help wipe out blemishes on our faces, decreasing the asymmetry. This once again gives the impression of healthy-looking skin which signals pleasantness to our ancient brain.
Symmetry aside, photo filters target beauty by sharpening faces. Why? The perception of weight in the face, significantly predicts perceived health and attractiveness. Our eyes can reliably estimate BMI (Body Mass Index) from facial clues alone.
So that’s why we terribly love photo filters, all because they bring up hints of beauty and triggers our reward centres. It plays the most beautiful fiddle sound to our brain stem.
Where do we go from here?
Understanding how we are inclined to beauty shines a light on why we have the tendency to edit our looks. Inclination does not imply a path of no return. By being aware of our desire for beauty we can choose to stop playing the photo filter game and focus on what’s real.
We are capable of reconditioning our brains to see the beauty in the natural blemished face and see the dangers of posting edited faces for likes. Understanding philosophies like Wabi-Sabi nudge away from our inclinations for facial perfection.
We, humans, have been built and programmed to assess visual inputs of our surroundings. Let's focus on our non-human surroundings and less on how we look.
