What is
Beauty?
~ The
Beauty
Within
Beauty - the quality attributed to
whatever pleases or satisfies the
senses or mind.
That which is striking and beautiful is not
always good, but that which is good is
always beautiful. ~Ninon de L'Enclos
Is it beneficial to be beautiful?
Review “Simpsons and Delilah”
How was Homer treated differently while
he had hair?
Complete the survey
Excerpts from “Beauty and the
Juror” – March 26, 2007
British researchers announced on Thursday that
jurors are more lenient with attractive
defendants than they are with plain ones
The researchers gave volunteer "jurors" identical
facts describing a mugging, but showed them
photographs of different people -- some
attractive, some not -- as the supposed
defendant
Attractive defendants were less likely to be
judged guilty
"Our findings confirm previous research on the
effects of defendant characteristics, such as
physical attractiveness, on the deliberations of
jurors," said Dr. Sandie Taylor
The suspicion that beautiful people get more
breaks in the world is supported by stacks of
scholarly research
Attractiveness biases have been
demonstrated in such different areas as
teacher judgments of students, voter
preferences for political candidates, and
jury judgments in simulated trials.
In the area of employment decision
making, attractiveness also influences
interviewers’ judgments of job applicants.
Attractive people are more likely to
be perceived as:
- Good. We can accurately judge attractiveness in as little
as .013 seconds, and we associate it strongly with good
qualities, according to research last year by Ingrid Olson
at Pennsylvania.
- Worth higher pay. "Plain people earn less than people of
average looks, who earn less than the good-looking. The
penalty for plainness is 5 to 10 percent, slightly larger
than the premium for beauty."
- Competent. "Attractive people were perceived as more
competent than less attractive people."
- Trustworthy. In a study last year at Rice University,
subjects were more likely to trust attractive people than
unattractive people.
Where does this perception
come from?
While it's easy to blame the media for all
this bias, it may be as likely that the bias
shapes the media. In research by
Professor Judith Langlois at University of
Texas at Austin, babies as young as three
months old showed, in their baby ways,
that they'd rather have an attractive
caregiver.
Evolution of Beauty
C:\Documents and Settings\Veronica\My
Documents\evolution of beauty.mp4
How do you judge Beauty?
Objectively
- Uninfluenced by emotions or personal
prejudices
- Based on observable phenomena
Subjectively
- Proceeding from or taking place in a
person's mind rather than the external
world
- Particular to a given person; personal
Objective Beauty
1. There are certain qualities that make something
beautiful, such as bright colours, smoothness, shape.
2. Beauty is based only on these qualities – by this
reasoning, a purple polka-dotted porcupine would NOT
be considered beautiful.
3. People’s feelings are not to be taken into account
when it comes to beauty.
4. If something is judged to be beautiful, everyone
should agree with this because the object has the
qualities that make things beautiful.
5. This is a position shared by Immanuel Kant.
(Philosopher)
Subjective Beauty
1. Beauty comes from the amount of pleasure one gets
from looking at something.
2. Something is beautiful based on the emotions it
produces (if you feel good about something, it must be
beautiful).
3. Beauty is NOT found in the object – it exists only in
the person’s mind which perceives the object.
4. Everybody’s mind sees beauty differently – tastes vary
greatly from person to person, and there is no “wrong”
when it comes to beauty.
5. This is a position shared by David Hume. (Philosopher)
What is Art???
What is Art cont…
What is Art cont…
What is Art cont…
Your Task:
You will be shown seven works of art created by
different artists.
Individually, rank the pieces from 1 to 7, with
number 1 being what you consider to be the
most beautiful and 7 the least beautiful.
Once you have completed your rankings, get
into a group and try to come up with a group
ranking.