Beauty. It’s still one of the most highly valued attributes in our society, and particularly in women. Of course, beauty is a wonderful thing to behold and enjoy. But are you aware of positive deeper attributes we automatically apply to an attractive face?

Here’s a great Psychology Today article on beauty and its effect on our psyche: The Surprising Power of a Beautiful Face. A short quote: “[what psychologists call] the halo effect causes one trait (e.g., beauty) to drastically color your perception of all other traits. If you think someone is beautiful, you are also likely to assume they’re smart, ambitious, interesting, etc. We’ve all made these assumptions before, for good or ill.”

We are hard-wired to judge based on appearances

The assumptions we make are evidently hard-wired labels in our brains. So we can be forgiven – at least a little bit. As an interesting exercise, the next time you see a beautiful or handsome face, observe your thought process. Do you quickly assume the person is also intelligent, educated, polite, nice, etc? Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and love, is laughing in her heaven. She knows, beauty has exerted power for eons.

Inspirational Quote:

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.” ~ Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata

Beauty Defined | How we see © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku