Attractiveness Perception Psychology Explained

• Why do you find some people attractive and others not attractive?
• Why can two people debate about the attractiveness of a person?
• Is beauty in the eye of the beholder, or are there universal beauty standards?

According to many recent studies, many factors affect the perception of attractiveness that are not related to physical looks!

In this article, I will tell you about attractiveness perception psychology to find the answers to these questions.

What affects the perception of attractiveness according to psychology

Here are some factors that affect the perception of attractiveness:

1) Ease of processing: Studies found that people find faces easier to process by their brains more attractive. But what determines the ease of processing of facial features? Its familiarity and similarity!

2) Familiarity and attractiveness: People get more attracted to faces they are familiar with. This means that strangers might find you less attractive than your acquaintances. One study has shown that the brain gets used to processing the images it sees often, and that’s why the models you see on TV can define your beauty standards for you without you noticing.

3) Similarity and attractiveness: Another factor that impacts the perception of attractiveness is similarity. People might become attracted to those who have facial features similar to them, to one of their parents, or to a person they loved before. Resembling any of these figures in any way can help you make a person fall in love with you

4) Nonphysical traits that affect attractiveness: Psychologists found that nonphysical traits such as courage, sense of humor, or self-confidence greatly affect attractiveness. The study showed that people’s perception of a person’s attractiveness changed after knowing more information about his personality!. That’s another reason why strangers might find you less attractive than you really are

5) Culture and the perception of attractiveness: Culture also affects the perception of attractiveness to a great extent. In some cultures that are to a certain extent isolated from the western definition of beauty, fat women are considered much more attractive than slim women. So your perception of attractiveness is also affected by your culture to a certain extent.

6) The need for attention: Some people have been brought up so that they need more attention than others. Those people are very likely to get attracted to those who have rare features in their culture. For example, a person who lives in a place where blonds are rare might only get attracted to blonds if he has an unmet need for attention

According to psychology, the perception of attractiveness is not constant.

Did someone tell you that you are not good-looking before?
If I were you, I wouldn’t feel bad at all. According to these studies, the perception of attractiveness is not stable, and it changes from one person to another.

Even for the same person, new factors might happen that affect his own perception of attractiveness and so forces him to change his opinion about others’ attractiveness.