The Modern Perils of Artificial Beauty

by WiredBerries Editors — September 24, 2007

A study conducted at Florida State University offers some insights into how the modern phenomenon of "photo-doctoring" can harm self-esteem and relationships. Jon Maner, assistant professor of psychology at FSU, says it's a universal phenomenon to have your eyes drawn to attractive people. Maner does research that looks at the processes of biological evolution, and how our brains have been designed to strongly and automatically latch on to signs of physical attractiveness in others in order to both find a mate and guard him or her from potential competitors.

But Maner points out that even some people in committed relationships have a hard time pulling their eyes off images of attractive people of the opposite sex. The research also found that fixating on images of perceived romantic rivals contributed to feelings of insecurity. According to Maner, modern technology can greatly exasperate these relationship pitfalls of insecurity and false expectations.

Although there are strikingly beautiful people in real life, they are much fewer and far between than magazine ads and television would have us believe, and even those "natural" beauties are almost always heavily photo-shopped.

"It may be helpful to try to minimize our exposure to these images that have probably been 'doctored,'" Maner advises. "We should pay attention to all of the regular-looking people out in the world so that we have an appropriate standard of physical beauty. This is important because too much attention to ultra-attractive people can damage self-esteem as well as satisfaction with a current romantic partner."

OK, so you'll probably still want to ogle that Ralph Lauren underwear model every now and then while you're flipping through a magazine, but just try to keep in mind that it isn't a realistic standard for how you or your partner should look. There are as many ways to be beautiful as there are people on the planet, so don't let those airbrushed models fool you!