Young Women’s Self Esteem is Affected by Facial Attractiveness.
How Attractive Young Women See Themselves As Being Depends on the Attractiveness of The Young Women Around Them.
In a study done in Japan, results showed that what you think about yourself {and others} is directly affected by facial attractiveness, especially in females.
What’s more? This relationship may also be related to self-esteem and your own self-esteem may be affected by the attractiveness of those around you.
Researchers found that what participants thought of themselves and their own attractiveness was relative to the attractiveness of others {the “contrast effect”}. In this study researchers looked at the brain and examined what happened when participants evaluated their own faces in contrast to others. Researchers also looked at the neural relationship between self-face evaluation and self-esteem.
How did they do it?
They used images of the participant, the participant’s close friend’s face, and unfamiliar faces. When they ran the study, they randomly intermingled images of either attractive or unattractive unfamiliar faces. The intention was for the participants to have positive self-evaluations when unattractive unfamiliar faces were thrown into the mix, and negative self-evaluations when attractive unfamiliar faces were present.
What did they find?
The researchers’ expectations were met. The participants reacted more to their own image than to the unfamiliar images and the activity in their brains showed a positive correlation with self-esteem {and a more positive reaction when the unfamiliar faces were unattractive than when they were not}. The parts of the brain that activated were those related to self-relatedness and reward, and scientists think these brain responses might play a role not only in how humans see themselves and feel about themselves.
But just wait a second, Liminas ladies, it’s not all about you! Researchers also said that the positive evaluation of a close friend’s face might be perceived and processed in the same way as one’s own face.
~Ashley Taylor
