It’s hard to define what makes something beautiful, but we seem to know beauty when we see it. Why is that and how does beauty affect our subconscious?
00:00A lot of things can be beautiful. Landscapes, faces, fine art, or epic architecture, stars in the sky.
00:10Or simply the reflection of the sun on an empty bottle.
00:14Beauty is nothing tangible, it only exists in our heads as a pleasant feeling.
00:19If we have to define it, we perceive something as beautiful if its color, shape, form or proportion somehow are appealing or delightful to us.
00:28Beauty is a very human experience that's been with us for millions of years.
00:32Even our first tools were trimmed to a symmetrical shape.
00:36Researchers have tried to find practical reasons why our ancestors invested the time to make their tools look nice, but couldn't really identify any.
00:44It seems that early humans shaped their tools into teardrops simply because they liked them better that way.
00:51Throughout our history, the definition of beauty has changed a lot.
00:55Ideals have shifted or turned into their opposites.
00:58But beyond individual and contemporary tastes, some things have never really gone out of fashion.
01:04The golden ratio, symmetry or fractal patterns can be found in the art and architecture of cultures from our beginnings to today.
01:12Humans seem to be in mysterious inherent agreement about the beauty of certain things.
01:18The patterns that keep coming up are all rooted in nature.
01:22They became part of our biology because they helped our ancestors survive.
01:32Fractal patterns, for example, occur all over nature.
01:35In snail shells, flower heads, waves or clouds.
01:39Identifying and assessing these things and phenomena correctly used to be vital.
01:44Do those clouds mean rain will come soon?
01:47Are these waters safe to swim through?
01:49Can I eat this?
01:51Another pervasive thing is symmetry.
01:53In nature, it means everything is as it should be.
01:56Stems and trees and leaves and blossoms all grow symmetrically.
02:00A deer with impressive antlers is probably a source of nutritious meat.
02:04A deformed wheat ear may not be safe to eat.
02:07A symmetrical face is more likely to belong to a healthy and fertile mating partner.
02:13Because symmetry is so common in fauna and flora, it's extremely familiar to our brain.
02:19It helped our ancestors evaluate their environment more easily and react quickly to danger.
02:25Things that help us survive activate the reward center in our brain.
02:29Recognizing signals of safety and nutrition trigger nice feelings in us.
02:34So our sense of beauty probably evolved from pattern recognition.
02:38But it goes way beyond that now.
02:40Humans seem to have evolved an instinct for beauty that is deeply hardwired into us.
02:45It remains even after other processes in our brain stop working.
02:50Alzheimer's patients were asked to rank the beauty of several paintings.
02:55Then the experiment was repeated two weeks later.
02:58The patients had long since forgotten the paintings, but still ranked the beauty of the paintings in the same order.
03:04One could argue that this doesn't say much.
03:06So what if people stick to their personal preferences?
03:10But other research has shown that we have a sort of lowest common denominator when it comes to beauty.
03:15In different experiments, people were asked to distinguish real from fake abstract paintings.
03:20Some were originals by Mondrian and Pollock that were painted based on strict rules like fractal patterns, while the imitations were not.
03:28The majority picked out the original artworks.
03:31This worked with paintings from both artists, even though their styles are very different.
03:36Another experiment also used abstract artworks, but asked people to pick them out among similar paintings made either by children or animals.
03:44Again, the test subject pointed out the legit paintings whose patterns were carefully planned and not random.
03:50So while we have a hard time pinning down what beauty is or what it's based on, we somehow recognize it when we see it.
03:58Nature
04:03Humans don't navigate nature trying to survive day by day anymore.
04:07We left the natural world behind and created our own.
04:10We made the objects that surround us, the things we wear and use and look at.
04:15As we spread over the planet and our numbers grew, we shaped a completely man-made environment.
04:21In the process of doing so, we often neglected beauty in favor of functionality, cost or efficiency.
04:28We built rows and rows of concrete housing blocks that nobody wants to live in.
04:32We have ugly underground subway stations, shabby public service buildings and sprawling malls.
04:38One bland standardized box beside the next.
04:42Humans don't like monotony.
04:44Eye-tracking software has shown that people keep focusing on details and ornaments of architecture while brushing quickly over blank walls.
04:51And not only are they no fun to look at, they actually make us miserable.
04:55Experiments with skin sensors showed that looking at vast dull facades makes us feel bored and uncomfortable.
05:02This kind of boredom has been linked to raised heart rates and stress levels.
05:06And the opposite seems to be true too.
05:08Over the last decades, more and more studies have found that surroundings that are actually aesthetically pleasing to us can improve our well-being, our behavior, cognitive function and mood.
05:18Our bodies and brains react measurably and visibly to everything that surrounds us.
05:23Beauty in particular has such a strong impact on our well-being that making useful things beautiful can actually make them better.
05:31In 2017, a hospital examined recovery factors through observation and interviews with patients and found that visual art in their lounge areas made them more comfortable and happier about their stay in general.
05:44Another study looked at how well patients recovered in a hospital that had two wards.
05:49A very old and rather ugly one and a newly renovated ward.
05:53To the researcher's surprise, the patients that stayed in the new renovated environment needed less pain medication and were released on average two days earlier than patients recovering in the old ward.
06:03More beautiful surroundings made them feel better physically.
06:07Beauty also has an effect on us on a daily basis. It can improve our general happiness.
06:12A study that looked at the main factors influencing the happiness of adults revealed an unexpected result.
06:18Besides things like good health and a harmonious family life, individual happiness is affected by how beautiful you find the city you live in.
06:26Beauty scored even higher than cleanliness or safety.
06:30So, what can we learn from all of this?
06:33We know that we humans have been fine-tuned for millions of years to process visual input and assess our surroundings.
06:40It's just what we're programmed to do and we're starting to learn more about how much beauty as a property is really influencing us.
06:48Beauty meets an inherent need for meaningful information.
06:52Maybe it would be worth giving it more space in this man-made world we have created.
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