It seems like such a simple thing, to look "attractive." But in truth, scientists have been grappling to understand what characterizes beauty for hundreds of years. We used to think that it was some specific proportion that caused an endorphin reaction (footnote 1). After we realized that beauty is a variant from person to person, to an extreme, we ruled that possibility out. After that, we kept coming back to one theory: the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ration, or phi (φ), is a/b where a/b = (a+b)/a. (footnote 2) This is measured by graphing the person's face using only Golden Rectangles (footnote 3), then finding how close the general face is. The same process is repeated for each facial feature (eg. eyes, nose, mouth). However, while this process is still under speculation and review, this still doesn't solve the fact that endorphin releases vary wildly between people. Currently, the most plausible solution is that beauty is relative. If a person grows up surrounded by people that look one way, beauty may be a change in some way. However, for now, there are not many theories that can be backed up, due to the fact that our knowledge of the brain is still minimal.
footnote 1: Most positive emotions that a human feels (eg. social interaction, accomplishment, pleasure) are caused by the release of endorphins.
footnote 2: To solve, the right side of the equation can be split into (a/a) + (b/a), so our equation is a/b = (a/a) + (b/a). Then we have a/b = 1 + (b/a). Phi is equal to a/b, as we said in the beginning, so we can replace a/b with x. Then we have x = 1 + (b/a). We also know that b/a is the reciprocal of a/b, so b/a = 1/(a/b). We now have x =1 + (1/x), so multiplying by x and making one side 0 gives us (x^2) - x - 1 = 0. Using the quadratic formula, we get x = φ = (1 ± (5 ^ 1/2))/ 2
footnote 3: A Golden Rectangle is a rectangle with sides of length a and b where a/b = φ
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