The Ugly Side of Beauty
We like to tell kids, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But from a very early age, we humans are doing just that — judging others based on how they look. This week, we bring you the second part of our look at the science of beauty and talk with psychologists Vivian Zayas and Stefanie Johnson about how appearances can often lead us astray.
- Duration
- 57m
- Broadcast on
- 11 Dec 2023
- Audio Format
- other
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We like to tell kids, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But from a very early age, we humans are doing just that — judging others based on how they look. This week, we bring you the second part of our look at the science of beauty and talk with psychologists Vivian Zayas and Stefanie Johnson about how appearances can often lead us astray.
If you haven't yet heard the first episode in this series, be sure to check it out! It's called "The Mystery of Beauty," and you can find it in this podcast feed, or on our website.
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This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam. In the famous children's fairy tale, The Ugly Duckling, a mother duck lays a clutch of eggs. When the hatchlings emerge, one is different from the rest. He is huge and awkward looking. His feathers are not yellow or black, but a muted gray. As soon as he's hatched, the bullying begins. Not only from his siblings, but other animals too. And so the ugly duckling roams the countryside, slowly accepting his fate of being an outcast. Then, one day, he sees a flock of swans, and transged by their beauty, he swims toward them. As he gets closer, he expects them to be disgusted by his appearance, just like all the other creatures he has encountered. But to his surprise, they welcome him with open wings. You know the rest of the story. The flock of swans sees the duckling for what he truly is, a young swan who will grow up to be as beautiful as the rest of them. I've long had misgivings about the story. What is its moral? If people don't look like they belong to our tribe, it's okay to treat them badly. We can only find acceptance among people who are just like us. To be ugly is to be cursed. In our episode last week, we explored the science of beauty, why we are attracted to it, and how we are moved by it. If you missed that episode, please do listen to it. This week, we explore some of the more complicated elements of our fascination with beauty, especially beautiful people. From infancy, human beings are fascinated by those who are good-looking. They are the stars of our movies and magazines, objects of our adoration. But our unthinking adulation of beauty can come with steep costs. The science of beauty bias, this week, on Hidden Brain. Support for Hidden Brain comes from Instagram. Instagram teen accounts' automatic protections limit who can contact teens, the content they can see, and the time they spend on the app. Teens are automatically placed into teen accounts. Teens under 16 will need a parent's permission to change any of those settings to be less strict. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at instagram.com/teenaccounts. Support for Hidden Brain comes from Defender. Even the boldest journey starts small, with a single decision to go somewhere new. The Defender 110 is a vehicle built for those moments, for drivers capable of great things, whether they're headed toward uncharted territory or just a weekend away. The Defender 110 combines on-road presence with off-road capability. It looks tough because it is, with an exterior engineered for durability. Inside, capability meets comfort, with seating for five and the option for seven, plus refined finishes and thoughtful design. It's also packed with intuitive tech, like 3D surround cameras
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We like to tell kids, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But from a very early age, we humans are doing just that — judging others based on how they look. This week, we bring you the second part of our look at the science of beauty and talk with psychologists Vivian Zayas and Stefanie Johnson about how appearances can often lead us astray.