[LUM#7] Beauty Revealed

[LUM Magazine] - Published on March 27, 2018 in Science and Society

Faces, landscapes, works of art… Both universal and relative, beauty holds many mysteries. To unravel them, cognitive science offers an illuminating theory: we find beauty in what is easy for our brains to process.

The pure pleasure of contemplation… We experience it so often that it seems obvious to us. Yet the sense of beauty is truly astonishing. When faced with an object, a face, or a scene, we find ourselves feeling a sense of satisfaction. But what triggers the release of opioids and cannabinoids—the molecules of pleasure—within us? Philosophers, art historians, psychologists, and neuroscientists have explored this mystery. Today, biologists specializing in evolutionary biology are taking up the question. Could the mechanisms of natural selection explain the sense of beauty?

Universal Beauty

One thing is certain: beauty has a universal dimension. We humans share many visual preferences.“Since the early^20th century, experimental psychology and neuroscience have consistently demonstrated constants in what humans perceive as beautiful,” explains Julien Renoult, a biologist specializing in evolutionary aesthetics (The Evolution of Aesthetics: A Review of Models, in Aesthetics and Neuroscience, 2016). For example, there is a strong link between the amount of time newborns spend staring at faces or paintings and the level of beauty perceived by adults when viewing those same objects—regardless of their cultural background.

What do we all tend to enjoy looking at? First, certain design elements. We prefer symmetry and rounded shapes. “We also perceive visual scenes with spatial patterns similar to those found in nature as more beautiful , ” explains the researcher at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology. This is the case with fractals—patterns that remain identical regardless of the scale at which they are viewed. Mountains, trees, ferns, river networks, and clouds are all examples of this.“Artists tend to create beauty in their works by mimicking the level of fractality found in nature,” says Julien Renoult.

So much for the “objective” criteria. But how can we explain that beauty can be perceived differently by different people? It’s because other, more subtle constants of beauty draw on each person’s cognitive system and memory. Thus, “prototypes” delight our eyes: if a robin is more beautiful than an ostrich to most of us, it’s because it represents our mental category of “bird”—a category that varies from person to person. What is familiar also seems more beautiful. “This works visually but also aurally: having already been exposed to a melody increases the likelihood that we’ll find it beautiful , ” notes Julien Renoult.

Information Flow

So that is what makes contemplation such a pleasure. At first glance, these factors may seem disparate. Yet they share a common trait. “They’re easy for our brains to process, allowing for rapid information processing. Beauty is the fluid flow of information through the brain,” summarizes Julien Renoult (Beauty lies in the viewer’s efficient processing, in *The Royal Society*, 2016).

This would explain the appeal of symmetry and fractals: redundant information requires little energy for the brain to process. “A rounded shape offers a high degree of predictability, with its continuous lines. As for designs reminiscent of those found in nature, they align with ecological expectations: there is no conflict between what the brain expects and what it sees, ” explains Julien Renoult. Similarly , the fact that an object resembles the mental category into which we classify it makes it easy to categorize. This theory of “efficient coding” offers us a comprehensive and coherent explanation of beauty.”

Fewer surprises

One question remains: Why does rapid neural processing trigger the release of “pleasure” neurotransmitters? We can imagine the evolutionary advantage of such a surge of well-being.“Appreciating that information is easy to process encourages us to evolve in an environment with fewer surprises—and thus one more conducive to survival and reproduction,” explains Julien Renoult. This is especially true since the brain’s processing of information is very energy-intensive.

The next question for evolutionary aesthetics: Is there such a thing as a universal concept of beauty across species? “It’s possible to imagine it. We’re often charmed by communication signals that have evolved to be attractive to other species: birdsong, the peacock’s tail. Human aesthetic preferences appeal to other animals: chickens, like us, prefer rounded shapes,” says Julien Renoult. And while the theory of efficient coding is convincing in humans, there’s no reason it wouldn’t work in animals… since even invertebrates release opioids and cannabinoids when their neural activity is rapid. A “general theory of beauty” that would in no way, of course, diminish the grace of the experience.

Keywords: LUM#7, LUM Magazine, Science, Company