Picture ©Lightworks-Gallery, V. Schrader
A small series of articles by Dr. med. Margrit Lettko (Medical Director of the Network Aesthetics) and Dirk Brandl (Speaker Network Aesthetics)
Have you already read the first three parts of this series of articles? If not, then follow this link to get to the very beginning, or the following links to get to part 2, part 3, part 4 or part 5.
The aesthetic intervention
Hammermesh has asked himself the question whether we can do something for our beauty. He answered it with a no. Even the best cosmetics and the most beautiful dress would not turn an ugly duckling into a beautiful princess. What nature gives us is crucial. Any beauty surgery would be out of proportion to the result, provided that it did not involve the removal of extreme pathological changes.
This statement is to only be agreed partly. Patients often only look different after surgery, but not necessarily more attractive. In many cases, additional therapies must follow, such as skin improvement, volume filling, reduction of excessive facial expressions. What we achieve with our work of aesthetic medicine is the initiation of a psychological process. The treated patient changes his self-image positively and feels happier and more attractive himself. The result is a higher self-confidence and a resulting increased attractiveness. In this way we initiate a process with positive characteristics. In 2003, Prof. Heckmann and a working group showed that people treated with Botox were considered by their counterpart to be more relaxed and happier.
Another investigation by researchers went a step further by assuming that the facial expression produced by Botox would also affect the feelings of the person treated (facial feedback hypothesis).
This means that an artificially created facial expression not only influences our feelings (feedback with the sender), but that it also leads to a corresponding facial expression due to the imitation reflex (mirror neurons!) of the person opposite and also to a corresponding change in his or her feelings due to feedback (receiver feedback).
This two-way feedback mechanism can lead to a more positive perception of one’s world, but it also makes it harder to identify the corresponding emotions, e.g. when treating the glabella wrinkle (frown line) the feelings of anger.
The studies cited in this series deal with results that all shed light on a tiny section of an overall picture of a person’s attractiveness, nothing more. Our overall picture is certainly dependent on many other factors and, of course on our own awareness that we can either be dominated by images or control them and critically question our own reactions. We should therefore accept: Attractiveness is a decision-making premise and influences every individual.
In our opinion, the aesthetically working physicians and the patient who wants to be treated should not be guided by studies of a supposed aesthetic, but should deal with the individual circumstances of the patient. The aim is to return to the attributes of youthfulness and thus vitality.
Unfortunately, we also encounter patients who must be called victims of the beauty mania. We will deal with these in the next series of articles, which we have entitled “The social impotence of beauty”. In our opinion, aesthetic medicine can contribute to the development of egalitarian societies through its activities. Aesthetic physicians and all patients, however, should be more aware of the goal of their interventions if they want to actively influence this development.
Here are some interesting books and articles on the subject of attractiveness, which we have also quoted or discussed:
- Naomi Klein: No Logo!, Riemann Verlag 2001
- Hakim, Catherine: Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom, Frankfurt 2011
- Catherine Hakim: Erotik ist das Kapital des modernen Menschen., In Welt am Sonntag Nr.18, 2010
- Langlois, J. H. & Roggman, L. A. (1990) Attractive faces are only averages. Psycholgical Science, 1, 115-121
- Gründl, M. (2011): Determinanten physischer Attraktivität – der Einfluss von Durchschnittlichkeit, Symmetrie und sexuellem Dimorphismus auf die Attraktivität von Gesichtern, postdoctoral thesis, Regensburg
- Renz, Ulrich: Schönheitsformel.de/bloq.2009
- Jones B. C., Little, A. C., Penton-Voak, I. S., Tiddeman, B. P., Burt, D. M. & Perrett, D. I. ( 2001) Facial symmetry and judgements of apparent health: support fo a „good genes“ explanation of the attractiveness-symmetry relationship. Evol. Hum. Behav. 22, 417 – 429.
- Braun, M., Gründl, C., Marberger, C. ,Scherber, C.: Beautycheck – Ursachen und Folgen von Attraktivität. Projektabschlussbericht. Zu bekommen unter www.beautcheck.de, 2001
- Cunningham, M. R. 1986 Measuring the physical attractiveness: quasi-experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 50, 925-935
- Cunningham, M. R., Barbee, A.P. & Pike, C. L. 1990 What do women want? Facialmetric assessment of multiple motives in the perception of male facial physical attractiveness. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 59, 61 – 72
- Renz, Ulrich: Schönheit. Eine Wissenschaft für sich, Lübeck 2006
- Todorov, A., Said, C. P., Engell, A. D., & Oosterhof, N. N. (2008). Understanding evaluation of faces on social dimensions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 455-460.
- Guggenberger, Bernd: Einfach schön. Hamburg 1997, S, 23
- Langlois, J. H./ Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, M. und Smoot, M. (2000) „Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review“, Pschological bulletin, 126 (3):390-423
- Langlois, Judith H. / Lori A. Roggman / Rita J. Casey / Jean M. Ritter / Loretta A. Rieser-Danner / Vivian Y. Jenkins: «Infant Preferences for Attractive Faces: Rudiments of a Stereotype?» Developmental Psychology (Washington, DC), 23 (3), 1987, p. 363-369
- Kanazawa, S. „ Intelligence and physical attraktiveness“ Intelligence 39 (2011)7-14
- Hammermesh, Daniel S. Beauty pays, Princton 2011
- Möbius, M., Rosenblatt, T. (2006) „Why Bauty matter“, American Economic Review 96
- Spanhel, F. (2010): Der Einfluss der Körpergröße auf Lohnhöhe und Berufswahl. Aktueller Forschungsstand und neue Ergebnisse auf Basis des Mikrozensus. In: Wirtschaft und Statistik, H.2, S.170-178
- Heckmann, M., Teichmann, B., Schröder, U., Sprengelmeyer, R., Caballos-Baumann, AO. Pharmacologic denervation of frown muscles enhances baseline expression of happiness and decraeses baseline expression of anger, sadness, and fear. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2003; 49(2):213-6.
- Alam, M., Barrett, K.C., Hodapp, R.M., &Arndt, K.A. (2008). Botulinum toxin and the facial feedback hypotheses: Can looking better make you feel happier? Journal oft he American Adademy of Dermatology, 58, 1061-72
- Havas, D.A. Glenberg, A.M. Gutowski, K.A., Lucarelli, M.J., Davidson, R.J..Cosmetic use of botulinum toxin-A affects processing of emotional language. Psychol Sci. 2010, 895-900