MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Neelam A. Vashi, MD Assistant Professor of Dermatology Director, Boston University Center for Ethnic Skin Director, Cosmetic and Laser Center Boston University School of Medicine Boston Medical Center   Mayra B. C. Maymone, MD, DSc. Department of Dermatology Boston University , Boston   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Societal interest with beauty dates back centuries; Plato described the 3 wishes of every man to include beauty, good health, and riches.  Given this fascination, there are many people who have dedicated their entire lives to studying the concept of beauty and the implications it presents to society.  The ability to set ‘beauty’ as a standard of comparison has shown us the advantages of being deemed beautiful – those who are more beautiful being able to get jobs easier and go out on more dates.  Beautiful people are even more often attributed qualities such as likeability, social competence, and intelligence. The study and concept of beauty are quite fascinating yet complicated.  We have found that there are both biological/innate indicators and also subjective aspects.  As discussed in my article, the classical conception of beauty is a matter of mathematical conceptions and instantiating definite proportions.  However, this inflexible treatment of the concept of beauty as objective denies paying tribute to its many different aspects and the contributions of individuality, culture, and history.  From our study, we can see that beauty standards are evolving and slowly drifting from the rigid standards once set. We found that compared to 1990, celebrities rated beautiful in 2017 were older, more often women, and had a higher rate of darker skin types and mixed race. The study of beauty is a quite lengthy topic - I wrote a book on it:  https://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Body-Dysmorphic-Disorder-Clinicians/dp/3319361988/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1508076953&sr=8-2&keywords=neelam+vashi. (more…)