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 The magazine is including more nonwhite celebrities and older
individuals on its Most Beautiful People list these days,
researchers wrote in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
“Preferences for beauty are both a combination of a basic cognitive
process and a learned process,” study author Dr. Neelam Vashi of the
Boston University School of Medicine told Reuters Health by email.
“Individuality, culture, and history are all important to the study
of beauty, and when we look at different cultures and historical
periods, we see different and shifting ideals.”
Vashi and colleagues studied People magazine, which has the largest
audience of U.S. magazines and one of the top 10 circulations,
according to the Alliance for Audited Media. They analyzed the
magazine’s World’s Most Beautiful People lists in 1990 and 2017,
comparing characteristics such as age, sex, race, skin type, hair
color, eye color, and visible skin conditions. They compared 50
celebrities in the 1990 list to 135 in the 2017 list.
They found that average age increased from 33 in 1990 to 39 in 2017,
and the proportion of nonwhite celebrities rose from 24 percent to
40 percent.
The proportion of mixed-race celebrities increased from one in 1990
to 14 in 2017. Also, the researchers found, the proportion of people
with pale to creamy white skin fell from 88 percent in 1990 to 70
percent in 2017, while the proportion with moderate brown to dark
brown skin rose from 12 percent to 30 percent.
“Personally, I run both a cosmetic center and ethnic skin center, in
which I specialize in treating those with darker skin tones,” said
Vashi, who also authored the book Beauty and Body Dysmorphic
Disorder: A Guide for Clinicians. “We found (to our surprise) . . .
celebrities had a higher rate of darker skin types and mixed race.”
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A limitation of the study is that only two issues of a single
magazine were included. The study also found that the proportion of
females increased from 52 percent in 1990 to 88 percent in 2017,
which may indicate skewed data, said Dr. Daniel Hamermesh of Barnard
College in New York City. Hamermesh, who wasn’t involved with this
study, wrote the book “Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More
Successful.”
Hamermesh and colleagues are beginning a project that investigates
how beauty affects individuals over time as they age. A child, for
example, may be treated differently at a young age, which could
influence outlook later in life.
“People are fascinated by beauty, and there’s no doubt it affects
outcomes such as how much money you make and the partner you wind up
with,” he said. “This behavior persists from the day we’re born.”
Vashi and colleagues also plan to delve into the topic further.
Although many cultures have historically deemed fair skin and
youthful features more attractive, popular media may show a changing
conversation, Vashi added.
“Maybe our society is starting to embrace graceful aging, diversity
and the beauty we are born with,” she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2l0k5tL JAMA Dermatology, online October 11,
2017.
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