Beauty Standards and Social Behavior

A discussion with Marta Kowal on beautification and what predicts it.

Marta Kowal (PhD) is a post-doctoral researcher at the IDN Being Human Lab, Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland. Marta's academic background is in evolutionary psychology, and her research primarily focuses on mate attraction, physical attractiveness-enhancing behaviors, and romantic love, particularly from a cross-cultural perspective. During her PhD program, under the guidance of her supervisor, Professor Piotr Sorokowski, Marta secured a grant from the Polish National Science Centre to explore beauty-enhancing behaviors across different cultures. Marta takes one of the leadership positions in an extensive international consortium of over 400 scientists from more than 100 countries passionately committed to facilitating large-scale cross-cultural research projects.

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Timestamps

0:00 Intro

5:08 231 minutes daily on beauty?

10:38 The Benefits of Beauty

12:23 Beauty: Not (Just) a Social Construct

19:35 Collecting Big Data

23:34 Gender & Beautification

48:51 Age & Beautification

54:28 Social Media & Beautification

1:08:25 The Beautiful Beautify More

1:12:57 Wealth, Education, Politics & Beauty

1:24:32 Intrasexual Competition All The Way Down

1:28:44 The Pathogen Prevalence Hypothesis

1:36:57 Cultural and Individual Differences in Strategies

1:47:14 Conclusion

1:50:10 Outro