Social Representation of Beauty

The present study is an attempt to understand Social Representations of Beauty. The study was done to facilitate understanding of various notions of “beauty” prevalent in society and how people with varied backgrounds view it. To unravel the same, 12 participants from diverse professional backgrounds were selected for qualitative interviews. Emerging themes from the interviews suggested that beauty is subjective, difficult to express and heavily influenced by emotions. On the face of it, giving voiceto beauty is a difficult task. The social and cultural background of the perceiver plays an important role helping individuals anchor the notions around beauty. However, on further reflection it was seen that people beyond the social references, had an emotional connect with beauty. Finally, the experience of beauty essentially involves the idealized objectification of the deepest, most important spiritual/psychological essence of personality-the soul.