A survey conducted by London Guildhall University of 11,000 people showed that (subjectively) good-looking people earn more. Less attractive people earned, on average, 13% less than more attractive people, while the penalty for overweight was around 5%.

Beauty is the phenomenon of the experience of pleasure, through the perception of balance and proportion of stimulus. It involves the cognition of a balanced form and structure that elicits attraction and appeal towards a person, animal, inanimate object, scene, music, idea, etc.

In the US it has been found that symmetry may be important because it is evidence that the person grew up in a healthy way, without visible genetic defects. One traditional, subtle feature that is considered an indication of beautiful women of all cultures is a waist-to-hip ratio of about 70% (waist circumference that is 70% of the hips circumference.) The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) theory was discovered by psychologist Dr. Devendra Singh of the University of Texas at Austin. Physiologists have shown that this ratio accurately indicates most women's fertility.

Beauty advertising is advertising for beauty products such as skin care creams, lip gloss or other makeup products.The use of airbrushed supermodels is controversial, and recent studies have shown that women feel depressed about their figures and have low body confidence as a result of beauty advertising.

The earliest theory of beauty can be found in the works of early Greek philosophers from the pre-Socratic period, like Pythagoras. The extant writings attributed to Pythagoras reveal that the Pythagorean school, if not Pythagoras himself, saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the golden ratio seemed more attractive. Some modern research seems to confirm this, in that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned according the golden ratio are consistently ranked as more attractive than those whose faces are not.

Different cultures have deified beauty, typically in female forms (the reason for which is probably that most well-known mythologies were conceived of and standardised by heterosexual men). Here is a list of the goddesses of beauty in different mythologies.

Aphrodite - Greek mythology

Lakshmi - Hindu mythology

Venus - Roman mythology

Even mathematical formulae can be considered beautiful. eip + 1 = 0 is commonly considered one of the most beautiful theorems in mathematics. (see Euler's identity)

Another connection between mathematics and beauty which played a prominent role in Pythagoras' philosophy was the way in which musical tones can be arranged in mathematical sequences, which repeat at regular intervals called octaves.

Beauty contests claim to be able to judge beauty. The millihelen is sometimes jokingly defined as the scientific unit of human beauty. This derives from the legend of Helen of Troy as presented in Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, in which her beauty was said to have launched a thousand ships. The millihelen is therefore the degree of beauty that can launch one ship.

1. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness." ~ John Keats

2. "Anybody who preserves the ability to recognize beauty will never get old." ~ Franz Kafka

3. "Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them." ~ David Hume

4. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." ~ (unkown}

5. "Beauty is in the heart of the beholder." -anonymous

6. "Beauty will save the world." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

7. "Enthusiasm is the most beautiful word in the world." ~ Christian Morgenstern

8. "Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius