Thanks to the media, we have become accustomed to extremely rigid and uniform standards of beauty.Advances in technology and in particular the rise of the mass media has caused normal concerns about how we look to become obsessions. Now we try to diet and exercise ourselves into the fashionable shape – often with even more serious consequences.īut although we resemble our ancestors and other cultures in our concern about appearance, there is a difference in degree of concern. In the 19th Century being beautiful meant wearing a corset – causing breathing and digestive problems. Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the ideal physical attributes. It is not surprising that physical attractiveness is of overwhelming importance to us.Ĭoncern with appearance is not just an aberration of Modern Western culture. (The good fairy/princess is always beautiful the wicked stepmother is always ugly)

We also believe in the 'what is beautiful is good' stereotype – an irrational but deep-seated belief that physically attractive people possess other desirable characteristics such as intelligence, competence, social skills, confidence – even moral virtue.

The 'bias for beauty' operates in almost all social situations – all experiments show we react more favourably to physically attractive people.When found guilty, they receive less severe sentences. In court, attractive people are found guilty less often.(one US study found that taller men earned around $600 per inch more than shorter executives.) Attractive applicants have a better chance of getting jobs, and of receiving higher salaries.Teachers give higher evaluations to the work of attractive children and have higher expectations of them (which has been shown to improve performance). Attractive children are more popular, both with classmates and teachers.Attractive people have distinct advantages in our society. Concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable. Vanity means conceit, excessive pride in one's appearance. But this is not an indication of 'vanity'. We are all more obsessed with our appearance than we like to admit. moreĪ summary of research findings on body image Motives: why we look in the mirror The report seeks to answer some specific questions about the changing face of motherhood and determine the extent to which modern ‘solutions’ to motherhood are more or less beneficial than the solutions of the past. more The Changing Face of Motherhood Insights from three generations of mothers None of the SIRC members involved in the project are Freemasons, a fact that evoked surprise and welcome in equal measure from the Lodge members we met. This report is, as far as we know, an account of the first ever study that has been commissioned by Freemasons from a non-Masonic body. more The Future of Freemasonry An examination of the role of Freemasonry in the 21st century In this ‘National Childhood Obesity Week’, the SIRC report, Children, obesity and heath: Recent trends, holds up a true mirror, accurately reflecting the trend towards slimmer, healthier children.

The accompanying reports combine a review of existing literature with an analysis of original quantitative data derived from a poll of 9,582 mothers from 12 countries in Western Europe, making it one of the largest studies of this kind ever conducted Child Obesity and Health An analysis of the latest available data from the Health Survey for England (HSE) Featured Motherhood in Western Europe Insights from Western European Mothers

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