Tiffany Bell

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102
Annotated Bibliography
Reflection: Overall research for this has been quite interesting. There are so many different
source that could potential help me with my question. When researching I have used several key
works to find my source. These words include beauty, influence of culture or society, beauty
standards, ideal beauty, evolution of beauty, notion, effect on self-esteem, body image, natural,
Mental Health in Digital Age. All of these key word or phrases have pulled up great resources
for me to contribute to my conversation. As of now I hope to include papers, blogs, videos and
scientific articles for my seven annotated bibliography. I feel the only difficult part is
incorporating how the author is credible, if they have little credentials. But after discussion in
the last class I have come to learn their credibility can be personal experience. After finishing
my third AB, I realize how hard it is to find someone I disagree or agree/disagree (both) with for
my conversation. My fourth AB was a video from YouTube. It was very difficult and time
consuming to type out the direct quotes and comprehend the material at the same time.

Landau, Elizabeth. Beholding Beauty: How Its Been Studied. CNN. Cable News Network, 12
Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

Elizabeth Landau graduated from Princeton University and Columbia University Graduate
School of Journalism. She has developed a long resume consisting of internships and reporting
and writing for different sources. As of now she is a Media Relations Specialist/ Writer for the
JPL (NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory). She has also been a writer/producer for CNN and
contributed freelance articles to New Scientist, Scientific American, Discover and the Princeton
Alumni Weekly. When working for CNN she developed the article Beholding Beauty: How Its

Been Studied. The target audience for this article may have included scientist or those interested
in culture or art.
She opens this piece up with the discussion what defines beauty? Her foundation for this
article is to explore in neuroscience and psychology when it comes to what people find
beautiful, to what extent people see beauty in themselves, and what role beauty plays in society.
Landau begins with how the brain reacts when a person sees something they believe is beautiful.
Then incorporates how we distinguish beauty within the face. She discusses scientific articles
that researched men and women quality preference in the other sex. Not only is beauty important
when a person is trying to find a mate, but is most influential in self-esteem when a person is
critiquing themselves. Her last point discussing how beauty is power, she gives us research to
support her claim.

In some ways, it's like asking whether your vision of "red" is the same as someone
else's -- there's just no way to know for sure, says Denis Pelli, professor of psychology

and neural science at New York University.

There are cultural trends in what in art and music people find beautiful -- for instance,
there's a Japanese preference for asymmetry, compared to a Western ideal of symmetry.
This does not apply to faces, however, as it seems that universally people prefer

symmetrical faces.
That makes sense, since we see every single blemish in ourselves, whereas there are
plenty of people we consider beautiful to whom we don't get close enough to examine all

the little flaws

Why should that matter? The theory goes that symmetrical features may be markers of
genetic quality. Human ancestors evolved to find mates that would pass on good genes to

offspring, so they would naturally be repelled by traits that would be detrimental to

survival or indicators of poor health.

says Heather Patrick, researcher at the National Institutes of Health. "We compare how
we think we look to how other people look, and we make a decision about whether we're
much better or much worse,"

Analysis: Overall this hit my inquiry question directly on the nose. She discuss beauty in
yourself and how beauty is power which can directly help me with my thesis paper. Although I
think she may have used to much factual evidence to support her claims, it is nice that she gave
the information for the studies, so I can use them if needed. This also allowed me to begin
critical thinking on how I want to begin writing me thesis. This was an easy read with a lot of
information. This reading could help anyone pursuing questions related to beauty, appearance
and the power of beauty. They could use her ideas within a conversation or use the studies she
gave in her article.