Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today's episode is
Speaker 1: another classic from our archives. In this one, we delve
Speaker 1: into the psychology and biology behind the human appreciation for symmetry.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, think of a pair
Speaker 1: of synchronized divers, or the wings on a butterfly, or
Speaker 1: the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral. These are some of
Speaker 1: the things that most people find visually very pleasing. But why.
Speaker 1: The answer has to do with symmetry. Most objects in
Speaker 1: the real world are symmetrical. This is particularly true of nature,
Speaker 1: the radial symmetry of a starfish or flower petals, the
Speaker 1: symmetrical efficiency of a hexagonal honeycomb, or the uniquely symmetrical
Speaker 1: crystal patterns of a snowflake. In fact, asymmetry is often
Speaker 1: a sign of illness or danger in the natural world,
Speaker 1: and of course, human beings are symmetrical, at least mostly
Speaker 1: and on the outside. You know, some internal organs like
Speaker 1: the heart and liver are off center. Decades of research
Speaker 1: into sexual attraction have proven that both men and women
Speaker 1: find symmetrical faces sexier than asymmetrical ones. The leading explanation
Speaker 1: is that physical symmetry is an outward sign of good health,
Speaker 1: although large scale studies have shown no significant health differences
Speaker 1: in people with symmetrical or asymmetrical faces. Since severe physical
Speaker 1: asymmetries are strong indicators of genetic disorders, our brains might
Speaker 1: just be overreacting. The simple explanation for our attraction to
Speaker 1: symmetry is that it's familiar. Symmetrical objects and images play
Speaker 1: by the rules that our brains are programmed to recognize easily.
Speaker 1: Physicist Alan Lightman wrote about this in his book The
Speaker 1: Accidental Universe The World You Thought You Knew. He wrote,
Speaker 1: I would claim that symmetry represents order, and we crave
Speaker 1: order in this strange universe. We find ourselves in the
Speaker 1: search for symmetry, and the emotional pleasure we derive when
Speaker 1: we find it must help us make sense of the
Speaker 1: world around us, just as we find satisfaction in the
Speaker 1: repetition of the sea and in the reliability of friendships.
Speaker 1: Symmetry is also economy. Symmetry is simplicity, Symmetry is elegance.
Speaker 1: At the esoteric end of the explanation, spectrum, Lightment is
Speaker 1: saying that the satisfaction we feel at seeing a creatively
Speaker 1: symmetrical work of art or a perfectly stacked display of
Speaker 1: soup cans in the grocery store. Is that the stuff
Speaker 1: of our brains is inseparable from the stuff of nature.
Speaker 1: The neurons and synapses in our brains and the processes
Speaker 1: by which they communicate, connect, and conjure thoughts evolved in
Speaker 1: parallel to snowflakes and starfish. If nature is symmetrical, then
Speaker 1: so are our minds. On the more basic end, the
Speaker 1: pleasure we get from symmetry could simply be due to
Speaker 1: our minds need to find patterns and attempt to make
Speaker 1: sense of things, especially quickly and with a limited data
Speaker 1: set considered Gistalt psychology, named after an influential school of
Speaker 1: visual perception born in Germany in the nineteen twenties. The
Speaker 1: famous and famously mistranslated Gistalt motto is the whole is
Speaker 1: other than the sum of its parts, not the whole
Speaker 1: is greater than the some of its parts. Our brain
Speaker 1: is more than a calculator adding up the details of
Speaker 1: a scene. It's primed to recognize signs of order in
Speaker 1: the accidental chaos, and to follow certain rules or shortcuts
Speaker 1: to make sense of the world. Symmetry is one of
Speaker 1: those shortcuts. We spoke with Mary Peterson, a psychology professor
Speaker 1: and director of the Visual Perception Laboratory at the University
Speaker 1: of Arizona. As she says, the brain doesn't like things
Speaker 1: that are accidental. We either learn or born with certain
Speaker 1: priors or shortcuts that help our brains quickly determined that
Speaker 1: we're looking at one particular object or another. We also
Speaker 1: spoke with Johann vaching Launch, an experimental psychologist from Belgium
Speaker 1: who specializes in visual perception and how our brains organized
Speaker 1: the constant incoming flow of information. He agrees at symmetry
Speaker 1: is not just a design principle of the outside world.
Speaker 1: He said, you can also see symmetry as one of
Speaker 1: these major principles driving the self organization of the brain.
Speaker 1: All these tendencies toward good organization and simple organization are
Speaker 1: also principles of symmetry in the dynamics of the brain itself.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, too much symmetry can be
Speaker 1: a tad boring. While perfectly symmetrical designs are more pleasing
Speaker 1: to the brain, they're not necessarily more beautiful. Both art
Speaker 1: novices and experts prefer art that strikes, says vocumons an
Speaker 1: optimal level of stimulation, not too complex, not too simple,
Speaker 1: not too chaotic, and not too orderly. Indeed, the Japanese
Speaker 1: have an esthetic principle called Kinsey, which is all about
Speaker 1: creating balance in a composition using asymmetry or irregularity. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tristan
Speaker 1: McNeil and Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots
Speaker 1: of other symmetrical topics because of how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of our Heart Radio. For
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