Monday's child: image and identity

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How is beauty, attraction and body image perceived in our society? Research shows that good looks gives an advantage in confidence and interaction with other people, and can potentially boost career and salary. But a focus on looks and body image can also generate more insecurity and negative perceptions about one’s own body, not least among teenagers, and sideline older people as irrelevant in a society that is for the young and good-looking.

• Finding faces in the crowd: detecting faces in natural scenes
• Facial attraction: what makes a face pretty?
• Gossip magazines fuel teenage eating disorders
• But words will never hurt me: dealing with hurtful comments
• Cosmetic surgery tourism
• Growing old gracefully: Look at me