As much as our culture idolizes beauty, it also thinks it’s shallow and superficial. But both of these evaluations get something wrong. The idea of beauty as only skin-deep is based on a long-debunked division between body and soul. Yet the fleeting admiration of a stranger’s beauty also misses the point. True appreciation of beauty takes attention, care, and love, argues David Egan. 

Beauty is only skin deep, we’re told. It’s superficial to be too concerned about surfaces and deep to love the depths of a person’s character. Stories like Beauty and the Beast and The Wife of Bath’s Tale emphasize the importance of seeing past a person’s outward appearance to their inner beauty. 

And yet. People are drawn to physically attractive people, and not only when it comes to mate choice. With voter preference, jury verdicts, students’ evaluation of teachers, teachers’ evaluation of students, looks, apparently, count. Good-looking people tend to be judged more intelligent and honest. Even tales of loathly ladies and princely beasts make the significant concession of rewarding the pure-hearted lover who sees their hideous beloved’s inner beauty with a magical transformation at the end. The reward for being able to see past someone’s outward appearance is, curiously, a really good-looking partner.