The Surprising Truth About Finding Beauty

What makes a person more likely to notice beauty in the world? Is it a life of comfort and ease, or something else entirely? To find out, a massive global study asked over 131,000 people from 22 different countries a simple question: “Do you regularly experience things that you consider beautiful?

“Surprisingly, some childhood hardships are linked to a greater appreciation of beauty, suggesting a complex path to a rich inner life.”

” The answers were full of surprises. The researchers found that where you live matters—a lot. While 90% of people in Nigeria and South Africa said they regularly experience beauty, only 44% of people in Japan and 47% in Hong Kong said the same. Clearly, national wealth isn't the deciding factor.

So, what is? Education played a big role. Globally, people with more years of schooling were more likely to report experiencing beauty. Age also mattered, with younger people generally reporting more of these experiences than older adults. But the most startling findings were connected to childhood.

Attending religious services as a child was strongly linked to experiencing more beauty as an adult. Even more unexpectedly, some childhood hardships were also associated with a greater appreciation for beauty later in life. People who had experienced abuse or whose parents weren't married were slightly more likely to regularly see beauty in their adult lives. The researchers are not saying that hardship is good. Instead, they suggest that difficult experiences might, for some, increase their emotional and perceptual sensitivity, making them more open to the world in all its forms—including its beauty. This study challenges our assumptions, suggesting that the path to a rich inner life is more complex than we think.