Nancy Etcoff

Nancy Etcoff (born 1955) is an American psychologist and researcher at Harvard University. Etcoff has maintained a private practice in psychology, and taught classes about the mind, brain, behavior, and aesthetics at Harvard Medical School. Etcoff is best known for her 1999 book Survival of the Prettiest: the Science of Beauty arguing for a biological basis for beauty linked to evolutionary psychology.

Education

Etcoff earned her B.A from Brown University. She initially studied comparative literature before switching her major to psychology.[1] She received an M.Ed. from Harvard University and earned her Ph.D. in psychology at Boston University. After this, she completed her postdoctoral fellowship in brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Work and research

Etcoff is an associate professor of Harvard Medical School and works as a psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital.[2] Etcoff serves as the director of the Psychiatric Neuroimaging Laboratories Program in Aesthetics and Well-Being, and is on the advisory board of the Peabody Essex Museum.[3]

Psychology of beauty and happiness

Etcoff teaches seminars in neuroaesthetics.[1] In her 1999 book Survival of the Prettiest: the Science of Beauty,[4] she rejects the notion of beauty as a cultural construct, an invention of the fashion industry, or a backlash against feminism. Instead Etcoff argues that human beauty perception is a biological artefact derived from evolutionary genetic pressure. This book was the basis of a one-hour Discovery Channel episode.[5] Etcoff has made many appearances in mainstream US media on the subject of beauty including the New York Times and Good Morning America.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][5] Etcoff has given a TED talk "Happiness and Its Surprises",[20] and appeared on NPR's TED Radio Hour.[21][22] Etcoff's definitions of human happiness have been reported by Harvard Medical Magazine.[23]

Scientific publications

In 2017, Etcoff was co-author of Zen and the Art of Living Mindfully: The Health-Enhancing Potential of Zen Aesthetics.[24] She has 15 earlier publications, primarily on facial expressions and facial attractiveness, listed at Medline.[25]

Personal life

Etcoff was born in 1955.[26] Etcoff was married to the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker from 1980 to 1992.[27]

References
  1. Pak, Faith A.; Reichsman, Ethan B. (November 10, 2017). "Beauty and the Brain: The Emerging Field of Neuroaesthetics | Arts | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  2. "Harvard Medical School Directory". Harvard Medical School.
  3. "Psychiatric Neuroimaging Division - Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA". www.massgeneral.org. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  4. Etcoff, Nancy L. (1999-02-16). Survival of the prettiest: the science of beauty. Doubleday. ISBN 9780385478540.
  5. "Nancy Etcoff | Edge.org". www.edge.org. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  6. "Makeup Can Provide a Fleeting Confidence Boost to Some". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  7. Green, Penelope (1999-02-28). "MIRROR, MIRROR; Biologically Speaking, Isn't She Beautiful?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  8. Lehrman, Karen (1999-03-21). "The Beautiful People". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  9. Branch, Shelly; Ball, Deborah (2005-05-19). "Does Reality Sell Beauty?". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  10. "Survival of the Prettiest". EW.com. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  11. "The Biology Of Beauty". Newsweek. 1996-06-02. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  12. "How to Love That Woman in the Mirror". Oprah.com. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  13. Allen, Maya (2016-06-23). "This Dove Report Reveals Shocking Results About Women's Body Confidence". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  14. Gutierrez, Claire (2012-03-05). "Adventures in Makeup". ELLE. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  15. Postrel, Virginia (2007-03-01). "The Truth About Beauty". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  16. "What's the New Statement Brow of the Moment? The Season's Best Options, from Bushy to Bleached". Vogue. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  17. "Why Every Skin-Care Brand Is Focusing on Face Wash Right Now". Allure. 3 April 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  18. "Why Dove's 'Choose Beautiful' campaign sparked a backlash". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  19. Jacobs, Deborah L. "For Working Women, Focus On Beauty Erodes Self Confidence". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  20. Etcoff, Nancy (10 June 2009), Happiness and its surprises, retrieved 2019-03-19
  21. "Denis Dutton and Nancy Etcoff: Are We Hard-Wired for Beauty?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  22. "What Is Beauty?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  23. "The Contagion of Happiness | Harvard Medicine magazine". hms.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  24. Lomas, T.; Etcoff, N.; Van Gordon, W.; Shonin, E. (October 2017). "Zen and the Art of Living Mindfully: The Health-Enhancing Potential of Zen Aesthetics" (PDF). Journal of Religion and Health. 56 (5): 1720–1739. doi:10.1007/s10943-017-0446-5. ISSN 1573-6571. PMID 28718052. S2CID 30739871.
  25. "Pubmed".
  26. "WorldCat".
  27. "Steven Pinker". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
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