ReThink Beauty

A lot of intentions, plans and dreams have fallen apart over the course of the pandemic–and many are still shattering. Intentions to see old relatives, plans to expand a business or dreams to go on new journeys. Instead, all over the world, quarantines and lockdowns limited our outlooks and sometimes even scarred our lives. The American psychologist Barry Schwartz coined the now infamous phrase “the

Since a number of weeks an ‘organism at the edge of life’ is spreading: COVID-19. To minimize contamination we are advised to practice ‘social distancing’ which means as much as: avoid working at the office, don’t go to conferences or meetings but try to work from home as much as possible. On top of this professional earthquake also our regular social life has to change:

Being around beauty causes all sorts of emotions: most often happiness or joy, but a euphoric feeling or even sadness and greediness are also common. But how do these beauty connected feelings guide our actions? What are their behavioral consequences? What does it mean to be motivated by beauty? Motivation is an emotion that sits on the threshold between thinking about doing something and actually

Occasionally I do share new developments and findings about Project Beauty on social media like LinkedIn and Facebook, so when Twitter started many years ago I also created an account and tried it out. But soon I made a choice: this was a bridge too far. Given how much I appreciate my offline time, this new channel with which to share a slice of my

On how the heart got squeezed Over the last few decades, the worldwide level of education has slowly increased. Although in some countries the process is very slow, in most countries more kids are going to schools, and in already well developed countries (in terms of education) the percentage of students that reach the level of tertiary or even higher education is exploding. The UNESCO

Project Beauty asks questions – questions about a deeply personal topic – a theme that for many of us touches on what makes life worth living. Although the project started out as an inquiry to find out more about the variety of perceptions on beauty, the questionnaire that lies at the heart of the project is now used to create more awareness about what really