The definition of aesthetic is ‘concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty’. You can scroll through Pinterest and search up things and put aesthetic on the end and hundreds of pictures load for you to see, light pink or grunge filters over random photos and quotes will pop up.

Walk into complete polar opposite stores at the mall, for example take Hot Topic and Forever 21. The people there dress differently, you can see a different aesthetic they put on. One can be darker than the other with black and darker colors while others may have a lighter motif going on. That’s just an outfit though. “The notion of “the aesthetic” is a concept from the philosophy of art of the 18th century according to which the perception of beauty occurs by means of a special process distinct from the appraisal of ordinary objects.” says ‘The Neuroscience of Beauty’ by Scientific American, hence the new field of neuroaesthetics, it’s distinguishing what is not art and what is by looking at different parts of the brain and its reaction with stimulation.

We already know that us humans can decide what we individually think is beautiful or appealing to our minds. Scientists have scanned the brain and have recently found that there are 93 different areas or scans that can show the  effect, and the part of the brain that it is most interactive with is the anterior insula, this is the part of the brain that is within the cerebral cortex. The anterior insula is usually associated with negative qualities such as feelings of disgust or pain, which makes this find even more interesting.

Now, this is only the scientific answer to the question. Thinking things are beautiful is something that is very broad subject, as we all have different opinions on everything. Knowing that the part of your brain that creates feelings of pain and disgust can also be the answer for things we find beautiful and appealing.