Dr. Allycin Powell-Hicks is a licensed clinical psychologist, life coach, and health psychology specialist who is no stranger to Loma Linda University (LLU). She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from LLU and was one of the first students to secure an externship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she developed her methodological rigor. In her new book, The Problem with Pretty, Dr. Ally challenges how we perceive beauty, and why the science of perception is an important conversation to have.
The Beauty Bias Behind the Title
Some people may assume that The Problem with Pretty is about vanity, or pretty privilege or the beauty standards that flood social media feeds. However, Dr. Ally shares this was done intentionally because it is that very assumption which causes people to make unreliable perceptions about others based on cultural beliefs, learned associations and biases that were taught before individuals had critical thinking skills to question these beliefs.
In her book, Dr. Ally explains the neuroscience of visual processing and how the brain uses two primary perception pathways, the what pathway or object recognition and the how pathway, which involves spatial processing and action. In other words, the brain filters what we see through a lens of prior knowledge and cultural expectations.
So, what we perceive is not raw reality. It is reality that has been interpreted by everything we have been taught to believe.
"We see particular features as being connected to particular things," Dr. Ally notes. "These are not failures of individual moral character. They are the predictable outputs of a perceptual system that is shaped by culture, history, and repetition. Our very efficient brain builds heuristics or mental shortcuts that allow us to make decisions in milliseconds. But the problem is that we mistake speed for accuracy."
How Perception Becomes Prejudice
One of the more galvanizing thoughts is that prejudice is not primarily defined by hateful people, but is, in fact, the default state of the unexamined mind.
"I think the unexamined American life leans towards prejudice. If we don't question the lessons we are taught, any of us run the risk of living and sitting in prejudice," says Dr. Ally.
This is not an accusation, it is an observation, grounded in cognitive science. Our brains apply cultural schemas to physical cues (such as height, skin tone, waist-hip ratio, etc.) and then generate categorical judgments about people before conscious thought has had a chance to intervene.
"Their millisecond perceptual decision can determine if a person goes free or to prison, receives medical treatment or is deprioritized, gets a job or gets to go home. All based on perception." —Dr. Ally
This is a particularly challenging thought when the perceiver holds power: a doctor, a lawyer, a hiring manager, a judge.
Organized Chaos
Dr. Ally describes her writing style as organized chaos. Weaving together neuroscience, philosophy, cultural theory, psychology and art history into a cohesive book is no small feat. She begins by overlearning across various disciplines and taking what she calls "meaningless" notes that she trusts will eventually mean something. She reads the notes until there are pathways and connections she can see, never deleting the notes, just moving them or saving them for future projects.
The Hardest Part to Write
You would think the hardest part of writing the book was bringing together science and psychology and making it fluid and cohesive for all readers. However, Dr. Ally admits this was not the hardest part. It was telling personal stories. Initially, the editors felt the original manuscript read too much like a textbook, so they requested more personal narrative. As a clinical psychologist, this went against her training; clinicians do not make it about themselves. This required her to unlearn that tradition and revisit some difficult experiences from the past.
The most challenging story she shared was from the seventh grade, where she was often the only brown-skinned girl in the room, and a classmate told her: "You're cute for a Black girl, but I could never bring you to my home." That experience led the 12-year-old Allycin to keep a container of Comet cleanser in her shower, believing she could bleach her skin lighter so she could be accepted. Writing this story required Dr. Ally to sit with that version of herself and recognize the tenderness and love that 12-year-old Allycin needed.
What She Hopes Readers Take Away
"We have more control over what we see than we think." —Dr. Ally
This is not a platitude; it is a neuroscientific fact. The science of neuroplasticity is our brain's demonstrated capacity to rewire itself as a response to new information and experience. The heuristics learned during childhood are not permanent. The cultural schemas that distort our perception of beauty, worth and humanity are not immutable. They do require effort and a willingness to pause, and take a few seconds to breathe and calm the nervous system to interrupt the automatic thought before it becomes an action.
Drawing from both phenomenological and Gestalt psychology frameworks to articulate what's at stake in that pause, Dr. Ally reflects: "Every single point of contact we make, we learn something new, our neurons change, we are changed. And so now we have an opportunity to go out into the world and do something better."
For more information, assessments, resources, and to purchase The Problem with Pretty, visit Dr. Ally's website: allycinhicks.com.
Interviewed and Written by Kayce Shepard, Systems, Families, & Couples PhD student