Abstract
Facial attractiveness is judged through a combination of multiple cues including morphology (facial shape) and skin properties (facial reflectance). While several studies have examined the way in which people in Western cultures judge facial attractiveness, there have been fewer investigations into non-Western attitudes. This is because stimuli that quantitatively vary the attractiveness of non-Western faces are rare. In the present study, we built a model of the attractiveness of East-Asian faces, judged by East-Asian observers. Therefore, 400 computer-generated East-Asian faces were created and attractiveness rating scores were collected from Japanese observers. Data-driven mathematical calculations were used to identify quantitative links between facial attractiveness and shape and reflectance properties, with no prior hypothesis. Results indicate that faces with larger eyes, smaller noses and brighter skin are judged as more attractive, regardless of the sex of the faces, possibly reflecting a general preference for femininity. Shape is shown to be a strong determinant of attractiveness for both male and female faces, while reflectance properties are less important in judging male facial attractiveness. Our model provides a tool to effectively produce East-Asian face stimuli that quantitatively varies attractiveness and can be used to elucidate visual processes related to attractiveness judgements.
Highlights
Facial attractiveness plays a pivotal role in social perception and has considerable impact on a wide range of social interactions
The study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) of Waseda University (2015–033)
A preference for larger eyes has often been observed when judging female facial attractiveness [43]. Such facial characteristics can be related to feminine traits that are formed under the influence of oestrogen [44], where evolutionary psychology posits that the oestrogen-related traits of female faces can be signals for reproductive value, indicative of youth and high fecundity [7,15]
Summary
Facial attractiveness plays a pivotal role in social perception and has considerable impact on a wide range of social interactions. A preference for the masculinity of male faces, with features such as larger jawbones and more prominent brow ridges, is not consistent [16,18,19] Facial reflectance cues such as texture, colour, and contrast affect attractiveness judgements, independently of facial shape cues [20 –23]. In order to examine the contributions of multiple facial cues to attractiveness judgement, previous studies typically tested the effect of a specific and predetermined feature in a hypothesis-driven approach [27]. Data-driven methods that may be used to complement the hypothesis-driven approach have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers [30,31,32] These methods rely on building a model to represent the way in which faces vary on facial impressions (e.g. attractiveness, trustworthiness and dominance) by sampling multiple features from a variety of faces. Computer-generated faces allow greater control over facial features, and can be used for identifying the associations between facial features and attractiveness with greater precision and effectiveness when compared to real faces [27]
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