Skin Color Preferences in a Malaysian Chinese Population.

Kok Wei Tan,Ian D Stephen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01352

Abstract

Facial skin color influences the perceived health and attractiveness of Caucasian faces, and has been proposed as a valid cue to aspects of physiological health. Similar preferences for skin color have previously been found in African participants, while different preferences have been found among mainland Chinese participants. Here, we asked Malaysian Chinese participants (ethnic Chinese living in an Asian country with high levels of exposure to Western culture) to manipulate the skin color of Malaysian Chinese, Caucasian, and African faces to make them “look as healthy as possible.” Participants chose to increase skin yellowness to a greater extent than to increase skin redness to optimize healthy appearance. The slight reduction in skin lightness chosen was not statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. While broadly in line with the preferences of Caucasian and African participants from previous studies, this differs from mainland Chinese participants. There may be a role for culture in skin color preferences, though methodological differences mean that further research is necessary to identify the cause of these differences in preferences.

Highlights

Since the 1990s, evolutionary psychologists have theorized that attractiveness and health judgments serve as a mechanism for identifying a healthy, fertile mate
The current study examined Malaysian Chinese participants’ perception of healthy facial skin color
A similar pattern of preferences for skin redness and skin yellowness was observed in previous studies, whereby Caucasian participants significantly increased facial skin yellowness and redness to optimize perceived facial health (Stephen et al, 2009b, 2011; Coetzee et al, 2012; Han et al, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1990s, evolutionary psychologists have theorized that attractiveness and health judgments serve as a mechanism for identifying a healthy, fertile mate (for a review, see Stephen and Tan, 2015). Facial skin color has been shown to influence perceived attractiveness and health (Stephen et al, 2009b, 2012; Whitehead et al, 2012b; Pezdirc et al, 2017), with increased lightness (represented by the L* dimension in CIELab color space), redness (a*), and yellowness (b*) perceived as healthier. Preference for skin redness may be related to increased blood oxygenation (Stephen et al, 2009a), which serves as an indicator for aerobic fitness and fertility (Armstrong and Welsman, 2001; Charkoudian, 2003; Barelli et al, 2007). Skin yellowness is influenced by levels of yellow-red carotenoid pigments

Methods

Results

Conclusion