The effect of visible skin condition on the perception of female facial age, health, and attractiveness

Abstract

Evolutionary psychologists argue that humans have evolved preferences for those facial features that signal health and fertility and thus facilitate mate selection. While there is ample evidence for the influence of facial form in the perception of attractiveness, only few studies have addressed the significance of visible skin condition in mate selection, even though humans attach great importance to a beautiful, unblemished skin, especially in women.The present thesis focusses on the influence of facial skin appearance on the perception of a woman s age, health, and attractiveness with regard to the evolutionary psychology framework. Therefore, by progressively removing cutaneous age cues from digital facial images of women (aged 47 61 years), human noticeability of age related changes in skin colour distribution (e.g. melanin pigmentation, dilated blood vessels) and surface topography (e.g. wrinkles, fine lines) was determined, as well as the relative effect of both skin features on age and health perception. Moreover, it was investigated whether men differ in their health and attractiveness perception between young adult women (aged 24 29 years) being in their fertile and non-fertile phase of the menstrual cycle as a function of spectrophotometric measurable alterations in basal skin colour of the face.Confirming previous studies, cutaneous age cues exerted a negative influence on the perception of female facial age, health, and attractiveness. Age and attractiveness perception were driven mainly by topographical changes in the forehead and (sub-) orbital region, while health perception was influenced particularly by changes in the evenness of facial skin colour. Importantly, even relatively small changes (20 25%) effected participants age, health, and attractiveness perception. Since men perceived women being in the late follicular phase of the menstrual cycle healthier and more attractive compared to women in the mid-luteal phase, this thesis provides evidence for facial skin condition being indicative of female fertility. Their preferences, however, appeared not to be driven by changes in basal skin colour, as no changes in spectrophotometric measurements were found.In conclusion, the present thesis provides good evidence that even subtle variations in facial skin condition provide information about a woman s age, health, and fertility, and thus demonstrated a relatively high public awareness towards the appearance of female facial skin.