Attractiveness Judgments Research Articles

The Effect of Nature of Critical Audit Matters and Outcome Indication on Investors’ Decisions

ABSTRACT Two aspects of critical audit matter (CAM) disclosure are (1) whether it relates to complexity in audit judgments (complex CAM) or uncertainty in underlying management estimates (uncertain CAM) and (2) whether an indication of the outcome of audit procedures performed to address the CAM is included in the disclosure. We use two controlled experiments to examine the joint effects of CAM nature and the presence of a CAM outcome indication on investors’ judgments of investment attractiveness. In the first (second) experiment, we used a stronger (weaker) outcome indication, which provides stronger (weaker) conclusions about the audit procedures performed to address the CAM. We find that the provision of a stronger (weaker) outcome indication increases investment attractiveness judgments to a greater (an equal) extent for an uncertain CAM than for a complex CAM. Data Availability: Please contact the authors.

Romantic bias in judging the attractiveness of faces wearing masks.

The spread of COVID-19 has drastically increased the number of people wearing masks in public areas and the opportunities to evaluate others' faces based on limited information. This study investigates the cognitive bias in judging the attractiveness of faces partially hidden by sanitary masks. Experiment 1 revealed that men rated women's faces as more attractive when wearing masks, specifically in the context of rating women as romantic partners; however, this mask bias was absent when men rated women as friends. On the other hand, women did not show the mask bias irrespective of the assumed social relationship. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the mask bias among elderly men was less affected by the assumed social relationship (or the possibility of reproduction), compared to young men, though they showed the bias itself. These results suggest that the cognitive strategies related to reproduction underlie the attractiveness judgment of the partial faces.

Mate assessment based on physical characteristics: a review and reflection.

Mate choice, and sex differences in romantic behaviours, represented one of the first major applications of evolutionary biology to human behaviour. This paper reviews Darwinian approaches to heterosexual mate assessment based on physical characteristics, placing the literature in its historical context (1871-1979), before turning (predominantly) to psychological research on attractiveness judgements based on physical characteristics. Attractiveness is consistently inferred across multiple modalities, with biological theories explaining why we differentiate certain individuals, on average, from others. Simultaneously, it is a judgement that varies systematically in light of our own traits, environment, and experiences. Over 30 years of research has generated robust effects alongside reasons to be humble in our lack of understanding of the precise physiological mechanisms involved in mate assessment. This review concludes with three questions to focus attention in further research, and proposes that our romantic preferences still provide a critical window into the evolution of human sexuality.

No evidence that averaging voices influences attractiveness

Vocal attractiveness influences important social outcomes. While most research on the acoustic parameters that influence vocal attractiveness has focused on the possible roles of sexually dimorphic characteristics of voices, such as fundamental frequency (i.e., pitch) and formant frequencies (i.e., a correlate of body size), other work has reported that increasing vocal averageness increases attractiveness. Here we investigated the roles these three characteristics play in judgments of the attractiveness of male and female voices. In Study 1, we found that increasing vocal averageness significantly decreased distinctiveness ratings, demonstrating that participants could detect manipulations of vocal averageness in this stimulus set and using this testing paradigm. However, in Study 2, we found no evidence that increasing averageness significantly increased attractiveness ratings of voices. In Study 3, we found that fundamental frequency was negatively correlated with male vocal attractiveness and positively correlated with female vocal attractiveness. By contrast with these results for fundamental frequency, vocal attractiveness and formant frequencies were not significantly correlated. Collectively, our results suggest that averageness may not necessarily significantly increase attractiveness judgments of voices and are consistent with previous work reporting significant associations between attractiveness and voice pitch.

Sexual orientation as a contextual frame for attractiveness judgments.

Despite strong consensus about the basic features that make someone look objectively attractive, contextual variation may modulate subjective assessments. Here, we investigate how social group membership provides such a context, comparing attractiveness judgments between lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) versus straight perceivers, and examining how these attractiveness judgments relate to beliefs about the target person's sexual orientation. We indeed find that perceivers rate targets as more attractive when they believe the target's sexual majority/minority status matches their own (Study 1). This association differs according to context, however: Although straight and LGB perceivers evaluate the components of facial attractiveness similarly (Study 2), straight men use attractiveness as a cue to sexual orientation (i.e., deeming unattractive women lesbians; Study 3) whereas LGB perceivers use sexual orientation as a cue to attractiveness (e.g., gay men rate men they believe are gay as more attractive than men they believe are straight; Studies 4 and 5). Thus, LGB identity seems to create a context in which sexual minority perceivers learn to attend to information about sexual diversity that straight perceivers may ignore. These findings highlight how group membership provides a lens for social perception, specifically pointing to how the contextual mindset of partner selection may transmute otherwise objective judgments, such as facial attractiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for Sexual Orientation as a Contextual Frame for Attractiveness Judgments

Supplemental Material for Sexual Orientation as a Contextual Frame for Attractiveness Judgments

The interaction between perceived chronological age and physical sexual development in attractiveness judgements made by people who are attracted to children

ABSTRACT The measurement of sexual attraction patterns has significance in relation to the assessment and treatment of people who may have caused sexual harm. However, it is also important to understand the drivers of sexual attractions within the community. In recent times there has been an increased level of interest in people with attractions to children, but minimal attention has been paid to fully understand how different indicators of age might influence their level of attraction to a range of child targets. In this paper we report three studies wherein we developed a merged person stimulus set that allowed us to manipulate the configuration of a target’s apparent age (depicted by facial features) and their physical development stage (depicted by non-facial bodily features). In Studies 1 and 2 we find that our merged person set performs comparatively well on indices of realism and estimated age, while in Study 3 we find that manipulating the apparent age of a body influences the attractiveness judgements made by people with attractions to different age groups. We discuss the theoretical and practical significance of our findings within the context of accurate assessment techniques.

Social, intellectual, psychological, and attractiveness judgements of lay people about patients before and after combined orthodontic-orthognathic surgical treatment.

Facial appearance plays a significant role in the success of social interactions. There is a limited amount of evidence investigating the influence of combined orthodontic-orthognathic surgical treatment on the social judgments of lay people. The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes in facial appearance following orthognathic surgery alter the social judgements made by lay people. Ethical approval was granted from the University of Sheffield School of Clinical Dentistry Research Ethics Committee on 17th August 2020 (Reference: 033775). This cross-sectional, web-based survey involved clinical photographs of six Caucasian female patients pre- and post-combined orthodontic-orthognathic treatment. Three patients had a pre-treatment class 2 skeletal pattern, and three patients had a pre-treatment class 3 skeletal pattern. Staff and students at the University of Sheffield, UK were invited to evaluate five personality traits: (i) friendliness, (ii) intelligence, (iii) attractiveness, (iv) self-confidence, and (5) trustworthiness using a 5-point Likert scale. The trait scores were summed to obtain a total social judgement score, and a paired t-test was used to compare the total scores from pre- and post-treatment images. There were 261 responses to the survey of which 181 (75%) were completed fully. The total social judgement scores from after treatment images were higher compared with the pre-treatment images (mean diff 1.6; P < .001) indicating more positive social judgements. The improvements in perceived social judgments were more notable for class 3 patients (mean diff 2.7) compared to class 2 patients (mean diff 0.7). Social judgement scores were higher (more positive) from post-treatment images of patient faces than their pre-treatment images. The findings highlight the possible indirect benefits combined orthodontic-orthognathic surgical treatment may have on an individual in a social setting.

Voice-based judgments of sex, height, weight, attractiveness, health, and psychological traits based on free speech versus scripted speech.

How do we perceive others based on their voices? This question has attracted research and media attention for decades, producing hundreds of studies showing that the voice is socially and biologically relevant, but these studies vary in methodology and ecological validity. Here we test whether vocalizers producing read versus free speech are judged similarly by listeners on ten biological and/or psychosocial traits. In perception experiments using speech from 208 men and women and ratings from 4,088 listeners, we show that listeners' assessments of vocalizer sex and age are highly accurate, regardless of speech type. Assessments ofbody size, femininity-masculinity and women'shealth also did not differ between free and read speech. In contrast, read speech elicited higher ratings of attractiveness, dominanceand trustworthiness in both sexes and of health in males compared tofree speech. Importantly, these differences were small, and we additionally show moderate to strong correlations between ratings of the same vocalizers based on their read and free speech for all ten traits, indicating that voice-based judgments are highly consistent within speakers, whether or not speech is spontaneous. Our results provide evidence that the human voice can communicate various biological and psychosocial traits via both read and free speech, with theoretical and practical implications.

Predicting Facial Attractiveness from Colour Cues: A New Analytic Framework.

Various facial colour cues were identified as valid predictors of facial attractiveness, yet the conventional univariate approach has simplified the complex nature of attractiveness judgement for real human faces. Predicting attractiveness from colour cues is difficult due to the high number of candidate variables and their inherent correlations. Using datasets from Chinese subjects, this study proposed a novel analytic framework for modelling attractiveness from various colour characteristics. One hundred images of real human faces were used in experiments and an extensive set of 65 colour features were extracted. Two separate attractiveness evaluation sets of data were collected through psychophysical experiments in the UK and China as training and testing datasets, respectively. Eight multivariate regression strategies were compared for their predictive accuracy and simplicity. The proposed methodology achieved a comprehensive assessment of diverse facial colour features and their role in attractiveness judgements of real faces; improved the predictive accuracy (the best-fit model achieved an out-of-sample accuracy of 0.66 on a 7-point scale) and significantly mitigated the issue of model overfitting; and effectively simplified the model and identified the most important colour features. It can serve as a useful and repeatable analytic tool for future research on facial impression modelling using high-dimensional datasets.

Hot at the top: The influence of self-rated attractiveness on self-perceived status

Beautism reflects the phenomenon of a widespread positivity bias that physically attractive people enjoy. This bias results in more attractive people receiving more positive social judgments, interactions, and economic outcomes. However, the literature has largely focused on third-party judgments of physical attractiveness, neglecting examinations of how self-rated attractiveness may predict self-evaluations. We sought to address this gap by examining how self-rated attractiveness predicts self-inferred social status, which is related to a myriad of psychosocial outcomes. Across one pilot test, one cross-sectional study, and a between-subjects experiment, we find converging evidence for the notion that self-rated physical attractiveness positively predicts higher self-inferred status. We discuss how this finding may have implications for status-navigating strategies in light of the malleability of self-rated attractiveness in a variety of social and occupational contexts.

The cross-modal integration process in facial attractiveness judgments

The cross-modal integration process in facial attractiveness judgments

Adaptive adjustment after conflict with group opinion: evidence from neural electrophysiology.

Individuals inherently seek social consensus when making decisions or judgments. Previous studies have consistently indicated that dissenting group opinions are perceived as social conflict that demands attitude adjustment. However, the neurocognitive processes of attitude adjustment are unclear. In this electrophysiological study, participants were recruited to perform a face attractiveness judgment task. After forming their own judgment of a face, participants were informed of a purported group judgment (either consistent or inconsistent with their judgment), and then, critically, the same face was presented again. The neural responses to the second presented faces were measured. The second presented faces evoked a larger late positive potential after conflict with group opinions than those that did not conflict, suggesting that more motivated attention was allocated to stimulus. Moreover, faces elicited greater midfrontal theta (4-7Hz) power after conflict with group opinions than after consistency with group opinions, suggesting that cognitive control was initiated to support attitude adjustment. Furthermore, the mixed-effects model revealed that single-trial theta power predicted behavioral change in the Conflict condition, but not in the No-Conflict condition. These findings provide novel insights into the neurocognitive processes underlying attitude adjustment, which is crucial to behavioral change during conformity.

Impaired face symmetry detection under alcohol, but no 'beer goggles' effect.

The 'beer goggles' phenomenon describes sexual attraction to individuals when alcohol intoxicated whom we would not desire when sober. One possible explanation of the effect is that alcohol impairs the detection of facial asymmetry, thus lowering the drinker's threshold for physical attraction. We therefore tested the hypotheses that higher breath alcohol drinkers would award more generous ratings of attractiveness to asymmetrical faces, and be poorer at discriminating bilateral facial asymmetry than less intoxicated counterparts. Ninety-nine male and female bar patrons rated 18 individual faces for attractiveness and symmetry. Each type of rating was given twice, once per face with an enhanced asymmetry and once again for each face in its natural form. Participants then judged which of two same-face versions (one normal, the other perfectly symmetrised) was more attractive and, in the final task, more symmetrical. Alcohol had no influence on attractiveness judgements but higher blood alcohol concentrations were associated with higher symmetry ratings. Furthermore, as predicted, heavily intoxicated individuals were less able to distinguish natural from perfectly symmetrised face versions than more sober drinkers. Findings therefore suggest alcohol impairs face asymmetry detection, but it seems that this perceptual distortion does not contribute to the 'beer goggles' phenomenon.

Wrinkles are neither beautiful nor nice: The effect of facial wrinkles on person perception and interpersonal closeness

With age, we develop facial wrinkles, which change the appearance of the face making it less attractive. Winkles and folds also “mimic” facial expressions, such that older neutral faces appear more emotional. Both processes can influence first impressions negatively. We obtained ratings of attractiveness, closeness, and emotional expressivity as well as first impressions from 353 participants, recruited from Prolific, for avatars with and without facial wrinkles. Older appearing, wrinkled faces were judged as less attractive and less favorably on traits related to pleasantness and trustworthiness, they were perceived as showing more negative emotions and participants rated themselves as less close. The effects on first impressions and perceived closeness were mediated by attractiveness and perceived negative emotions. These findings suggest that in initial encounters older people may often be perceived as less pleasant for no other reason than the wrinkles in their face and the judgments of attractiveness and emotionality associated with them.

Smiles behind a mask are detectable and affect judgments of attractiveness, trustworthiness, and competence

Smiles behind a mask are detectable and affect judgments of attractiveness, trustworthiness, and competence

Decades of beauty: Achieving aesthetic goals throughout the lifespan.

Several elements, including age, influence judgments of beauty and attractiveness. Aging is affected by intrinsic factors (e.g., genetics, race/ethnicity, anatomical variations) and extrinsic factors (e.g., lifestyle, environment). To provide a general overview of minimally invasive injectable procedures for facial beautification and rejuvenation to meet the aesthetic goals of patients across their lifespan, organized by decade. This case study review describes aesthetic considerations of females in their third to sixth decade of life (i.e., 20-60 years of age or beyond). Each case study reports the treatments, specifically botulinum toxin type A and soft tissue fillers, used to address aesthetic concerns. Signs of aging, as well as aesthetic goals and motivations, vary by age groups, cultures, and races/ethnicities. However, there are overarching themes that are associated with each decade of life, such as changes in overall facial shape and specific facial regions, which can be used as a starting point for aesthetic treatment planning. Appropriate patient selection, thorough aesthetic evaluation, product knowledge, and injection technique, as well as good physician-patient communication, are essential for optimal treatment outcomes. Nonsurgical facial injectable treatments can successfully enhance and rejuvenate facial features across different age ranges. A comprehensive understanding of facial aging and the aesthetic considerations of patients by the decade contributes to optimal treatment planning and maintenance.

Influence of colored face masks on judgments of facial attractiveness and gaze patterns

BackgroundFacial aesthetics are of great importance in social interaction. With the widespread adoption of face masks in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is growing interest in understanding how wearing masks might impact perceptions of attractiveness, as they partially or completely conceal facial features that are typically associated with attractiveness. ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore the impact of mask wearing on attractiveness and to investigate whether the color (red or blue) of the mask has any effect on the perception of a person's attractiveness, while also considering gender and age as contributing factors. Additionally, the study intended to evaluate gaze patterns, initial focus, and dwell time in response to masked and unmasked faces. Methods30 AI-generated images of 15 female and 15 male faces were presented to 71 participants (35 male, 36 female) in 3 conditions: not wearing any mask, wearing a red surgical mask, and wearing a blue surgical mask. The perceived attractiveness was rated on an ordinal scale of 1–10 (10 being most attractive). Gaze behavior, dwell time and initial focus were recorded using a stationary eye-tracking system. ResultsThe study found that wearing masks had no significant effect on the attractiveness ratings of female faces (p = .084), but it did benefit the perceived attractiveness of male faces which were initially rated lower (p = .16). Gender and age also played a significant role, as both male and female participants rated female stimuli higher than male stimuli (p < .001), and younger participants rated both genders as less attractive than older participants (p < .01). However, there was no significant influence of the mask's color on attractiveness. During the eye-tracking analysis, the periorbital region was of greater interest while masked, with the time to first fixation for the eyes being lower than the non-masked stimulus (p < .001) and showed a longer dwell time (p < .001). The lower face was shown less interest while masked as the time to first fixation was higher (p < .001) and the fixation count was less (p < .001). Mask color did not influence the scan path and there was no difference in revisits to the mask area between red or blue masks (p = .202), nor was there a difference in time to first fixation (p = .660). ConclusionsThe study findings indicate that there is an interplay between the gender and age of the participant and the facial stimuli. The color red did have an effect on the perception attractiveness, however not in female faces. The results suggest that masks, especially red ones, might be more beneficial for male faces, which were perceived as less attractive without a mask. However, wearing a mask did not significantly impact already attractive faces. The eye-tracking results revealed that the periorbital region attracted more attention and was fixated on more quickly while wearing a mask, indicating the importance of eyes in social interaction and aesthetic perception.

Facial attractiveness in the eyes of men with high arousal.

Individuals differ in how they judge facial attractiveness. However, little is known about the role of arousal level and gender differences in individuals' facial attractiveness judgments. We used resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) to investigate this issue. A total of 48 men (aged 22.5±3.03years [mean±SD], range: 18-30years) and 27 women (aged 20.3±2.03years [mean±SD], range: 18-25years) participated in the experiment. After the EEG was collected, participants were instructed to complete a facial attractiveness judgment task. Connectome-based predictive modeling was used to predict individual judgment of facial attractiveness. Men with high arousal judged female faces as more attractive (M=3.85, SE=0.81) than did men with low arousal (M=3.33, SE=0.81) and women (M=3.24, SE=1.02). Functional connectivity of the alpha band predicted judgment of female facial attractiveness in men but not in women. After controlling for the age and variability, the prediction effect was still significant. Our results provide neural evidence for the enhancement of the judgment of facial attractiveness in men with high arousal levels, which supports the hypothesis that individuals' spontaneous arousal contributes to variations in facial attractiveness preferences.

Trustworthiness judgments without the halo effect: A data-driven computational modeling approach.

Trustworthy-looking faces are also perceived as more attractive, but are there other meaningful cues that contribute to perceived trustworthiness? Using data-driven models, we identify these cues after removing attractiveness cues. In Experiment 1, we show that both judgments of trustworthiness and attractiveness of faces manipulated by a model of perceived trustworthiness change in the same direction. To control for the effect of attractiveness, we build two new models of perceived trustworthiness: a subtraction model, which forces the perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness to be negatively correlated (Experiment 2), and an orthogonal model, which reduces their correlation (Experiment 3). In both experiments, faces manipulated to appear more trustworthy were indeed perceived to be more trustworthy, but not more attractive. Importantly, in both experiments, these faces were also perceived as more approachable and with more positive expressions, as indicated by both judgments and machine learning algorithms. The current studies show that the visual cues used for trustworthiness and attractiveness judgments can be separated, and that apparent approachability and facial emotion are driving trustworthiness judgments and possibly general valence evaluation.