Judgments Of Facial Attractiveness Research Articles

The cross-modal integration process in facial attractiveness judgments

The cross-modal integration process in facial attractiveness judgments

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.

When less is not more: the effect of transparent masks on facial attractiveness judgment

During the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have been widely used in daily life. Previous studies have suggested that faces wearing typical masks that occlude the lower half of the face are perceived as more attractive than face without masks. However, relatively little work has been done on how transparent masks that reveal the lower half of the face affect the judgment of facial attractiveness. To investigate the effect of transparent masks on the perceived attractiveness, in the current study, we asked participants to rate the attractiveness of faces without masks and with a typical opaque mask and a transparent mask. The results showed that faces wearing opaque masks were evaluated as more attractive than those wearing transparent masks or no masks. The benefit of opaque masks was more pronounced in faces that were initially evaluated as unattractive. Interestingly, wearing transparent masks decreased the perceived attractiveness of faces but only for the faces initially rated as attractive, possibly because of the visual distortion of the lower half of the face by transparent masks. In summary, we found that opaque and transparent masks have different effects on perceived attractiveness, depending on the attractiveness of faces. Given benefits of transparent masks in socio-emotional and cognitive processing, it would be important to further understand the effect of transparent masks on face information processing.

Good conduct makes your face attractive: The effect of personality perception on facial attractiveness judgments.

Human facial attractiveness is related to physical features, such as clear complexion and symmetry. However, it is also known that facial attractiveness judgments are influenced by a wide range of non-physical factors. Here, we examined the effect of the personality information of a target person on facial attractiveness judgments. In Experiment 1, participants read a verbal description of a target person (high or low honesty), followed by the presentation of the target face and facial attractiveness rating. The honest personality increased the rated facial attractiveness, replicating a previous report. This "honesty premium" effect was independent of pre-rated facial attractiveness (Experiment 1), target gender, participant gender, and target clothing (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 found that creative personality did not affect facial attractiveness ratings, while an aggressive personality was suggested to decrease the rated facial attractiveness of male targets. We did not find evidence that participants' moods caused these effects. The results suggest that the "what is good is beautiful" stereotype is robust and that facial attractiveness is malleable and dependent on various physical and non-physical information.

Effect of manipulating facial attractiveness judgements on the experience of intrusive thoughts in high facial appearance concern individuals

Elevated facial appearance concern is characterised by highly frequent and distressing intrusive thoughts about appearance. Recent evidence suggests that enhanced readiness to make attractive (rather than unattractive) judgements of one's own and others' faces is associated with reduced experiencing of intrusive thoughts in high facial appearance concern individuals. The current study sought to experimentally evaluate the causal nature of this relationship. Females with high facial appearance concern (N = 123) completed the novel Judgement Dimension Manipulation (JDM) under conditions that required making ‘attractive’ judgments (i.e., only attractive faces were judged in terms of their attractiveness) or ‘unattractive’ judgments (i.e., only unattractive faces were judged in terms of their attractiveness). Prior to, and following the manipulation, participants completed a measure of intrusion frequency. Results revealed that the JDM was effective in inducing differential facial attractiveness judgements across the two groups and that this, in turn, impacted on intrusion frequency. Specifically, participants that were instructed to make ‘attractive’ judgments exhibited reduced intrusion frequency. These findings suggest that making attractive judgements of one's own and others' faces causally impacts on the experience of appearance-related intrusive thoughts and implicate that targeting this process may have potential therapeutic value.

Investigating the Crossmodal Influence of Odour on the Visual Perception of Facial Attractiveness and Age.

We report two experiments designed to investigate whether the presentation of a range of pleasant fragrances, containing both floral and fruity notes, would modulate people's judgements of the facial attractiveness (Experiment1) and age (Experiment2) of a selection of typical female faces varying in age in the range 20-69 years. In Experiment1, male participants rated the female faces as less attractive when presented with an unpleasant fragrance compared to clean air. The rated attractiveness of the female faces was lower when the participants rated the unpleasant odour as having a lower attractiveness and pleasantness, and a higher intensity. In Experiment2, both male and female participants rated the age of female faces while presented with one of four pleasant fragrances or clean air as a control. Only the female participants demonstrated a crossmodal effect, with the pleasant fragrances inducing an older rating for female faces in the 40-49-years-old age range, whereas a younger rating was documented for female faces in the 60-69-years-old age range. Taken together, these results are consistent with the view that while the valence of fragrance (pleasant versus unpleasant) exerts a robust crossmodal influence over judgements of facial attractiveness, the effects of pleasant fragrance on judgements of a person's age appear to be less reliable. One possible explanation for the differing effect of scent in the two cases relates to the fact that attractiveness judgements are more subjective, hedonic, and/or intuitive than age ratings which are more objective, cognitive-mediated, and/or analytic in nature.

The Effect of Odor Valence on Facial Attractiveness Judgment: A Preliminary Experiment

The role of social odors on human social interactions, including face evaluation, has been widely indicated. However, for nonsocial odors, there has not been a consistent conclusion. Therefore, this study aimed to verify the effect of suprathreshold nonsocial odors on facial attractiveness judgment when the visual input is ambiguous. We designed a 3 (odor valence: neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant) × 7 (continuous levels of morphed fuzziness of attractiveness: 37.5% to 62.5%) within-subject experiment. A total of 30 participants (18 females) completed the whole experiment simultaneously for three consecutive days. The results showed that faces presented with pleasant and neutral odors were judged as significantly more attractive than those with unpleasant odors. The intervention effect of odor valence on facial attractiveness differed by fuzzy attractiveness levels. Results also suggested that male faces were perceived as more attractive than female faces no matter the odor conditions. The results of this study provide evidence to support the cross-modal emotion integration effect of olfaction and vision. Follow-up studies need to be conducted to reveal the underlying mechanism of odor valence on visual fact attractive judgment.

Comparisons make faces more attractive: An ERP study.

Facial attractiveness judgment largely depends on the characteristics of the facial structure and the personality of the observer. However, little is known about the influence of contextual variations on facial attractiveness. In this electroencephalogram study, participants judged the attractiveness of faces presented individually or in pairs with either a higher‐attractive face (HAF) or lower‐attractive face (LAF). The attractiveness judgment rating of the target face was significantly higher when presented in pairs with HAFs or LAFs than when presented individually and was accompanied by a larger late positive complex. These results suggest that contextual faces enhance the attractiveness judgment of target faces. Microstate analyses revealed that the global field power (GFP) of state 3 was significantly correlated with the attractiveness judgment in the HAF condition whereas the GFP of state 2 was significantly correlated with the attractiveness judgment in the LAF condition. Interestingly, the GFP of state 2 mediated the relationship between narcissism and facial attractiveness judgment in the context of LAFs. Source location analyses showed that states 3 and 2 activated the superior and middle frontal gyrus, which are involved in emotion processing. Our findings suggest that facial attractiveness can be enhanced by contextual comparison with other faces, subject to personality of the observer.

Vulnerability of facial attractiveness perception to early and multi-year visual deprivation.

Judgments of facial attractiveness invariably accompany our perception of faces. Even neonates appear to be capable of making such judgments in a manner consistent with adults. This suggests that the processes supporting facial attractiveness require little, if any, visual experience to manifest. Here we investigate the resilience of these processes to several years of early-onset visual deprivation. Specifically, we study whether congenitally blind children treated several years after birth possess the ability to rate facial attractiveness in a manner congruent to normally sighted individuals. The data reveal significant individual variability in the way each newly sighted child perceives attractiveness. This is in marked contrast to data from normally sighted controls who exhibit strong across-subject agreement in facial attractiveness ratings. This variability may be attributable, in part, to atypical facial encoding strategies used by the newly sighted children. Overall, our results suggest that the development of facial attractiveness perception is likely to be vulnerable to early visual deprivation, pointing to the existence of a possible sensitive period early in the developmental trajectory.

Does facial attractiveness really signal immunocompetence?

The dominant theory of facial attractiveness judgments is that they evolved to identify healthy individuals with strong immune systems. Here, we summarize results of recent tests of this hypothesis, concluding that it has little compelling empirical support. We then propose an alternative perspective that emphasizes the effects of lifestyle health.

Sequential effects in facial attractiveness judgments: Separating perceptual and response biases

ABSTRACT When items are presented sequentially, the evaluation of the current item is biased by both the previous item’s value (perceptual bias) and the previous response given (response bias). While these biases have been identified in judgements of facial attractiveness, it is unclear as to whether they produce assimilation and/or contrast effects. Here, two tasks were employed to measure each bias in isolation. By presenting a preceding face without collecting a response, perceptual biases could be investigated, while response biases were considered by requesting a preceding response without presenting a face. Our results demonstrated a perceptual bias in which attractiveness ratings given to the current face shifted away from the baseline attractiveness value of the previous face, while we found no evidence of a response bias due to the previously selected value. These findings highlight the utility in considering sequential biases separately when trying to determine the nature of these effects.

Having options alters the attractiveness of familiar versus novel faces: Sex differences and similarities

Although online dating allows us to access a wider pool of romantic partners, choice could induce an ‘assessment mindset’, orienting us toward ‘optimal’ or alternative partners and undermining our willingness to commit or remain committed to someone. Contextual changes in judgements of facial attractiveness can shed light on this issue. We directly test this proposal by activating a context where participants imagine choosing between items in picture slideshows (dates or equally attractive desserts), observing its effects on attraction to i) faces on second viewing and ii) novel versus familiar identities. Single women, relative to single men, were less attracted to the same face on second viewing (Experiments 2 and 4), with this sex difference only observed after imagining not ‘matching’ with any romantic dates in our slideshow (i.e., low choice, Experiment 4). No equivalent sex differences were observed in the absence of experimental choice slideshows (Experiment 3), and these effects (Experiment 2) were not moderated by slideshow content (romantic dates or desserts) or choice set size (five versus fifteen items). Following slideshows, novel faces were more attractive than familiar faces (Experiment 1), with this effect stronger in men than in women (Experiment 2), and stronger across both sexes after imagining ‘matching’ with desired romantic dates (i.e., high choice, Experiment 4). Our findings suggest that familiarity does not necessarily ‘breed liking’ when we have the autonomy to choose, revealing lower-order socio-cognitive mechanisms that could underpin online interactions, such as when browsing profiles and deciding how to allocate effort to different users.

Facial Attractiveness: The Role of Iris Ratio

The ratio of iris width to eye width in the human eye is roughly 0.6 during infancy, falls to about 0.42 in young adulthood and middle age, and then increases again after age 50. Thus the iris-to-eye ratio (IER) is a nonlinear, probabilistic signal of age. Has natural selection shaped our judgments of facial attractiveness to be sensitive to the IER? Here we present an experiment suggesting that, for male observers, the answer is yes. On each trial, an observer viewed two young adult faces that were identical except for IER (0.48 versus 0.42), and indicated which face was more attractive. Male observers preferred the larger IER (which signals youth) in both male and female faces, suggesting that males have indeed been shaped by natural selection to be sensitive to the IER in their judgments of facial attractiveness, and to prefer IERs indicative of youth. Viewing faces upside-down did not affect this preference, indicating that IER is processed primarily as a local feature in the analysis of facial attractiveness. Females showed no preference for larger or smaller IERs, a result that invites further exploration.

A preliminary study on the effect of gender‐matched odours on the evaluation of emotional, cognitive and aesthetic characteristics of faces

AbstractFacial attractiveness plays an important role in everyday social interactions. In the present study, we investigated whether people's evaluation of attractiveness can be modulated by odours. In Experiment 1, twelve participants rated a series of odours on several perceptual and synaesthetic characteristics (gender, pleasantness, cheerfulness, intensity, arousal and association with food), along visual analogue scales. In Experiment 2, the participants judged the attractiveness of female and male faces, while smelling an odour that was rated in Experiment 1 as more feminine (caramel), masculine (licorice) or when odourless water was presented. The results showed that the participants evaluated female faces as more attractive when the caramel odour was concurrently presented. By contrast, the participants evaluated the male faces as more attractive when the licorice odour was presented. These results highlight the importance of the synaesthetic associations between “gender” and odours on people's judgements of facial attractiveness.

The dissociable influence of social context on judgements of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness.

The cheerleader effect occurs when the same face is rated to be more attractive when it is seen in a group compared to when seen alone. We investigated whether this phenomenon also occurs for trustworthiness judgements, and examined how these effects are influenced by the characteristics of the individual being evaluated and those of the group they are seen in. Across three experiments, we reliably replicated the cheerleader effect. Most faces became more attractive in a group. Yet, the size of the cheerleader effect that each face experienced was not related to its own attractiveness, nor to the attractiveness of the group or the group's digitally averaged face. We discuss the implications of our findings for the hierarchical encoding and contrast mechanisms that have previously been used to explain the cheerleader effect. Surprisingly, judgements of facial trustworthiness did not experience a 'cheerleader effect'. Instead, we found that untrustworthy faces became significantly more trustworthy in all groups, while there was no change for faces that were already trustworthy alone. Taken together, our results demonstrate that social context can have a dissociable influence on our first impressions, depending on the trait being evaluated.

Sequential effects in facial attractiveness judgments using cross-classified models: Investigating perceptual and response biases.

When evaluating items in a sequence, the current judgment is influenced by the previous item and decision. These sequential biases take the form of assimilation (shifting toward the previous item/decision) or contrast (shifting away). Previous research investigating facial attractiveness evaluations provides mixed results while using analytical techniques that fail to address the dependencies in the data or acknowledge that the images represent only a subset of the population. Here, we utilized cross-classified linear mixed-effects modeling across 5 experiments. We found compelling evidence of multicollinearity in our models, which may explain apparent contradictions in the literature. Our results demonstrated that the previous image's rating positively influenced current ratings, and this was also the case for the previous image's baseline value, although only when that image remained onscreen during the current trial. Further, we found no influence of the next face on current judgments when this was visible. In our final experiment, the response bias due to the previous trial remained present even when accounts involving motor effort were addressed. Taken together, these findings provide a clear framework in which to incorporate current and past results regarding the biases apparent in sequential judgments, along with an appropriate method for investigating these biases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Why do you attract me but not others? Retrieval of person knowledge and its generalization bring diverse judgments of facial attractiveness

ABSTRACT Judgments of facial attractiveness play an important role in social interactions. However, it still remains unclear why these judgments are malleable. The present study aimed to understand whether the retrieval of person knowledge leads to different judgments of attractiveness of the same face. Event-related potentials and learning-recognition tasks were used to investigate the effects of person knowledge on facial attractiveness. The results showed that compared with familiar faces that were matched with negative person knowledge, those matched with positive person knowledge were evaluated as more attractive and evoked a larger early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive complex (LPC). Additionally, positive similar faces had the same behavioral results and evoked large LPC, while unfamiliar faces did not have any significant effects. These results indicate that the effect of person knowledge on facial attractiveness occurs from early to late stage of facial attractiveness processing, and this effect could be generalized based on the similarity of the face structure, which occurred at the late stage. This mechanism may explain why individuals form different judgments of facial attractiveness.

Roles of social knowledge and sexual dimorphism in the evaluation of facial attractiveness

Sexual dimorphism is an important feature of faces that can trigger trait inferences and affect the evaluation of facial attractiveness. However, face-based trait inference depends on adaptive cues that may be informative but are poor indicators of stable traits. This study involved two experiments to investigate the interaction between sexual dimorphism and social knowledge in relation to the evaluation of facial attractiveness. Experiment 1 examined the interaction between the valence of social knowledge and sexual dimorphism, and Experiment 2 examined the interaction between the content of social knowledge and sexual dimorphism. Results of Experiment 1 showed that irrespective of gender, positive social information significantly improved attractiveness ratings, while negative social information significantly reduced attractiveness ratings. Results of Experiment 2 showed that when combined with feminine features, warmth information significantly improved facial attractiveness judgments of both male and female faces. When combined with masculine features, on the other hand, for male faces, competence information could enhance facial attractiveness, while for female faces, warmth information improved facial attractiveness judgments. The above results showed that different dimensions of social information play different roles in the relationship between sexual dimorphism and facial attractiveness. This study deepens the discussion regarding the relationship between “physical beauty” and “moral worthiness”, suggests a dual path of top-down and bottom-up processing in the evaluation of facial attractiveness, and reminds governmental authorities that taking personal traits as the threshold to set up role models could avoid misleading teenagers.

Supplemental Material for Sequential Effects in Facial Attractiveness Judgments Using Cross-Classified Models: Investigating Perceptual and Response Biases

Supplemental Material for Sequential Effects in Facial Attractiveness Judgments Using Cross-Classified Models: Investigating Perceptual and Response Biases