Male Faces Research Articles

Fritz Lang’s cinema of interruption and the narrative of modernity

A pair of anonymous hands draws photographs of various male faces from a deck, one by one. A fade and superimposition lead to a man (played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge) shuffling the same photos – the faces soon to be revealed as masks – from which he will choose an identity for his next escapade. We remain throughout the sequence in a world of intrigue, awaiting clarification. Following an exchange with a man named Spoerri, with whom he trades threats, the character pulls out a pocket watch, and the film cuts to an approaching train. Another cut takes us into a train compartment with a man who holds a document of some kind. He shares the carriage with another man who seems to be sleeping. Then, across a cut-in to a close-up, the fellow traveller opens one shifty eye to spy the documents lying on the opposite seat. Images of a car, more close-ups on pocket watches, a man having his hair done, a murder, a theft and a telephone call are edited together before the man we once thought was sleeping is seen in long shot jumping out of the train. A cut to Swiss bank notes being given to a legless man on the street. We understand that time is of the essence thanks to a repeated close-up of a pocket watch followed by a servant’s tardiness and, in turn, an accident that holds up the car racing through the streets. However, we do not yet know the reason for the hurry.

Using data-driven phenotyping to investigate the impact of sex on 3D human facial surface morphology.

The effects of sex on human facial morphology have been widely documented. Because sexual dimorphism is relevant to a variety of scientific and applied disciplines, it is imperative to have a complete and accurate account of how and where male and female faces differ. We apply a comprehensive facial phenotyping strategy to a large set of existing 3D facial surface images. We investigate facial sexual dimorphism in terms of size, shape, and shape variance. We also assess the ability to correctly assign sex based on shape, both for the whole face and for subregions. We applied a predefined data-driven segmentation to partition the 3D facial surfaces of 2446 adults into 63 hierarchically linked regions, ranging from global (whole face) to highly localized subparts. Each facial region was then analyzed with spatially dense geometric morphometrics. To describe the major modes of shape variation, principal components analysis was applied to the Procrustes aligned 3D points comprising each of the 63 facial regions. Both nonparametric and permutation-based statistics were then used to quantify the facial size and shape differences and visualizations were generated. Males were significantly larger than females for all 63 facial regions. Statistically significant sex differences in shape were also seen in all regions and the effects tended to be more pronounced for the upper lip and forehead, with more subtle changes emerging as the facial regions became more granular. Males also showed greater levels of shape variance, with the largest effect observed for the central forehead. Classification accuracy was highest for the full face (97%), while most facial regions showed an accuracy of 75% or greater. In summary, sex differences in both size and shape were present across every part of the face. By breaking the face into subparts, some shape differences emerged that were not apparent when analyzing the face as a whole. The increase in facial shape variance suggests possible evolutionary origins and may offer insights for understanding congenital facial malformations. Our classification results indicate that a high degree of accuracy is possible with only parts of the face, which may have implications for biometrics applications.

Oxytocin effects on amygdala reactivity to angry faces in males and females with antisocial personality disorder

The amygdala is a key region in current neurocircuitry models of reactive aggression as it is crucially involved in detecting social threat and provocation. An increased amygdala reactivity to angry faces has been reported in aggression-prone individuals and the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) could dampen anger-related amygdala reactivity in a number of mental disorders. One example is the antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) which has so far only been studied in limited numbers. To address the question whether OT can normalize amygdala hyperreactivity to emotional faces, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment with 20 men and 18 women with ASPD and 20 male and 20 female healthy control (HC) participants in a double-blind, randomized, placebo (PLC)-controlled within-subject design. Participants were exposed to an emotion classification task (fearful, angry, and happy faces) after receiving an intranasal dose (24 IU) of synthetic OT or PLC. We found OT to attenuate right amygdala hyperactivity to angry faces in participants with ASPD to such an extent that the intensity of amygdala activity in the ASPD group in the OT condition decreased to the level of amygdala activity in the PLC condition in the HC group. There was also a trend that OT effects were generally larger in women than in men. These findings suggest that OT differentially modulates the amygdala following social threatening or provoking cues in dependence of psychopathology (ASPD vs. HC) and sex (male vs. female). Particularly female ASPD patients could benefit from OT in the treatment of reactive aggression.

Gender equality in Swedish AI policies. What's the problem represented to be?

AbstractOver the past few decades, Sweden has established itself as a “world leader” in gender equality. Alongside this development, Swedish politicians have also initiated ambitious plans that aim to establish the country as “world class” in terms of digitalization. International research shows that women and racialized groups are in a minority in the design processes, that AI facial recognition systems are built with white male faces as the norm, and that digital tools replicate racial injustices. In this paper, we are interested in if, and if so how, gender equality is articulated and thus filled with meaning in national policies on AI and digitalization. The overall aim is to discuss the potential of gender (equality) mainstreaming to challenge systems of privilege in the implementation of AI systems in the public sector. The paper analyses how gender equality is filled with meaning in national policy documents on AI and gender equality. The main findings show that gender equality is turned into a question of lack of knowledge and information, which in turn blocks out an understanding of gender equality as something that is related to gendered power relations.

Enlarged rete pegs with excessive accumulation of melanosomes leading to darker aging spots revealed by histomorphological measurements of internal structures of the epidermis.

Various histological studies of facial pigmented spot sites such as solar lentigo have been reported, but few studies have used quantitative indices by histomorphometric analysis of the internal structure of pigmented spot sites using non-invasive methods. In the present study, to quantitatively elucidate morphological changes in the epidermis in male, darker-pigmented spots and female, light-pigmented spots, indices that characterize the internal structure of the epidermis in pigmented spot sites were measured using in vivo confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The darkness of pigmented spots on the cheeks of 69 women and 43 men was analysed using image analysis software. The L* value was calculated from RGB values obtained from facial images. The internal structures of pigmented spots on the cheeks of 13 subjects were observed by CLSM. Various parameters were measured using CLSM images from the surface of the stratum corneum to the bottom of the dermal papillae, including the thickness of the epidermis, melanosome content, and shape of the dermal papillae. Mean ΔL* values between pigmented spots and non-pigmented areas of male subjects were significantly increased in the 40s and 50s compared with those of female subjects. Conspicuous pigmented spots increased in the 40s in male subjects and the 50s in female subjects. In CLSM observations, significant increases in the thickness of the epidermis and melanosome content were confirmed in pigmented spots compared with surrounding non-pigmented areas. In particular, melanosome content in the male subject group with dark-coloured pigmented spots increased significantly to about eight times that of non-pigmented areas, and more than double that of the male subject group with light-coloured pigmented spots. From the measurements of quantitative parameters, morphological changes in the epidermis were clearly related to the surface colour tone of pigmented spots. Darker pigmented spot sites tended to show longer rete pegs in the epidermis. Accumulation of melanosomes in epidermal basal cells could be considered to increase with the degree of elongation of rete pegs at pigmented spot sites and, thus, induce darker pigmented spots.

The role of earnings management as mediator the effect of male CEO masculinity face on Research & Development

This study aims to explain the role of earnings management in mediating the influence of male CEO masculinity on research & development. This study uses a quantitative approach with a population and research sample using companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017–2021. This study collects facial images identified as male CEOs from data on the Indonesia Stock Exchange website and company websites and utilizes Google search. The data analysis method in this study uses Structural Equation Modeling which links theory, concepts and data that can be applied to research variables using Stata software. The findings explain that the role of earnings management mediates the influence of the male CEO’s masculinity face on research &development, meaning that the increase and decrease in the part of earnings management has an impact on increasing and decreasing the masculinity face of male CEOs also has an impact on increasing and decreasing research & development. The practical impact of the research results can help the Indonesian Institute of Accountants develop Financial Accounting Standard No. 19 in Indonesia. Theoretical implications of the research results can explain agency theory and behavioral consistency theory. The findings empirically have implications for company management in making policies related to the face of male masculinity which have an impact on earnings management practice policies and policy making on research & development expenditures, so that the empirical findings can be used by company management and the Indonesian government as policy makers in developing countries as a comparison of developed country policies. Throughout the study’s observations to date, it has not found any research on the topic of the role of profit management mediating the influence of the masculinity of male CEOs associated with research & development costs. The distinct role of male CEOs affects research & development policies and cost. The originality of this study can be shown by the differences from previous studies, first (Jia et al., Citation2014) explain that the face of masculinity of male CEOs has a positive effect on profit management practices. The second (Kamiya et al., Citation2018a; Asyik et al., Citation2022) explains that the face of masculinity of male CEOs has a positive impact on leverage. Research & development in the company have an essential position to increase the company’s long-term profitability

Responses to Sad Emotion in Autistic and Normal Developing Children: Is There a Difference?

This paper describes how the gazing pattern differ between the responses of Normal Developing (ND) and Autistic (AP) children to sad emotion. We employed an eye tracking technology to collect and track the participants’ eye movements by showing a dynamic stimulus (video) that showed a gradual transition from pale emotions to melancholy facial expressions in both female and male faces. The location of the child's gaze in the stimulus was the focus of our data analysis. We deduced that there was a distinction between the two groups based on this. ND children predominantly concentrated on the eyes and mouth region of both male and female sad faces, but AP children showed no interest in these areas by glancing away from the stimuli faces. Based on the findings, an ideal eye tracking model for early ASD diagnosis can be constructed. This will aid in the early treatment of Autism children as well as the development of socio-cognitive skills.

EmoSex: Emotion prevails over sex in implicit judgments of faces and voices.

Appraisals can be influenced by cultural beliefs and stereotypes. In line with this, past research has shown that judgments about the emotional expression of a face are influenced by the face's sex, and vice versa that judgments about the sex of a person somewhat depend on the person's facial expression. For example, participants associate anger with male faces, and female faces with happiness or sadness. However, the strength and the bidirectionality of these effects remain debated. Moreover, the interplay of a stimulus' emotion and sex remains mostly unknown in the auditory domain. To investigate these questions, we created a novel stimulus set of 121 avatar faces and 121 human voices (available at https://bit.ly/2JkXrpy) with matched, fine-scale changes along the emotional (happy to angry) and sexual (male to female) dimensions. In a first experiment (N = 76), we found clear evidence for the mutual influence of facial emotion and sex cues on ratings, and moreover for larger implicit (task-irrelevant) effects of stimulus' emotion than of sex. These findings were replicated and extended in two preregistered studies-one laboratory categorization study using the same face stimuli (N = 108; https://osf.io/ve9an), and one online study with vocalizations (N = 72; https://osf.io/vhc9g). Overall, results show that the associations of maleness-anger and femaleness-happiness exist across sensory modalities, and suggest that emotions expressed in the face and voice cannot be entirely disregarded, even when attention is mainly focused on determining stimulus' sex. We discuss the relevance of these findings for cognitive and neural models of face and voice processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Recognition of humans from biological motion in infants.

Infant studies have suggested that the detection of biological motion (BM) might be an innate capacity, based on newborns' spontaneous preference for BM. However, it is unclear if, like adults, infants recognize humans from BM and are able to build the representation of bodies and faces. To address this issue, we tested whether exposure to BM influences subsequent face recognition in 3- to 8-month-old infants. After familiarization with a point-light walker (PLW) of either a female or a male, the infant's preference for female and male faces was measured. If infants can build the representation of not only the body but also the face from PLWs, the familiarization effect of gender induced by the PLW might be generalized to faces. We found that infants at 7 to 8 months looked for longer at the face whose gender was opposite to that of the PLW, whereas 3- to 4- and 5- to 6-month-old infants did not. These results suggest that infants can access the representation of humans from BM and extract gender, which is shared across bodies and faces, from at least 7 to 8 months of age.

Impact of Socio-demographic Determinants on Individual Health in Bangladesh

This study aims to investigate the impact of socio-demographic factors on health in Bangladesh using the World Health Survey dataset. Using the seemingly unrelated regression models the study reveals that female compared to male faces more challenges in terms of problems regarding mobility, self-care, bodily pain, sleeping, remembering and depression. The study also finds that as the level of education increases the severity of facing these problems reduces. Furthermore, people who are never married widowed and separated or divorced experience more problems in terms of self-care, remembrance, sleeping as well as depression compared to those who are currently married.

The role of the upper and lower face in the recognition of facial identity in dynamic stimuli

Studies with static faces find that upper face halves are more easily recognized than lower face halves—an upper-face advantage. However, faces are usually encountered as dynamic stimuli, and there is evidence that dynamic information influences face identity recognition. This raises the question of whether dynamic faces also show an upper-face advantage. The objective of this study was to examine whether familiarity for recently learned faces was more accurate for upper or lower face halves, and whether this depended upon whether the face was presented as static or dynamic. In Experiment 1, subjects learned a total of 12 faces--6 static images and 6 dynamic video-clips of actors in silent conversation. In experiment 2, subjects learned 12 faces, all dynamic video-clips. During the testing phase of Experiments 1 (between subjects) and 2 (within subjects), subjects were asked to recognize upper and lower face halves from either static images and/or dynamic clips. The data did not provide evidence for a difference in the upper-face advantage between static and dynamic faces. However, in both experiments, we found an upper-face advantage, consistent with prior literature, for female faces, but not for male faces. In conclusion, the use of dynamic stimuli may have little effect on the presence of an upper-face advantage, especially when the static comparison contains a series of static images, rather than a single static image, and is of sufficient image quality. Future studies could investigate the influence of face gender on the presence of an upper-face advantage.

The role of hormones in attraction and visual attention to facial masculinity.

The current study investigated the ovulatory shift hypothesis, which suggests that women prefer more masculine traits when estradiol is high, and progesterone is low (E/P ratio). The current study used an eye tracking paradigm to measure women's visual attention to facial masculinity across the menstrual cycle. Estradiol (E) and progesterone (P) were collected to determine if salivary biomarkers were associated with visual attention to masculine faces in a short- and long-term mating context. Women (N = 81) provided saliva samples at three time points throughout their menstrual cycle and were asked to rate and view men's faces that had been manipulated to appear feminine and masculine. Overall, masculine faces were viewed longer compared to feminine faces and this was moderated by mating context, where women viewed masculine faces longer for a long-term relationship. There was not any evidence suggesting that E/P ratio was associated with preferences for facial masculinity, but there was evidence to suggest that hormones were associated with visual attention to men in general. In line with sexual strategies theory, there was evidence to suggest that mating context and facial masculinity are important in mate choice; however, there was no evidence to suggest that women's mate choice was associated with shifts across the menstrual cycle.

The role of leverage as mediator the effect of male CEO masculinity face on research & development

This study aims to prove the support of Agency Theory and Behavioral Consistency Theory as a solution to explain the role of leverage in mediating the influence of male CEO masculinity on research and development. This study uses a quantitative approach with a population and research sample using companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017–2021. This study collects facial images identified as male CEOs from data on the Indonesia Stock Exchange website and company websites and utilizes Google search. The data analysis method in this study uses Structural Equation Modeling which connects theories, concepts and data that can be applied to research variables. The findings explain that decreasing and increasing leverage has an impact on increasing and decreasing the masculinity value of male CEOs as well as increasing and decreasing the value of research and development. The implications of the results of this research can assist the Indonesian Institute of Accountants in developing Financial Accounting Standards No. 19 in Indonesia. The theoretical implications of the results of this study can be explained through Agency Theory, Behavioral Consistency Theory and Upper Echelon Theory. The policy implications of the results of this study can provide empirical evidence that the higher the face value of masculinity for male CEOs has an impact on increasing leverage and research and development costs, conversely the lower face value of masculinity for male CEOs has an impact on increasing the value of leverage as well as research and development, and leverage mediates the effect of face male CEO masculinity on research and development costs.

Sex-specific effects of human chemosignal on perception of angry but not fearful faces

Androsta-4,16,-dien-3-one (androstadienone), a steroids implicated as a human social chemosignal, has been reported to impact one’s emotional perception along the valence axis. The current study takes a step further to examine whether it modulates the perception of angry and fearful faces, two negative emotions that are similar with respect to valence and arousal, but signal different social values. Systematic comparisons of psychophysical data collected from 40 heterosexual men and 45 heterosexual women revealed that androstadienone subconsciously biased heterosexual men toward perceiving the male faces as less angry, while it biased the heterosexual women toward perceiving the female faces as angrier. Meanwhile, androstadienone did not affect the perception of fearful faces in either men or women. These findings indicate that the modulation of androstadienone on negative emotional perceptions is not uniform, suggesting that it alters the perception of specific rather than general negative emotions. In particular, it impacts one’s perception of anger, which signals impending aggression, and hence could further impact an individual’s social interaction in a sex-specific manner.

Perceptions of inferred parental ability through sexually dimorphic facial features

AbstractIn addition to providing robust cues diagnostic of prospective mates' heritable fitness, various physical features could be similarly utilized in inferring individuals' parental abilities. This study sought to explore how variations in sexually dimorphic facial features inform perceptions of social targets as motivated to provide parental care. American undergraduates (N = 244) viewed a series of 12 total male and female faces manipulated at varying degrees of sex‐typicality (i.e., masculinized versus feminized versus unaltered controls) on a within‐subjects basis, and rated the perceived motivation of each target to nurture and protect a child using items derived from the Parental Care and Tenderness Scale. Female targets were perceived as more motivated by parental care than male targets, F(1, 240) = 14.86, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.058, whereas male targets were perceived as specifically motivated to protect offspring, F(1, 240) = 177.32, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.425. Feminized targets were additionally perceived as more motivated by nurturance, though such inferences were apparent for both male and female targets, F(1, 240) = 7.36, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.058. Findings represent an understanding of perceivers use of functional heuristics of sexual dimorphism in identifying optimal parents.

Do more masculine-faced CEOs reflect more tax avoidance? Evidence from Indonesia

The present paper provides new empirical evidence on the relationship between CEO facial masculinity and tax avoidance. We use data from non-financial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period 2010–2019. The findings suggest that the CEO facial masculinity is positively associated with tax avoidance, which is one of the risky financial decisions. We also conducted a battery of robustness tests, including testing the sample of companies with/without a risk management committee, the interaction with CEO age and big 4 audit firm, the implementation of the tax amnesty in Indonesia, and addressing endogeneity using the propensity score matching. The current measurement of CEO masculinity, which is based on the fWHR of the CEO’s photo, could be further developed by future studies using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This study contributes to the literature on CEO characteristics by filling in the gaps of biological characteristics associated with tax avoidance decisions. This is the first study investigating the relationship between CEO biological characteristics and tax avoidance.

Overgeneralizing emotions: Facial width-to-height revisited.

Facial width-to height ratio (fWHR), presumed to be shaped by testosterone during puberty, has been linked with aggressive, dominant, and power-seeking behavioral traits in adult males, although the causal mediation is still being disputed. To investigate the role of mere observer attribution bias in the association, we instructed participants to draw, feature-assemble, or photo-edit faces of fictitious males with aggressive-dominant character (compared with peaceloving-submissive), or powerful social status (compared with powerless). Across three studies involving 1,100 modeled faces in total, we observed little evidence for attribution bias with regards to facial width. Only in the photo-edited faces did character condition seem to affect fWHR; this difference, however, relied on displayed state emotions, not on static facial features. Anger, in particular, was expressed by lowered or V-shaped eyebrows, whereby facial height was reduced so that fWHR increased, relative to the comparison condition where the opposite happened. Using Bayesian analyses and equivalence testing, we confirmed that, in the absence of state emotionality, there was no effect of character condition on facial width. Our results add to a number of recent studies stressing the role of emotion overgeneralization in the association of fWHR with personality traits, an attributional bias that may give rise to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Methodologically, we infer that static images may be of limited use for investigations of fWHR because they cannot sufficiently differentiate between transient muscular activation and identity-related bone structures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Black men in white coats - Barriers black men face in medicine, implications to decreased representation, and potential interventions at the uniformed services university of the health sciences

The number of black male applicants to US medical schools has remained stagnant over the last 30 years. The etiology behind the lack of applicants is multifaceted and involves greater systemic barriers, specifically, educational and social barriers. The lack of representation of black males in medicine also has downstream implications for the health of the African American/black community. African Americans exhibit some of the lowest levels of trust in the healthcare system, have less access to care than their non-minority peers, and have, comparatively, poorer healthcare outcomes than other populations in the US. Research has demonstrated that patient-provider race concordance improves communication, outcomes, culturally competent care, and satisfaction with care. The greater the gap between these two populations, the harder it becomes to improve healthcare outcomes, maintain a medically ready fighting force in the US military, and improve trust in the healthcare system. This article provides an analysis of the multifactorial barriers black male applicants face applying, matriculating, and graduating medical school and how decreased representation may affect healthcare delivery. Furthermore, this review explores next steps and potential implementations at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences to address the above deficiencies.

Rapid and delayed stress effects on recognition of female and male faces

Stress and the stress hormone cortisol typically impair memory recognition, especially for emotional words, scenes or objects. However, prior research almost exclusively focused on rapid non-genomic cortisol effects. Additionally, findings for stress hormone effects on face stimuli are contradictory and rare, although very relevant for everyday life. In this preregistered study, we investigated the rapid and delayed stress effects on memory recognition for faces. In a two-day design, 52 healthy men first encoded pictures of male and female faces with distinct emotional expressions. One day later, participants were exposed to a psychophysiological stress (Socially Evaluated Cold-Pressor Test) or a (warm water) control procedure. Memory for the faces was tested at two time points: 25 min after stress onset at the peak of the cortisol increase for stressed participants (rapid non-genomic cortisol effects, which presumably operate within minutes through membrane bound receptors), as well as 90 min after stress onset when cortisol concentrations were back to baseline (delayed genomic cortisol effects, which describe an altered gene transcription resulting in modified neural functions, acting supposedly via intracellular receptors). Rapid stress effects led to enhanced memory recognition for female faces selectively, whereas delayed stress effects led to enhanced memory recognition across male and female faces. Altogether, we observed a beneficial rather than detrimental impact of stress on face recognition with a differential impact on recognition of male and female faces over time. It remains to be determined if this beneficial stress effect relies on the interaction of participants’ sex and the sex of facial stimuli. Future research should also more closely look at the underlying mechanisms of how stress exactly influences face recognition, which is for example critically relevant for testimonies.

Perception of strength, attractiveness and aggressiveness of Maasai male faces calibrated to handgrip strength: Evidence from a European sample.

Previous research showed that male and female members of the Maasai from Northern Tanzania judge images of facial morphs calibrated to greater handgrip strength (HGS) higher on strength and attractiveness, but lower on aggressiveness than those calibrated to lower HGS. The accurate assessment of male physical strength from facial information may be adaptive as suggested by the evidence on health and fitness-related benefits linked to high muscular strength. This study extends previous work by obtaining European female (n= 220) and male (n= 51) assessments of HGS-calibrated Maasai male faces. Participants rated five facial morphs for strength, attractiveness, and aggressiveness on computer screens. Perceived physical strength increased with morphs calibrated to higher HGS. The lowest and highest HGS morphs were judged lower in attractiveness than the others, and rated aggressiveness decreased in morphs calibrated to higher HGS. Given the high similarity between the current study findings and those previously reported from intra-population assessments of Maasai faces calibrated to HGS, we suggest that strength and aggressiveness perceptions of facial features associated with male physical strength may be universal. Attractiveness assessments of strength-related information in the faces of (very) strong men were less consistent across populations, possibly attributable to cultural and ecological contexts.