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Landers M, Sznycer D. The evolution of shame and its display. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2022; 4:e45. [PMID: 37588893 PMCID: PMC10426012 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2022.43] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
The shame system appears to be natural selection's solution to the adaptive problem of information-triggered reputational damage. Over evolutionary time, this problem would have led to a coordinated set of adaptations - the shame system - designed to minimise the spread of negative information about the self and the likelihood and costs of being socially devalued by others. This information threat theory of shame can account for much of what we know about shame and generate precise predictions. Here, we analyse the behavioural configuration that people adopt stereotypically when ashamed - slumped posture, downward head tilt, gaze avoidance, inhibition of speech - in light of shame's hypothesised function. This behavioural configuration may have differentially favoured its own replication by (a) hampering the transfer of information (e.g. diminishing audiences' tendency to attend to or encode identifying information - shame camouflage) and/or (b) evoking less severe devaluative responses from audiences (shame display). The shame display hypothesis has received considerable attention and empirical support, whereas the shame camouflage hypothesis has to our knowledge not been advanced or tested. We elaborate on this hypothesis and suggest directions for future research on the shame pose.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mitchell Landers
- Center for Early Childhood Research, Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Daniel Sznycer
- Oklahoma Center for Evolutionary Analysis, Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
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Tsou YT, Li B, Kret ME, Frijns JHM, Rieffe C. Hearing Status Affects Children's Emotion Understanding in Dynamic Social Situations: An Eye-Tracking Study. Ear Hear 2021; 42:1024-1033. [PMID: 33369943 PMCID: PMC8221710 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES For children to understand the emotional behavior of others, the first two steps involve emotion encoding and emotion interpreting, according to the Social Information Processing model. Access to daily social interactions is prerequisite to a child acquiring these skills, and barriers to communication such as hearing loss impede this access. Therefore, it could be challenging for children with hearing loss to develop these two skills. The present study aimed to understand the effect of prelingual hearing loss on children's emotion understanding, by examining how they encode and interpret nonverbal emotional cues in dynamic social situations. DESIGN Sixty deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children and 71 typically hearing (TH) children (3-10 years old, mean age 6.2 years, 54% girls) watched videos of prototypical social interactions between a target person and an interaction partner. At the end of each video, the target person did not face the camera, rendering their facial expressions out of view to participants. Afterward, participants were asked to interpret the emotion they thought the target person felt at the end of the video. As participants watched the videos, their encoding patterns were examined by an eye tracker, which measured the amount of time participants spent looking at the target person's head and body and at the interaction partner's head and body. These regions were preselected for analyses because they had been found to provide cues for interpreting people's emotions and intentions. RESULTS When encoding emotional cues, both the DHH and TH children spent more time looking at the head of the target person and at the head of the interaction partner than they spent looking at the body or actions of either person. Yet, compared with the TH children, the DHH children looked at the target person's head for a shorter time (b = -0.03, p = 0.030), and at the target person's body (b = 0.04, p = 0.006) and at the interaction partner's head (b = 0.03, p = 0.048) for a longer time. The DHH children were also less accurate when interpreting emotions than their TH peers (b = -0.13, p = 0.005), and their lower scores were associated with their distinctive encoding pattern. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that children with limited auditory access to the social environment tend to collect visually observable information to compensate for ambiguous emotional cues in social situations. These children may have developed this strategy to support their daily communication. Yet, to fully benefit from such a strategy, these children may need extra support for gaining better social-emotional knowledge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yung-Ting Tsou
- Unit of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Boya Li
- Unit of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Mariska E. Kret
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Johan H. M. Frijns
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Carolien Rieffe
- Unit of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK
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Bowdring MA, Sayette MA, Girard JM, Woods WC. In the Eye of the Beholder: A Comprehensive Analysis of Stimulus Type, Perceiver, and Target in Physical Attractiveness Perceptions. JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10919-020-00350-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Ho PK, Newell FN. Turning Heads: The Effects of Face View and Eye Gaze Direction on the Perceived Attractiveness of Expressive Faces. Perception 2020; 49:330-356. [PMID: 32063133 DOI: 10.1177/0301006620905216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
We investigated whether the perceived attractiveness of expressive faces was influenced by head turn and eye gaze towards or away from the observer. In all experiments, happy faces were consistently rated as more attractive than angry faces. A head turn towards the observer, whereby a full-face view was shown, was associated with relatively higher attractiveness ratings when gaze direction was aligned with face view (Experiment 1). However, preference for full-face views of happy faces was not affected by gaze shifts towards or away from the observer (Experiment 2a). In Experiment 3, the relative duration of each face view (front-facing or averted at 15°) during a head turn away or towards the observer was manipulated. There was benefit on attractiveness ratings for happy faces shown for a longer duration from the front view, regardless of the direction of head turn. Our findings support previous studies indicating a preference for positive expressions on attractiveness judgements, which is further enhanced by the front views of faces, whether presented during a head turn or shown statically. In sum, our findings imply a complex interaction between cues of social attention, indicated by the view of the face shown, and reward on attractiveness judgements of unfamiliar faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pik Ki Ho
- School of Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Institute of Anatomy I, University Hospital Jena, Germany
| | - Fiona N Newell
- School of Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
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Papio MA, Fields HW, Beck FM, Firestone AR, Rosenstiel SF. The effect of dental and background facial attractiveness on facial attractiveness and perceived integrity and social and intellectual qualities. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2019; 156:464-474.e1. [PMID: 31582118 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajodo.2018.10.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2018] [Revised: 10/01/2018] [Accepted: 10/01/2018] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The purposes of this study were to assess the role of dental attractiveness in background facial attractiveness and to evaluate how facial and dental attractiveness influenced raters' opinions of the integrity, social attractiveness, and intellectual attractiveness of the models. METHODS Photographs of male and female individuals rated by peers as unattractive, average, and attractive were combined with oral images of 4 different levels of dental attractiveness (Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need [IOTN] 1, 5, 7, and 10). Sixty-seven participants meeting the inclusion criteria were recruited as raters. Raters viewed closed-lip smile and open-lip, posed smile of 24 models and rated them for facial attractiveness and integrity and multiple social/intellectual attractiveness dimensions using a Visual Analog Scale. RESULTS Intrarater reliability was fair to excellent. Analysis of variance showed significant 3-way interactions (P < 0.0001=aim 1; P < 0.005=aim 2) for model sex, facial attractiveness, and dental attractiveness. The contribution of dental attractiveness to facial attractiveness was not fixed or linear, but dependent on dental attractiveness level, background facial attractiveness, and model sex. For both sexes, dental impact on facial attractiveness was neutral or negative when teeth were less than ideal, beginning at IOTN 5 for all background facial attractiveness levels. The impact of dental attractiveness on integrity and social and intellectual attractiveness was also dependent on dental attractiveness level, background facial attractiveness, and model sex. Dental attractiveness can make dramatic differences in Average and Attractive male individuals. CONCLUSIONS The impact of dental attractiveness on facial attractiveness and integrity and social and intellectual attractiveness was dependent on dental attractiveness level, background facial attractiveness, and model sex. The effect of dental esthetics on facial attractiveness was neutral or negative for both male and female individuals when there was a need for treatment (IOTN 5 or higher) for all levels of facial attractiveness. For both male and female models, lower dental esthetics had a greater effect on more attractive faces. Judgments about integrity and social and intellectual attractiveness were strongly affected by dental esthetics, and these effects were more dramatic and consistent for male faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa A Papio
- Division of Orthodontics, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, Columbus, OH
| | - Henry W Fields
- Division of Orthodontics, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, Columbus, OH.
| | - F Michael Beck
- Division of Biosciences, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, Columbus, OH
| | - Allen R Firestone
- Division of Orthodontics, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, Columbus, OH
| | - Stephen F Rosenstiel
- Division of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
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Zhang L, Holzleitner IJ, Lee AJ, Wang H, Han C, Fasolt V, DeBruine LM, Jones BC. A Data-Driven Test for Cross-Cultural Differences in Face Preferences. Perception 2019; 48:487-499. [DOI: 10.1177/0301006619849382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has shown strong cross-cultural agreement in facial attractiveness judgments. However, these studies all used a theory-driven approach in which responses to specific facial characteristics are compared between cultures. This approach is constrained by the predictions that can be derived from existing theories and can therefore bias impressions of the extent of cross-cultural agreement in face preferences. We directly addressed this problem by using a data-driven, rather than theory-driven, approach to compare facial attractiveness judgments made by Chinese-born participants who were resident in China, Chinese-born participants currently resident in the UK, and UK-born and UK-resident White participants. Analyses of the principal components along which faces naturally varied suggested that Chinese and White UK participants used face information in different ways, at least when judging women’s facial attractiveness. In other words, the data-driven approach used in this study revealed some cross-cultural differences in face preferences that were not apparent in studies using theory-driven approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lingshan Zhang
- Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
| | | | - Anthony J. Lee
- Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
| | - Hongyi Wang
- School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Chengyang Han
- Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
| | - Vanessa Fasolt
- Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
| | - Lisa M. DeBruine
- Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
| | - Benedict C. Jones
- Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
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Sedgewick JR, Flath ME, Elias LJ. Presenting Your Best Self(ie): The Influence of Gender on Vertical Orientation of Selfies on Tinder. Front Psychol 2017; 8:604. [PMID: 28484408 PMCID: PMC5399073 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2016] [Accepted: 04/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
When taking a self-portrait or “selfie” to display in an online dating profile, individuals may intuitively manipulate the vertical camera angle to embody how they want to be perceived by the opposite sex. Concepts from evolutionary psychology and grounded cognition suggest that this manipulation can provide cues of physical height and impressions of power to the viewer which are qualities found to influence mate-selection. We predicted that men would orient selfies more often from below to appear taller (i.e., more powerful) than the viewer, and women, from an above perspective to appear shorter (i.e., less powerful). A content analysis was conducted which coded the vertical orientation of 557 selfies from profile pictures on the popular mobile dating application, Tinder. In general, selfies were commonly used by both men (54%) and women (90%). Consistent with our predictions, a gender difference emerged; men's selfies were angled significantly more often from below, whereas women's were angled more often from above. Our findings suggest that selfies presented in a mate-attraction context are intuitively or perhaps consciously selected to adhere to ideal mate qualities. Further discussion proposes that biological or individual differences may also facilitate vertical compositions of selfies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Meghan E Flath
- Department of Psychology, University of SaskatchewanSaskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Lorin J Elias
- Department of Psychology, University of SaskatchewanSaskatoon, SK, Canada
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Kaisler RE, Leder H. Combined Effects of Gaze and Orientation of Faces on Person Judgments in Social Situations. Front Psychol 2017; 8:259. [PMID: 28275364 PMCID: PMC5319968 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2016] [Accepted: 02/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In social situations, faces of others can vary simultaneously in gaze and orientation. How these variations affect different kinds of social judgments, such as attractiveness or trustworthiness, is only partly understood. Therefore, we studied how different gaze directions, head angles, but also levels of facial attractiveness affect perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness. We always presented pairs of faces - either two average attractive faces or a highly attractive together with a less attractive face. We also varied gaze and head angles showing faces in three different orientations, front, three-quarter and profile view. In Experiment 1 (N = 62), participants rated averted gaze in three-quarter views as more attractive than in front and profile views, and evaluated faces with direct gaze in front views as most trustworthy. Moreover, faces that were being looked at by another face were seen as more attractive. Independent of the head orientation or gaze direction, highly attractive faces were rated as more attractive and more trustworthy. In Experiment 2 (N = 54), we found that the three-quarter advantage vanished when the second face was blurred during judgments, which demonstrates the importance of the presence of another person-as in a triadic social situation-as well as the importance of their visible gaze. The findings emphasize that social evaluations such as trustworthiness are unaffected by the esthetic advantage of three-quarter views of two average attractive faces, and that the effect of a faces' attractiveness is more powerful than the more subtle effects of gaze and orientations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raphaela E. Kaisler
- Cognitive Science Research Platform, University of ViennaVienna, Austria
- Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of ViennaVienna, Austria
| | - Helmut Leder
- Cognitive Science Research Platform, University of ViennaVienna, Austria
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Sutherland CAM, Young AW, Rhodes G. Facial first impressions from another angle: How social judgements are influenced by changeable and invariant facial properties. Br J Psychol 2016; 108:397-415. [DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2016] [Revised: 04/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Clare A. M. Sutherland
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders School of Psychology University of Western Australia Crawley WA Australia
| | - Andrew W. Young
- Department of Psychology University of York Heslington North Yorkshire UK
| | - Gillian Rhodes
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders School of Psychology University of Western Australia Crawley WA Australia
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Sun D, Chan CCH, Fan J, Wu Y, Lee TMC. Are Happy Faces Attractive? The Roles of Early vs. Late Processing. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1812. [PMID: 26648885 PMCID: PMC4663264 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2015] [Accepted: 11/10/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial attractiveness is closely related to romantic love. To understand if the neural underpinnings of perceived facial attractiveness and facial expression are similar constructs, we recorded neural signals using an event-related potential (ERP) methodology for 20 participants who were viewing faces with varied attractiveness and expressions. We found that attractiveness and expression were reflected by two early components, P2-lateral (P2l) and P2-medial (P2m), respectively; their interaction effect was reflected by LPP, a late component. The findings suggested that facial attractiveness and expression are first processed in parallel for discrimination between stimuli. After the initial processing, more attentional resources are allocated to the faces with the most positive or most negative valence in both the attractiveness and expression dimensions. The findings contribute to the theoretical model of face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Delin Sun
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China
| | - Chetwyn C H Chan
- Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, China
| | - Jintu Fan
- Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, Connell University New York, NY, USA
| | - Yi Wu
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University Shanghai, China
| | - Tatia M C Lee
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China ; Institute of Clinical Neuropsychology, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China
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Neural and behavioral responses to attractiveness in adult and infant faces. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2014; 46 Pt 4:591-603. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.08.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 91] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2014] [Revised: 07/24/2014] [Accepted: 08/26/2014] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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Agreement and Individual Differences in Men’s Preferences for Women’s Facial Characteristics. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-0314-6_4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/20/2023] Open
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Kościński K. Perception of Facial Attractiveness from Static and Dynamic Stimuli. Perception 2013; 42:163-75. [DOI: 10.1068/p7378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Although people we meet in real life are usually seen in motion, research on facial attractiveness has predominantly been conducted on static facial images. This raises a question about ecological validity of results obtained in such studies. Recently, several studies endeavoured to determine the concordance between attractiveness of faces seen on photos and video clips, but their results are markedly divergent, frequently indicating no concordance. In the present study, the association between attractiveness of facial images and clips was tested on a larger sample than has previously been reported (106 females, 102 males), and features under the face owner's control (scalp and facial hair, makeup, mouth expression) were controlled for. Two types of facial images were used: photographs and frames extracted from films. Correlation coefficients between attractiveness of static and dynamic faces were high (about 0.7), did not depend on facial sex or image type (photograph/frame), and did not diminish when the covariates were controlled for. Furthermore, the importance of facial averageness, femininity/masculinity, symmetry, fattiness, skin health, and mouth expression for attractiveness proved similar for static and dynamic stimuli. This leads to the optimistic conclusion that results of studies relying on attractiveness assessments of static facial images are ecologically valid.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krzysztof Kościński
- Institute of Anthropology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
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Schmidt K, Levenstein R, Ambadar Z. Intensity of smiling and attractiveness as facial signals of trustworthiness in women. Percept Mot Skills 2012; 114:964-78. [PMID: 22913033 DOI: 10.2466/07.09.21.pms.114.3.964-978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Facial attractiveness is associated with a variety of positive social characteristics including trustworthiness. Variations in smiling, such as the appearance of the Duchenne marker and increased intensity of expression, have likewise been linked with positive judgments of trustworthiness. The study investigated the interaction of the effects of models' attractiveness and their smiling intensity on impressions of perceived trustworthiness. Participants rated the attractiveness and expressivity of neutral, low intensity, and high intensity smiling images of 45 women models. These images were also presented to a second group of participants who rated trustworthiness. Repeated measures analysis of covariance of the effects of attractiveness and manipulated smile intensity on trustworthiness indicated a main effect for smile intensity: increased smile intensity was associated with greater trustworthiness. Attractiveness also contributed to rated trustworthiness independently of smiling intensity. Results suggested there is an additional contribution of facial expression in creating social impressions of trustworthiness.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Schmidt
- University of Pittsburgh, Department of Oral Biology, PA 15219, USA.
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Quist MC, DeBruine LM, Little AC, Jones BC. Integrating social knowledge and physical cues when judging the attractiveness of potential mates. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.12.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
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Abstract
Eye-tracking was used to investigate whether gaze direction would influence the visual scanning of faces, when presented in the context of a full character, in different social settings, and with different task demands. Participants viewed individual computer agents against either a blank background or a bar scene setting, during both a free-viewing task and an attractiveness rating task for each character. Faces with a direct gaze were viewed longer than faces with an averted gaze regardless of body context, social settings, and task demands. Additionally, participants evaluated characters with a direct gaze as more attractive than characters with an averted gaze. These results, obtained with pictures of computer agents rather than real people, suggest that direct gaze is a powerful attention grabbing stimulus that is robust to background context or task demands.
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Jones BC, Main JC, Little AC, DeBruine LM. Further Evidence That Facial Cues of Dominance Modulate Gaze Cuing in Human Observers. SWISS JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2011. [DOI: 10.1024/1421-0185/a000056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Many studies have demonstrated a gaze-cuing effect in humans, whereby observers are quicker to respond to targets in locations cued by others’ gaze direction than they are to respond to uncued targets. Although researchers have generally suggested that this gaze-cuing effect is unaffected by facial cues other than gaze direction, recent work has challenged this view: Both human and macaque observers demonstrate greater gaze cuing when viewing conspecifics’ faces that possess physical cues associated with high dominance than when viewing those that possess physical cues associated with low dominance. In the current study, we tested for further evidence of dominance-contingent gaze cuing in women. We conducted a gaze-cuing experiment in which different individual female faces were used as cues and calculated the strength of the gaze-cuing effect for each face. Composite (i.e., average) faces manufactured from images of women who elicited particularly large gaze-cuing effects were perceived as more dominant than composites manufactured from images of women who elicited particularly small gaze-cuing effects. This result supports (1) the existence of dominance-contingent gaze-cuing in human observers and (2) the proposal that the gaze-cuing system is sensitive to facial cues other than gaze direction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benedict C. Jones
- Face Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Julie C. Main
- Face Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | | | - Lisa M. DeBruine
- Face Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
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Burke D, Sulikowski D. A New Viewpoint on the Evolution of Sexually Dimorphic Human Faces. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2010. [DOI: 10.1177/147470491000800404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Human faces show marked sexual shape dimorphism, and this affects their attractiveness. Humans also show marked height dimorphism, which means that men typically view women's faces from slightly above and women typically view men's faces from slightly below. We tested the idea that this perspective difference may be the evolutionary origin of the face shape dimorphism by having males and females rate the masculinity/femininity and attractiveness of male and female faces that had been manipulated in pitch (forward or backward tilt), simulating viewing the face from slightly above or below. As predicted, tilting female faces upwards decreased their perceived femininity and attractiveness, whereas tilting them downwards increased their perceived femininity and attractiveness. Male faces tilted up were judged to be more masculine, and tilted down judged to be less masculine. This suggests that sexual selection may have embodied this viewpoint difference into the actual facial proportions of men and women.
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Affiliation(s)
- Darren Burke
- School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, Australia
| | - Danielle Sulikowski
- Department of Brain, Behaviour and Evolution, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
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