The effects of face attractiveness on face memory depend on both age of perceiver and age of face

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 immediate attentional bias towards or choice bias for male secondary sexual characteristics in Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Primate faces provide information about a range of variant and invariant traits, including some that are relevant for mate choice. For example, faces of males may convey information about their health or genetic quality through symmetry or facial masculinity. Because perceiving and processing such information may have bearing on the reproductive success of an individual, cognitive systems are expected to be sensitive to facial cues of mate quality. However, few studies have investigated this topic in non-human primate species. Orang-utans are an interesting species to test mate-relevant cognitive biases, because they are characterised by male bimaturism: some adult males are fully developed and bear conspicuous flanges on the side of their face, while other males look relatively similar to females. Here, we describe two non-invasive computerised experiments with Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus), testing (i) immediate attention towards large flanges and symmetrical faces using a dot-probe task (N = 3 individuals; 2F) and (ii) choice bias for pictures of flanged males over unflanged males using a preference test (N = 6 individuals; 4F). In contrast with our expectations, we found no immediate attentional bias towards either large flanges or symmetrical faces. In addition, individuals did not show a choice bias for stimuli of flanged males. We did find exploratory evidence for a colour bias and energy efficiency trade-offs in the preference task. We discuss our null results and exploratory results in the context of the evolutionary history of Bornean orang-utans, and provide suggestions for a more biocentric approach to the study of orang-utan cognition.

Individual attractiveness preferences differentially modulate immediate and voluntary attention

Physical attractiveness plays a crucial role in mate choice for both men and women. This is reflected in visual attention: people immediately attend towards and look longer at attractive faces, especially when they are motivated to find a partner. However, previous studies did not incorporate real-life dating decisions. Here, we aimed to combine attentional tasks with individual attractiveness ratings and a real-life mate choice context, namely a speed-dating paradigm. We investigated whether heterosexual non-committed young adults showed biases in immediate and voluntary attention towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners. In line with previous research, we found considerable individual differences in individual attractiveness preferences. Furthermore, our results showed that men had a bias towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners in the immediate attention task, while results for women were mixed. In the voluntary attention task, however, both men and women had an attentional bias towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners. Our results suggest that individual attractiveness preferences are good predictors of especially voluntary attention. We discuss these findings from an evolutionary perspective and suggest directions for future research.

Aristotle's dream: Evolutionary and neural aspects of aesthetic communication in the arts

Art in general perception is something that transcends our notion of reality. In view of the earliest findings in Paleolithic sites, their abstract appearance and sometimes ceremonial context increased their status of a secret language. Even the first figurative cave paintings remained in a context of an encoded semantic whole. The highly symbolic value of art seemed invulnerable. It was just the claim for "mimesis" in Greek antiquity (Plato) that urged artists to "realistically" depict what can be seen-as to stay in track of eternal messages behind. This devaluated the artistic oeuvre to a purely imitating craft and had to overcome at once several inherent obstacles. First, that reality (the phenomenal world) is in general only a pale reflection of what lays behind (Platonic ideas) and second, that the human eye, unlike the human mind, cannot penetrate to more than ephemeral impressions. Moreover, it mixed up reality with what we are able to see (i.e. visual perception), thus supposing a pinpoint representation of the world by our senses. Aristotle was the first to qualify art as picturing more than we usually are meant to see, filling the gap between the sensual and the spiritual world. Aristotelian aesthetics includes concepts of reduction and selection of composition and emotion, thus a summarized view within any performance of poetics or painting. And it took centuries to close the gap between natural and aesthetic perception or art. Life sciences in the 20th century discovered the evolutionary basis of sensory perception as being highly biased and organized, concept as emotion-driven and thus, mentally equipped as well. This sets a new approach in our understanding of perception, art, and aesthetics as an ongoing communication in process on common bases. Art may cooperate or disagree, but never can cut the nexus with its perceptual prejudices and substrate.

Attractive memory: High destination memory for attractive faces

Research has demonstrated that destination memory (i.e., the ability to remember to whom information was previously told) can be influenced by characteristics (e.g., emotional expressions and age) of the destination. Building on this literature, we investigated whether destination memory can be influenced by the attractiveness of the destination. We invited participants to give information on attractive faces, unattractive faces, or neither-attractive-nor-unattractive faces. On a recognition test, they were invited to decide to whom each piece of information had been previously told. Results demonstrated higher destination memory (1) for attractive faces than for neither-attractive-nor-unattractive faces, and (2) for unattractive faces than for neither-attractive-nor-unattractive faces. We attribute the higher destination memory for attractive and unattractive destinations to their distinctiveness compared with neutrally attractive destinations. We also provide some attentional explanations for the high memory for attractive and unattractive destinations.