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Wu W, Tian Y. The role of attention in the effect of facial attractiveness on time perception. Psych J 2024; 13:387-397. [PMID: 38530875 PMCID: PMC11169759 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Recent research has indicated that attractive faces often cause a dilation of our time perception thus affecting physical and mental health, and speculates that this could be relevant to the fact that attractive faces capture people's attention. Nevertheless, there was no direct experimental data to support this speculation. The present work was designed to illustrate how attention affects time perception of facial attractiveness. It utilized two experiments to investigate this phenomenon. In Experiment 1, perception of timing and attention bias were assessed using a temporal reproduction task and a dot-probe task. Increased attention bias was found to mediate the time dilation effect of facial attractiveness. Experiment 2 adopted dual-task paradigm, combining a temporal reproduction task and attractiveness rating task, to manipulate attention allocation. The findings suggested that allocating more attention to the task requiring timing enhanced the time dilation effect caused by the faces. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 converge to show that attention plays an essential role in the effects of facial attractiveness on time perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weiwen Wu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological SciencesSichuan Normal UniversityChengduChina
| | - Yu Tian
- Institute of Brain and Psychological SciencesSichuan Normal UniversityChengduChina
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2
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Hoffmann A, Schiestl S, Sinske P, Gondan M, Sachse P, Maran T. Sharing and Receiving Eye-Contact Predicts Mate Choice After a 5-Minute Conversation: Evidence from a Speed-Dating Study. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2024; 53:959-968. [PMID: 38379110 PMCID: PMC10920202 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-023-02806-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Revised: 12/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/22/2024]
Abstract
In popular narratives, the first date with a potential mate often centers on their gaze as embodiment of interest and attraction. However, evidence is still lacking on the role of eye-contact as a potent signal in human social interaction in the context of dating. In addition, behavioral mechanisms of mate selection are not well understood. In the present study, we therefore examined mutual eye-contact and its influence on mate choice by applying dual mobile eye-tracking during naturalistic speed-dates. A total of 30 male and 30 female subjects attended four speed-dates each (N = 240). Subjects were more likely to choose those dating partners with whom they shared more eye-contact with. In addition, perceived attractiveness played an important role for mate choice. Interestingly, receiving but not giving eye-contact also predicted individual mate choice. Eye-contact thus acts as an important signal of romantic attraction when encountering a dating partner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Hoffmann
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 5-7, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Sabrina Schiestl
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 5-7, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Philipp Sinske
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 5-7, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Matthias Gondan
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 5-7, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Pierre Sachse
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 5-7, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Thomas Maran
- Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Management, Free University of Bozen, Bozen, Italy
- LeadershipWerk, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
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3
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Valuch C, Pelowski M, Peltoketo VT, Hakala J, Leder H. Let's put a smile on that face-A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230413. [PMID: 37885994 PMCID: PMC10598417 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
In today's age of social media and smartphones, portraits-such as selfies or pictures of friends and family-are very frequently produced, shared and viewed images. Despite their prevalence, the psychological factors that characterize a 'good' photo-one that people will generally like, keep, and think is especially aesthetically pleasing-are not well understood. Here, we studied how a subtle change in facial expression (smiling) in portraits determines their aesthetic image value (beyond a more positive appearance of the depicted person). We used AI-based image processing tools in a broad set of portrait photographs and generated neutral and slightly smiling versions of the same pictures. Consistent across two experiments, portraits with a subtle smile increased both spontaneous aesthetic preferences in a swiping task as well as improving more explicit aesthetic ratings after prolonged viewing. Participants distinguished between aspects associated with image beauty and the depicted person's attractiveness, resulting in specific interactions between variables related to participant traits, image content, and task. Our study confirms that a subtle-and in this case fully artificial-smile reliably increases the aesthetic quality of portraits, illustrating how current image processing methods can target psychologically important variables and thereby increase the aesthetic value of photographs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Matthew Pelowski
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Jussi Hakala
- Huawei Technologies Oy (Finland) Co. Ltd, Tampere, Finland
| | - Helmut Leder
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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4
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Garza R, Byrd-Craven J. Women's Mating Strategies and Mate Value Are Associated with Viewing Time to Facial Masculinity. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2023:10.1007/s10508-023-02621-7. [PMID: 37245165 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-023-02621-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
Sexual selection has shaped women's preferences for ideal physical features in men that signal good health. Facial masculinity is often used as a proxy in signaling health, viability, and disease resistance, and it is thought to be attractive because it advertises heritable benefits. Preferences for facial masculinity are also associated with individual differences in one's sociosexuality and mate value, where women oriented toward a short-term mating orientation and are of high mate value may prefer men with masculine features. The current study examined women's sociosexuality and mate value (i.e., self-rating of overall desirability) in rating attractiveness and visual attention to facial masculinity in men's faces using an eye-tracking task. Overall, women (N = 72) did not show any significant preferences for men with masculinized over feminized faces. However, women who scored high on sociosexuality (i.e., unrestricted sociosexuality) and mate value demonstrated increased visual attention and looking frequency to masculinized over feminized faces. The study highlights the unique role of cognitive mechanisms in visually assessing a potential mate and how individual differences in short-term mating strategies and mate value may moderate those preferences. These findings underscore the importance of examining individual differences in mate preferences research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ray Garza
- Department of Psychology and Communication, Texas A&M International University, 5201 University Blvd., Laredo, TX, 78041, USA.
| | - Jennifer Byrd-Craven
- The Oklahoma Center for Evolutionary Analysis (OCEAN), Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
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5
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Roth TS, Samara I, Perea-Garcia JO, Kret ME. Individual attractiveness preferences differentially modulate immediate and voluntary attention. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2147. [PMID: 36750588 PMCID: PMC9905556 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29240-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/01/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom S Roth
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, The Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands. .,Apenheul Primate Park, J.C. Wilslaan 21, 7313 HK, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. .,Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Iliana Samara
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, The Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Juan Olvido Perea-Garcia
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, The Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Mariska E Kret
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, The Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands
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6
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Qi Y, Ying J. Gender Biases in the Accuracy of Facial Judgments: Facial Attractiveness and Perceived Socioeconomic Status. Front Psychol 2022; 13:884888. [PMID: 35712144 PMCID: PMC9194569 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.884888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies demonstrate that people form their first impression of a stranger based on facial appearance, and these impressions influence their subsequent decisions and behaviors. However, much less research has examined the factors that moderate the accuracy of first impressions based on a photo of face. The present study included three experiments to explore gender differences in the accuracy of impressions based on faces. The results showed that people judge facial attractiveness more accurately for female faces than for male faces while giving more accurate wealth judgments for male faces than for female faces. Interestingly, although we did not find a significant correlation between confidence ratings and the accuracy of wealth rating, we recognized a significant moderate correlation between confidence ratings and the accuracy of attractiveness ratings when female participants rated male faces. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to reveal gender biases in the accuracy of impression judgments based on facial appearance. These findings imply a significant influence of traditional gender roles on accurate facial judgments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Qi
- Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
| | - Jia Ying
- Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- *Correspondence: Jia Ying,
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7
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Skov M, Nadal M. The nature of beauty: behavior, cognition, and neurobiology. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2020; 1488:44-55. [DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Revised: 10/05/2020] [Accepted: 10/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Skov
- Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre Denmark
- Decision Neuroscience Research Cluster Copenhagen Business School Frederiksberg Denmark
| | - Marcos Nadal
- Human Evolution and Cognition Group Department of Psychology University of the Balearic Islands Palma Spain
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Mitrovic A, Hegelmaier LM, Leder H, Pelowski M. Does beauty capture the eye, even if it's not (overtly) adaptive? A comparative eye-tracking study of spontaneous attention and visual preference with VAST abstract art. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2020; 209:103133. [PMID: 32717655 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2019] [Revised: 04/18/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies have routinely shown that individuals spend more time spontaneously looking at people or at mimetic scenes that they subsequently judge to be more aesthetically appealing. This "beauty demands longer looks" phenomenon is typically explained by biological relevance, personal utility, or other survival factors, with visual attraction often driven by structural features (symmetry, texture), which may signify fitness and to which most humans tend to respond similarly. However, what of objects that have less overtly adaptive relevance? Here, we consider whether people also look longer at abstract art with little associative/mimetic content that they subsequently rate for higher aesthetic appeal. We employed the "Visual aesthetic sensitivity test" (VAST), which consists of pairs of matched abstract designs with one example of each pair argued to be objectively 'aesthetically better' in regards to low-level features, thus offering a potential contrast between 'objective' (physical feature-based) and 'subjective' (personal taste-based) assessments. Participants (29 women) first looked at image pairs without a specific task and then in three follow-up blocks indicated their preference within the pairs and rated the individual images for liking and for presumed ratings by an art expert. More preferred designs were looked at longer. However, longer looking only occurred in line with participants' subjective tastes. This suggests a general correlation of attention and visual beauty, which-in abstract art-may nonetheless be related to features that are not identified by experts as more generally appealing and thus may not directly map to other (more utility-related) stimuli types.
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Kramer RS, Mulgrew J, Anderson NC, Vasilyev D, Kingstone A, Reynolds MG, Ward R. Physically attractive faces attract us physically. Cognition 2020; 198:104193. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2019] [Revised: 01/09/2020] [Accepted: 01/16/2020] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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10
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Kou H, Xie Q, Bi T. Mechanisms for the Cognitive Processing of Attractiveness in Adult and Infant Faces: From the Evolutionary Perspective. Front Psychol 2020; 11:436. [PMID: 32218762 PMCID: PMC7078348 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Accepted: 02/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on the cognitive processing of facial attractiveness has mainly focused on adult faces. Recent studies have revealed that the cognitive processing of facial attractiveness in infant faces is not the same as that in adult faces. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize the evidence on the processing of facial attractiveness in each kind of face and compare their underlying mechanisms. In this paper, we first reviewed studies on the cognitive processing of facial attractiveness in adult faces, including attentional and mnemonic processing, and then discussed the underlying mechanisms. Afterward, studies on facial attractiveness in infant faces were reviewed, and the underlying mechanisms were also discussed. Direct comparisons between the two kinds of cognitive processing were subsequently made. The results showed that the mechanisms for the processing of attractiveness in adult faces and infant faces are mainly motivated by the perspectives of mate selection and raising offspring, respectively, in evolutionary psychology. Finally, directions for future research are proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Kou
- Center for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Guizhou, China
| | - Qinhong Xie
- School of Criminal Justice, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China
| | - Taiyong Bi
- Center for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Guizhou, China
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11
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Necka EA, Kardan O, Puts DA, Faig KE, Berman MG, Norman GJ. Visual cues to fertility are in the eye (movements) of the beholder. Horm Behav 2019; 115:104562. [PMID: 31356808 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104562] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Revised: 07/20/2019] [Accepted: 07/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Past work demonstrates that humans behave differently towards women across their menstrual cycles, even after exclusively visual exposure to women's faces. People may look at women's faces differently as a function of women's menstrual cycles. Analyses of participants' scanpaths (eye movement patterns) while they looked at women at different phases of their menstrual cycles revealed that observers exhibit more consistent scanpaths when examining women's faces when women are in a menstrual cycle phase that typically corresponds with peak fertility, whereas they exhibit more variable patterns when looking at women's faces when they are in phases that do not correspond with fertility. A multivariate classifier on participants' scanpaths predicted whether they were looking at the face of a woman in a more typically fertile- versus non-fertile-phase of her menstrual cycle with above-chance accuracy. These findings demonstrate that people look at women's faces differently as a function of women's menstrual cycles, and suggest that people are sensitive to fluctuating visual cues associated with women's menstrual cycle phase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A Necka
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, United States of America.
| | - Omid Kardan
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, United States of America
| | - David A Puts
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, United States of America
| | - Kelly E Faig
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, United States of America
| | - Marc G Berman
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, United States of America
| | - Greg J Norman
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, United States of America
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12
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Ma Y, Xue W, Tu S. Automatic Inattention to Attractive Alternative Partners Helps Male Heterosexual Chinese College Students Maintain Romantic Relationships. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1687. [PMID: 31379694 PMCID: PMC6657529 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2019] [Accepted: 07/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Heterosexual individuals may possess evolved psychological mechanisms that help protect their ongoing romantic relationships against external threats from other attractive individuals. The current study used love priming and a dot-probe task to examine the attentional bias associated with long-term relationship maintenance by comparing between 52 single heterosexual men and 57 heterosexual men in exclusive romantic relationships, in the Chinese context. The results showed that single men responded to love priming with greatly increased attention to and difficulty disengaging from attractive women, whereas committed men were largely inattentive to attractive alternatives irrespective of the situation. The present findings provide evidence on the domain of relationship maintenance from a Chinese cultural context, and suggest that Chinese men protect an ongoing relationship by being automatically inattentive in early-stage attentional processing to attractive women who could serve as attractive alternatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yidan Ma
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Education Science, Leshan Normal University, Leshan, China
| | - Weifeng Xue
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Education Science, Leshan Normal University, Leshan, China
| | - Shen Tu
- Applied Psychology, School of Public Administration, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, China
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