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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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Saxton TK, Pollet TV, Panagakis J, Round EK, Brown SE, Lobmaier JS. Children aged 7–9 prefer cuteness in baby faces, and femininity in women's faces. Ethology 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13081] [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]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Emily K. Round
- Psychology Department Northumbria University Newcastle UK
| | | | - Janek S. Lobmaier
- Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology Institute of Psychology University of Bern Bern Switzerland
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Biological Bases of Beauty Revisited: The Effect of Symmetry, Averageness, and Sexual Dimorphism on Female Facial Attractiveness. Symmetry (Basel) 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/sym11020279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The factors influencing human female facial attractiveness—symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism—have been extensively studied. However, recent studies, using improved methodologies, have called into question their evolutionary utility and links with life history. The current studies use a range of approaches to quantify how important these factors actually are in perceiving attractiveness, through the use of novel statistical analyses and by addressing methodological weaknesses in the literature. Study One examines how manipulations of symmetry, averageness, femininity, and masculinity affect attractiveness using a two-alternative forced choice task, finding that increased masculinity and also femininity decrease attractiveness, compared to unmanipulated faces. Symmetry and averageness yielded a small and large effect, respectively. Study Two utilises a naturalistic ratings paradigm, finding similar effects of averageness and masculinity as Study One but no effects of symmetry and femininity on attractiveness. Study Three applies geometric face measurements of the factors and a random forest machine learning algorithm to predict perceived attractiveness, finding that shape averageness, dimorphism, and skin texture symmetry are useful features capable of relatively accurate predictions, while shape symmetry is uninformative. However, the factors do not explain as much variance in attractiveness as the literature suggests. The implications for future research on attractiveness are discussed.
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Lewis MB. Fertility affects asymmetry detection not symmetry preference in assessments of 3D facial attractiveness. Cognition 2017; 166:130-138. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2016] [Revised: 05/19/2017] [Accepted: 05/23/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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Lefevre CE, Saxton TK. Parental preferences for the facial traits of their offspring's partners can enhance parental inclusive fitness. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Jones AL, Kramer RSS. Facial Cosmetics and Attractiveness: Comparing the Effect Sizes of Professionally-Applied Cosmetics and Identity. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0164218. [PMID: 27727311 PMCID: PMC5058481 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2016] [Accepted: 09/21/2016] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Forms of body decoration exist in all human cultures. However, in Western societies, women are more likely to engage in appearance modification, especially through the use of facial cosmetics. How effective are cosmetics at altering attractiveness? Previous research has hinted that the effect is not large, especially when compared to the variation in attractiveness observed between individuals due to differences in identity. In order to build a fuller understanding of how cosmetics and identity affect attractiveness, here we examine how professionally-applied cosmetics alter attractiveness and compare this effect with the variation in attractiveness observed between individuals. In Study 1, 33 YouTube models were rated for attractiveness before and after the application of professionally-applied cosmetics. Cosmetics explained a larger proportion of the variation in attractiveness compared with previous studies, but this effect remained smaller than variation caused by differences in attractiveness between individuals. Study 2 replicated the results of the first study with a sample of 45 supermodels, with the aim of examining the effect of cosmetics in a sample of faces with low variation in attractiveness between individuals. While the effect size of cosmetics was generally large, between-person variability due to identity remained larger. Both studies also found interactions between cosmetics and identity–more attractive models received smaller increases when cosmetics were worn. Overall, we show that professionally-applied cosmetics produce a larger effect than self-applied cosmetics, an important theoretical consideration for the field. However, the effect of individual differences in facial appearance is ultimately more important in perceptions of attractiveness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex L. Jones
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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Saxton TK, Mackey LL, McCarty K, Neave N. A lover or a fighter? Opposing sexual selection pressures on men's vocal pitch and facial hair. Behav Ecol 2015; 27:512-519. [PMID: 27004013 PMCID: PMC4797380 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arv178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2015] [Revised: 09/11/2015] [Accepted: 09/17/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Men’s optimum masculinity depends on whether they want to attract partners or compete with rivals. We found that men’s voice pitch was most attractive around 1.5 standard deviations lower than average, whereas facial hair growth did not consistently affect attractiveness. In contrast, men were perceived ever more dominant with lower voices and more facial hair. Sexual selection consists of both attracting mates and competing against rivals, but here selection pressures might oppose each other somewhat. The traditional assumption within the research literature on human sexually dimorphic traits has been that many sex differences have arisen from intersexual selection. More recently, however, there has been a shift toward the idea that many male features, including male lower-pitched voices and male beard growth, might have arisen predominantly through intrasexual selection: that is, to serve the purpose of male–male competition instead of mate attraction. In this study, using a unique set of video stimuli, we measured people’s perceptions of the dominance and attractiveness of men who differ both in terms of voice pitch (4 levels from lower to higher pitched) and beard growth (4 levels from clean shaven to a month’s hair growth). We found a nonlinear relationship between lower pitch and increased attractiveness; men’s vocal attractiveness peaked at around 96 Hz. Beard growth had equivocal effects on attractiveness judgments. In contrast, perceptions of men’s dominance simply increased with increasing masculinity (i.e., with lower-pitched voices and greater beard growth). Together, these results suggest that the optimal level of physical masculinity might differ depending on whether the outcome is social dominance or mate attraction. These dual selection pressures might maintain some of the documented variability in male physical and behavioral masculinity that we see today.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamsin K Saxton
- Department of Psychology, Northumbria University , Northumberland Building, Ellison Place, Newcastle NE1 8ST , UK
| | - Lauren L Mackey
- Department of Psychology, Northumbria University , Northumberland Building, Ellison Place, Newcastle NE1 8ST , UK
| | - Kristofor McCarty
- Department of Psychology, Northumbria University , Northumberland Building, Ellison Place, Newcastle NE1 8ST , UK
| | - Nick Neave
- Department of Psychology, Northumbria University , Northumberland Building, Ellison Place, Newcastle NE1 8ST , UK
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Socio-sexuality and episodic memory function in women: further evidence of an adaptive "mating mode". Mem Cognit 2014; 41:850-61. [PMID: 23389699 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-013-0301-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The functionalist memory perspective predicts that information of adaptive value may trigger specific processing modes. It was recently demonstrated that women's memory is sensitive to cues of male sexual dimorphism (i.e., masculinity) that convey information of adaptive value for mate choice because they signal health and genetic quality, as well as personality traits important in relationship contexts. Here, we show that individual differences in women's mating strategies predict the effect of facial masculinity cues upon memory, strengthening the case for functional design within memory. Using the revised socio-sexual orientation inventory, Experiment 1 demonstrates that women pursuing a short-term, uncommitted mating strategy have enhanced source memory for men with exaggerated versus reduced masculine facial features, an effect that reverses in women who favor long-term committed relationships. The reversal in the direction of the effect indicates that it does not reflect the sex typicality of male faces per se. The same pattern occurred within women's source memory for women's faces, implying that the memory bias does not reflect the perceived attractiveness of faces per se. In Experiment 2, we reran the experiment using men's faces to establish the reliability of the core finding and replicated Experiment 1's results. Masculinity cues may therefore trigger a specific mode within women's episodic memory. We discuss why this mode may be triggered by female faces and its possible role in mate choice. In so doing, we draw upon the encoding specificity principle and the idea that episodic memory limits the scope of stereotypical inferences about male behavior.
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Fisher CI, Fincher CL, Hahn AC, Little AC, DeBruine LM, Jones BC. Do assortative preferences contribute to assortative mating for adiposity? Br J Psychol 2013; 105:474-85. [PMID: 24168811 PMCID: PMC4282125 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2013] [Revised: 09/09/2013] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Assortative mating for adiposity, whereby levels of adiposity in romantic partners tend to be positively correlated, has implications for population health due to the combined effects of partners' levels of adiposity on fertility and/or offspring health. Although assortative preferences for cues of adiposity, whereby leaner people are inherently more attracted to leaner individuals, have been proposed as a factor in assortative mating for adiposity, there have been no direct tests of this issue. Because of this, and because of recent work suggesting that facial cues of adiposity convey information about others' health that may be particularly important for mate preferences, we tested the contribution of assortative preferences for facial cues of adiposity to assortative mating for adiposity (assessed from body mass index, BMI) in a sample of romantic couples. Romantic partners' BMIs were positively correlated and this correlation was not due to the effects of age or relationship duration. However, although men and women with leaner partners showed stronger preferences for cues of low levels of adiposity, controlling for these preferences did not weaken the correlation between partners' BMIs. Indeed, own BMI and preferences were uncorrelated. These results suggest that assortative preferences for facial cues of adiposity contribute little (if at all) to assortative mating for adiposity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire I Fisher
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK
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Scott IML, Clark AP, Boothroyd LG, Penton-Voak IS. Do men's faces really signal heritable immunocompetence? Behav Ecol 2013; 24:579-589. [PMID: 23555177 PMCID: PMC3613940 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 119] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2011] [Revised: 10/14/2011] [Accepted: 05/08/2012] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
In the literature on human mate choice, masculine facial morphology is often proposed to be an intersexual signal of heritable immunocompetence, and hence an important component of men's attractiveness. This hypothesis has received considerable research attention, and is increasingly treated as plausible and well supported. In this article, we propose that the strength of the evidence for the immunocompetence hypothesis is somewhat overstated, and that a number of difficulties have been under-acknowledged. Such difficulties include (1) the tentative nature of the evidence regarding masculinity and disease in humans, (2) the complex and uncertain picture emerging from the animal literature on sexual ornaments and immunity, (3) the absence of consistent, cross-cultural support for the predictions of the immunocompetence hypothesis regarding preferences for masculinized stimuli, and (4) evidence that facial masculinity contributes very little, if anything, to overall attractiveness in real men. Furthermore, alternative explanations for patterns of preferences, in particular the proposal that masculinity is primarily an intrasexual signal, have been neglected. We suggest that immunocompetence perspectives on masculinity, whilst appealing in many ways, should still be regarded as speculative, and that other perspectives-and other traits-should be the subject of greater attention for researchers studying human mate preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabel M L Scott
- Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol , Bristol, BS8 1UU UK
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Morrison ER, Morris PH, Bard KA. The Stability of Facial Attractiveness: Is It What You’ve Got or What You Do with It? JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s10919-013-0145-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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13
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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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DeBruine LM. Evidence versus speculation on the validity of methods for measuring masculinity preferences: comment on Scott et al. Behav Ecol 2012. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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Jones BC, Feinberg DR, Watkins CD, Fincher CL, Little AC, DeBruine LM. Pathogen disgust predicts women’s preferences for masculinity in men’s voices, faces, and bodies. Behav Ecol 2012. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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Puts DA, Jones BC, DeBruine LM. Sexual selection on human faces and voices. JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH 2012; 49:227-243. [PMID: 22380590 DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2012.658924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Humans are highly sexually dimorphic primates, and some of the most conspicuous human sex differences occur in the face and voice. Consequently, this article utilizes research findings on human faces and voices to illustrate how human sex differences may have arisen by sexual selection (i.e., the type of natural selection favoring traits that increase mating opportunities). Evidence suggesting that sexual selection shaped women's faces and voices is reviewed. However, sexual selection likely operated more strongly on men over human evolution. Thus, this research focuses on two types of sexual selection operating on men: female mate choice, which favors traits that attract females, and male contests, which favor traits for excluding competitors from mates by force or threat of force. This article demonstrates how masculine faces and voices advertize critical information about men's mate value and threat potential, and reviews evidence that women's preferences and men's deference to masculine faces and voices reflect this information content. Data suggesting that facial and vocal masculinity influences men's mating opportunities and reproduction are discussed, and the article concludes by highlighting directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- David A Puts
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
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