The Effects of Pitch Manipulation on Male Ratings of Female Speakers and Their Voices

Vocal and facial cues typically co-occur in natural settings, and multisensory processing of voice and face relies on their synchronous presentation. Psychological research has examined various facial and vocal cues to attractiveness as well as to judgements of sexual dimorphism, health, and age. However, few studies have investigated the interaction of vocal and facial cues in attractiveness judgments under naturalistic conditions using dynamic, ecologically valid stimuli. Here, we used short videos or audio tracks of females speaking full sentences and used a manipulation of voice pitch to investigate cross-modal interactions of voice pitch on facial attractiveness and related ratings. Male participants had to rate attractiveness, femininity, age, and health of synchronized audio-video recordings or voices only, with either original or modified voice pitch. We expected audio stimuli with increased voice pitch to be rated as more attractive, more feminine, healthier, and younger. If auditory judgements cross-modally influence judgements of facial attributes, we additionally expected the voice pitch manipulation to affect ratings of audiovisual stimulus material. We tested 106 male participants in a within-subject design in two sessions. Analyses revealed that voice recordings with increased voice pitch were perceived to be more feminine and younger, but not more attractive or healthier. When coupled with video recordings, increased pitch lowered perceived age of faces, but did not significantly influence perceived attractiveness, femininity, or health. Our results suggest that our manipulation of voice pitch has a measurable impact on judgements of femininity and age, but does not measurably influence vocal and facial attractiveness in naturalistic conditions.

The Role of Art Expertise and Symmetry on Facial Aesthetic Preferences

Humans, like other species, have a preference for symmetrical visual stimuli, a preference that is influenced by factors such as age, sex, and artistic training. In particular, artistic training seems to decrease the rejection of asymmetry in abstract stimuli. However, it is not known whether the same trend would be observed in relation to concrete stimuli such as human faces. In this article, we investigated the role of expertise in visual arts, music, and dance, in the perceived beauty and attractiveness of human faces with different asymmetries. With this objective, the beauty and attractiveness of 100 photographs of faces with different degrees of asymmetry were evaluated by 116 participants with different levels of art expertise. Expertise in visual arts and dance was associated with the extent to which facial asymmetry influenced the beauty ratings assigned to the faces. The greater the art expertise in visual arts and dance, the more indifferent to facial asymmetry the participant was to evaluate beauty. The same effect was not found for music and neither for attractiveness ratings. These findings are important to help understand how face aesthetic evaluation is modified by artistic training and the difference between beauty and attractiveness evaluations.

Attractiveness Evaluation and Identity of Self-face: The Effect of Sexual Dimorphism

The present study aims to explore the influence of masculine/feminine changes on the attractiveness evaluation of one's own face, and examine the relationship of this attractiveness evaluation and the similarities between masculine/feminine faces and original faces. A picture was taken from each participant and considered as his or her original self-face, and a male or female face with an average attractiveness score was adopted as the original other face. Masculinized and feminized transformations of the original faces (self-face, male other face, and female other face) into 100% masculine and feminine faces were produced with morphing software stepping by 2%. Thirty female participants and 30 male participants were asked to complete three tasks, i.e., to “like” or “not like” the original face judgment of a given face compared to the original face, to choose the most attractive face from a morphed facial clip, and to subjectively evaluate the attractiveness and similarity of morphed faces. The results revealed that the acceptable range of masculine/feminine transformation for self-faces was narrower than that for other faces. Furthermore, the attractiveness ratings for masculinized or femininized self-faces were correlated with the similarity scores of the faces with the original self-faces. These findings suggested that attractiveness enhancement of self-face through masculinity/femininity must be within reasonable extent and take into account the similarity between the modified faces and the original self-face.

Preference for Facial Symmetry Depends on Study Design

Facial symmetry is purportedly attractive, though methods for measuring preference for facial symmetry vary between studies. Some studies have used a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task, while others have used a ratings task. How researchers manipulate facial symmetry also varies; some studies have used faces manipulated to be more (or perfectly) symmetrical, while others have used faces manipulated to be more asymmetrical. Here, across three studies, we evaluate and compare these different methods. In Studies 1 and 2 (N = 340 and 256, respectively), we compare facial symmetry preferences as measured by the 2AFC and ratings tasks. Across both studies, we consistently found a significant preference for facial symmetry when using the 2AFC task, but not with the ratings task. Additionally, correlations between facial symmetry preferences as measured by the two tasks were weak or showed no association. In Study 3, 159 participants rated the attractiveness of faces manipulated to be either symmetrical or more asymmetrical. The asymmetrical faces were rated as significantly less attractive compared to the original faces, while the difference in attractiveness ratings between the original and symmetrical versions was comparatively much smaller. These studies suggest that preference for facial symmetry depends greatly on the study design.

Testing Mate Choice Hypotheses in a Transitional Small Scale Population

Objective

Tests of theories of mate choice often rely on data gathered in White, industrialised samples and this is especially the case for studies of facial attraction. Our understanding of preferences for sexual dimorphism is currently in flux and a number of hypotheses require testing in more diverse participant samples. The current study uses opportunistically gathered facial dimorphism preference data from 271 participants in rural Nicaragua, and 40 from the national capital Managua. We assess pre-registered hypotheses drawn from sexual selection theory, and from more recent approaches which consider the impacts of economic development and cultural ‘modernisation’ on mate preferences.

Methods

Participants verbally reported demographic data, and indicated preferences for five male and five female pairs of faces manipulated to differ in sexually dimorphic facial structure based on a sample of Salvadoran individuals.

Results

While urban participants showed a preference for more feminine female faces, this preference was not evident in the rural participants. Neither urban nor rural participants showed any directional preference for masculinised/feminised male faces. Furthermore, there was no support for any other pre-registered hypothesis.

Conclusions

Our results are consistent with previous studies showing no interest in facial dimorphism in less globally-acculturated, or market integrated, populations. Together, this suggests that while facial dimorphism may be subject to systematically varying preferences amongst some low-fertility, industrialised populations, it is not a feature which is likely to have been important in ancestral populations. We call for further work attempting to replicate well known mate choice phenomena in more diverse samples.

Identifying Three-Dimensional Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry in Normal Pediatric Individuals: A Panel Assessment Outcome Study of Clinicians and Observers

This study measured three-dimensional facial fluctuating asymmetry in 600 normal and healthy Taiwanese individuals (6 to 12 years old) and assessed the perceptions of increasing levels of facial fluctuating asymmetric severity by using a panel composed of 20 clinicians (surgical professionals), as well as 20 adult and 40 pre-adolescent observers. On average, this normal cohort presented a facial fluctuating asymmetry of 0.96 ± 0.52 mm, with 0.52 ± 0.05, 0.67 ± 0.09, 1.01 ± 0.10, and 1.71 ± 0.36 mm for levels I, II, III, and IV of severity, respectively. For all categories of raters, significant differences in the average symmetry-asymmetry scale values were observed, with level I < level II < level III = level IV (all p < 0.01, except for level III vs. IV comparisons with p > 0.05). For level I, pre-adolescent observers presented a significantly (p < 0.05) higher symmetry-asymmetry scale value than adult observers, with no significant (all p > 0.05) differences for other comparisons. For overall facial asymmetry and levels II, III, and IV, no significant (all p > 0.05) differences were observed. This study reveals that the normal pediatric face is asymmetric and the panel assessment of facial fluctuating asymmetry was influenced by the level of severity and the category of raters and contributes to the literature by revealing that pre-adolescent raters present a similar or higher perception of facial asymmetry than adult raters.

Biological Bases of Beauty Revisited: The Effect of Symmetry, Averageness, and Sexual Dimorphism on Female Facial Attractiveness

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.

The aesthetic preference for symmetry dissociates from early-emerging attention to symmetry

Symmetry is a basic geometry property that affects people's aesthetic experience in common ways across cultures and historical periods, but the origins of the universal preference for symmetrical patterns is not clear. We assessed four-year-old children's and adults' reported aesthetic preferences between symmetrical and asymmetrical visual patterns, as well as their spontaneous attentional preferences between the patterns. We found a striking dissociation between these two measures in the children: Children looked longer at the symmetrical patterns, relative to otherwise similar but asymmetrical patterns, but they showed no explicit preference for those patterns. These findings suggest that the human's aesthetic preferences have high postnatal plasticity, calling into question theories that symmetry is a "core feature" mediating people's aesthetic experience throughout life. The findings also call into question the assumption, common to many studies of human infants, that attentional choices reflect subjective preferences or values.

Patterns of Eye Movements When Observers Judge Female Facial Attractiveness

The purpose of the present study is to explore the fixed model for the explicit judgments of attractiveness and infer which features are important to judge the facial attractiveness. Behavioral studies on the perceptual cues for female facial attractiveness implied three potentially important features: averageness, symmetry, and sexual dimorphy. However, these studies did not explained which regions of facial images influence the judgments of attractiveness. Therefore, the present research recorded the eye movements of 24 male participants and 19 female participants as they rated a series of 30 photographs of female facial attractiveness. Results demonstrated the following: (1) Fixation is longer and more frequent on the noses of female faces than on their eyes and mouths (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth); (2) The average pupil diameter at the nose region is bigger than that at the eyes and mouth (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth); (3) the number of fixations of male participants was significantly more than female participants. (4) Observers first fixate on the eyes and mouth (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth) before fixating on the nose area. In general, participants attend predominantly to the nose to form attractiveness judgments. The results of this study add a new dimension to the existing literature on judgment of facial attractiveness. The major contribution of the present study is the finding that the area of the nose is vital in the judgment of facial attractiveness. This finding establish a contribution of partial processing on female facial attractiveness judgments during eye-tracking.

The relationship between facial shape asymmetry and attractiveness in Mexican students

OBJECTIVES

It has been postulated that symmetric faces are considered more attractive than asymmetric ones because symmetry may signal high quality due to developmental stability. However, other studies showed that both symmetric and slightly asymmetric faces are considered attractive. Here we aim to explore this discrepancy, beginning with the analysis of the normal prevalence of facial symmetry in a population as a necessary first step prior to any attractiveness assessment.

METHODS

We collected facial landmarks from two-dimensional digital images of a sample of Mexican individuals (280 females and 285 males aged 18-68 years) that were analyzed using geometric morphometric methods. Then, we chose a subsample of 100 photographs (50 females and 50 males aged 18-27 years) selected to represent a broad range of asymmetrical variation, in order to evaluate attractiveness using a sex-opposite test. Finally, we analyzed the linear correlation between attractiveness and asymmetry.

RESULTS

We found that every evaluated subject presents some degree of facial asymmetry, and that both fluctuating asymmetry and directional asymmetry were significant (P < 0.0001) components of total facial asymmetry. Fluctuating asymmetry was slightly associated with age (r = 0.0858, P = 0.0414) and there were no differences between geographical regions (P = 0.413). Attractiveness was not correlated to levels of asymmetry in either sex (males: P = 0.0973; females P = 0.7415).

CONCLUSIONS

Asymmetry was a prevalent feature in the present sample, and preferences for symmetric faces were not operating in the studied population.

The influence of averageness on judgments of facial attractiveness: no own-age or own-sex advantage among children attending single-sex schools

We examined how recent biased face experience affects the influence of averageness on judgments of facial attractiveness among 8- and 9-year-old children attending a girls' school, a boys' school, and a mixed-sex school. We presented pairs of individual faces in which one face was transformed 50% toward its group average, whereas the other face was transformed 50% away from that average. Across blocks, the faces varied in age (adult, 9-year-old, or 5-year-old) and sex (male or female). We expected that averageness might influence attractiveness judgments more strongly for same-age faces and, for children attending single-sex schools, same-sex faces of that age because their prototype(s) should be best tuned to the faces they see most frequently. Averageness influenced children's judgments of attractiveness, but the strength of the influence was not modulated by the age of the face, nor did the effects of sex of face differ across schools. Recent biased experience might not have affected the results because of similarities between the average faces of different ages and sexes and/or because a minimum level of experience with a particular group of faces may be adequate for the formation of a veridical prototype and its influence on judgments of attractiveness. The results suggest that averageness affects children's judgments of the attractiveness of the faces they encounter in everyday life regardless of age or sex of face.

Body fat and facial shape are correlated in female adolescents

OBJECTIVES

Relative body weight is not only an important indicator for health and reproductive condition, but also subject to stereotypes and stigmatization. It can be reliably assessed from adult faces alone, yet the facial correlates, especially in adolescents, remain largely unidentified. This study was designed to determine the facial features of adolescent girls that change with body fat proportion using a modern, comprehensive technique for shape analysis.

METHODS

Standardized frontal facial photographs of 22 Caucasian female adolescents (mean age 15.8 ± 2.7 years) were taken, and body height, body weight, and body fat proportion measured. Seventy-two somatometric measurement points were digitized on each photograph and their Cartesian coordinates regressed onto body fat proportion. Geometric morphometrics also enabled visualizing the statistical results as shapes.

RESULTS

Body fat proportion explained 8.7% of the facial shape variation (10,000 permutations, P = 0.047). Girls with high body fat had a relatively rounder and larger lower face, relatively smaller eyes, and a shorter and wider nose, fuller lips and downturned corners of the mouth. Low body fat was associated with a more angular lower face and a pointier chin, relatively larger eyes and a longer nose. The lips were wider and thinner, the corners of the mouth upturned.

CONCLUSION

Body fat proportion is a substantial factor in facial shape variation of female adolescents. The potential influence of the corresponding facial features on social perception is discussed. Prospects for future research including novel possibilities for stimuli design (GM morphs) are highlighted.

The influence of symmetry on children's judgments of facial attractiveness

In experiment 1, we examined developmental changes in the influence of symmetry on judgments of attractiveness by showing adults and children pairs of individual faces in which one face was transformed 75% toward perfect symmetry, while the other face was transformed by exaggerating its asymmetries by 75%. Adults and 9-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, rated the more symmetric faces as more attractive than the less symmetric faces, although the effect was stronger in adults than 9-year-olds. The preference for symmetry was stronger for male than female faces, and stronger for adults' than children's faces. In experiment 2, comparisons of the symmetry of the original male and female faces revealed no measured differences but lower ratings by adults of symmetry in the male faces. Overall, the results suggest that the influence of symmetry on attractiveness judgments emerges after the age of 5 years, and matures after the age of 9 years. The stronger effects for adult viewers may reflect an increase in sensitivity to symmetry as experience with faces increases and/or as the visual system matures. As well, attractiveness may become more salient after puberty, so that honest signals of mate quality, such as symmetry, have a stronger effect for adult viewers, especially when judging adult faces.

Attractiveness is influenced by the relationship between postures of the viewer and the viewed person

Many factors influence physical attractiveness, including degree of symmetry and relative length of legs. We asked a sample of 112 young adults to rate the attractiveness of computer-generated female bodies that varied in terms of symmetry and leg-to-body ratio. These effects were confirmed. However, we also varied whether the person in the image was shown sitting or standing. Half of the participants were tested standing and the other half sitting. The difference in the posture of the participants increased the perceived attractiveness of the images sharing the same posture, despite the fact that participants were unaware that their posture was relevant for the experiment. We conclude that our findings extend the role of embodied simulation in social cognition to perception of attractiveness from static images.