Facial Attractiveness

Mere exposure (i.e., stimulus repetition) and blending (i.e., stimulus averaging) are classic ways to increase social preferences, including facial attractiveness. In both effects, increases in preference involve enhanced familiarity. Prominent memory theories assume that familiarity depends on a match between the target and similar items in memory. These theories predict that when individual items are weakly learned, their blends (morphs) should be relatively familiar, and thus liked—a beauty-in-averageness effect (BiA). However, when individual items are strongly learned, they are also more distinguishable. This " differentiation " hypothesis predicts that with strongly encoded items, familiarity (and thus, preference) for the blend will be relatively lower than individual items—an ugliness-in-averageness effect (UiA). We tested this novel theoretical prediction in 5 experiments. Experiment 1 showed that with weak learning, facial morphs were more attractive than contributing individuals (BiA effect). Experiments 2A and 2B demonstrated that when participants first strongly learned a subset of individual faces (either in a face-name memory task or perceptual-tracking task), morphs of trained individuals were less attractive than the trained individuals (UiA effect). Experiment 3 showed that changes in familiarity for the trained morph (rather than interstimulus conflict) drove the UiA effect. Using a within-subjects design, Experiment 4 mapped out the transition from BiA to UiA solely as a function of memory training. Finally, computational modeling using a well-known memory framework (REM) illustrated the familiarity transition observed in Experiment 4. Overall, these results highlight how memory processes illuminate classic and modern social preference phenomena.

Many studies have shown that physical appearance has a strong effect on hiring decisions, but they have not simultaneously taken into account the applicant’s competence, the hierarchical status, and job sex type. Recruiters rated the hireability, utility, and desirability of eight applicants based on their resumes, which varied according to a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 design with four within-subject variables (Gender × Attractiveness × High/Moderate Competence, Male/Female Sex-Typed Jobs) and one between-subjects variable (hierarchical status of the job: managerial/nonmanagerial). An univariate, repeated-measures analysis conducted on the composite score showed a main effect of attractiveness and competence. Globally, decision-makers gave more favorable ratings for male sex-typed jobs than for female sex-typed jobs and for low-status jobs than for high-status jobs. Attractiveness and competence had a more disadvantageous effect for female than for male sex-typed jobs.

There's one big problem with sleeping that most people never think about. This is an important issue, since we spend on average one third of our lives in bed. It has to do with gravity, and the pull it has on your body when it is lying flat in bed. Let's say you weight 150 pounds. When you are standing, gravity pulls your 150-pound body weight down towards your feet, which must support that weight. When standing, gravity also pulls your blood down towards your feet, and resisted the return of blood from your feet back to your heart. As a result, some people feel extra fluid pressure in their lower legs and feet by the end of the day from this pull of gravity. But the feet are designed to withstand this pressure and weight, especially since we take breaks from this pressure and weight when we lie down to rest. What happens then? Does the effect of gravity disappear when we lie down? Of course, not. Instead, when you lie your 150-pound body down, the first thing that happens is that gravity pulls your body into the mattress. This means that the weight of your body presses on the lower edge of your body that is touching the mattress. Essentially, you are compressing your body into the bed. This means that it is very important to consider your body position while sleeping. Depending on how you sleep, there will be compression of parts of your body from the weight of your body pressing you into the mattress. This can lead to compression injuries, which involve reduced blood and lymph circulation, nerve injuries, joint injuries, and problems with your brain, eyes, ears, face, and sinuses, depending on your sleep position. This is one reason why people toss and turn while sleeping. Circulation is impaired from the pressure of sleeping on your body, so you unconsciously move to restore circulation. Leaning on anything for 8-hours straight, day after day, can cause compression injuries. But there are certain sleep positions which are worse than others when it comes to these injuries.

The human face communicates an impressive number of visual signals. Although adults' ratings of facial attractiveness are consistent across studies, even cross-culturally, there has been considerable controversy surrounding attempts to identify the facial features that cause faces to be judged attractive or unattractive. Studies of physical attractiveness have attempted to identify the features that contribute to attractiveness by studying the relationships between attractiveness and (a) symmetry,(b) averageness, and (c) ...

Previous studies have shown that women with higher maternal tendencies are shorter and have lower testosterone levels than those with lower maternal tendencies. Here we report two studies that investigated the relationships between maternal tendencies and two further measures of physical masculinization/feminization; urinary estrogen metabolite (estrone-3-glucuronide: E1-3G) levels (Study 1) and rated facial femininity (Study 2). In Study 1, nulliparous women reported both their ideal number of children and ideal own age at first child and also provided urine samples. There was a significant positive correlation between measured late-follicular estrogen levels and reported ideal number of children. In Study 2, analyses of facial cues in two independent samples of women showed that the average facial characteristics of women who reported desiring many children were rated as more feminine than those desiring fewer children. Collectively, these results support the proposal that maternal tendencies are related to physical feminization and that this effect may, at least in part, reflect the influence of the hormone estrogen.

Evidence has accumulated in recent years supporting the hypothesis that both facial and bodily physical attractiveness in humans are certifications of developmental and hormonal health. Such evidence indicates that physical attractiveness is an honest or Zahavian signal of phenotypic and genetic quality. The hypothesis that physical beauty connotes health was first proposed by Westermarck and was discussed later by Ellis

Numerous researchers have examined the effects of skin condition, including texture and color, on the perception of health, age, and attractiveness in human faces. They have focused on facial color distribution, homogeneity of pigmentation, or skin quality. We here investigate the role of overall skin color in determining perceptions of health from faces by allowing participants to manipulate the skin portions of color-calibrated Caucasian face photographs along CIELab color axes. To enhance healthy appearance, participants ...

The typical Renaissance portrait is seen in profile or three-quarters profile. The frontal view is very rarely used for this kind of painting. In contrast, a survey conducted by the author demonstrates that portraits of Christ from the same period very often show him frontally. What is the reason for this difference between secular and holy portraits? It is obvious that seeing a face en face is different from seeing that face in profile, but is this due to the frontal orientation of the face or is it, rather, due to facial symmetry's bio-psychological impact (a product of millions of years of evolution) on the beholder? This question will be approached using methods from cognitive psychology.

Human mate choice is complicated, with various individual differences and contextual factors influencing preference for numerous traits. However, focused studies on human mate choice often do not capture the multivariate complexity of human mate choice. Here, we consider multiple factors simultaneously to demonstrate the advantages of a multivariate approach to human mate preferences. Participants (N=689) rated the attractiveness, perceived facial masculinity/femininity, and intelligence. Participants were also randomly instructed to either consider short- or long-term relationships. Using fitness surfaces analyses, we assess the linear and non-linear effects and interactions of the profiles' facial attractiveness, perceived facial masculinity/femininity, and perceived intelligence on participants' attractiveness ratings. Using hierarchical linear modelling, we were also able to consider the independent contribution of participants' individual differences including participants' age, socioeconomic status, education, disgust (moral,sexual, and pathogen), sociosexual orientation, personality variables, masculinity, and mate value. Together, our results illuminate various previously undetectable phenomena, including nonlinear preference functions and interactions with individual differences. More broadly, the study illustrates the value of considering both individual variation and population-level measures when addressing questions of sexual selection, and demonstrates the utility of multivariate approaches to complement focused studies.