Automaticity of facial attractiveness perception and sex-specific mating strategies

Facial attractiveness in the eyes of men with high arousal

INTRODUCTION

Individuals differ in how they judge facial attractiveness. However, little is known about the role of arousal level and gender differences in individuals' facial attractiveness judgments.

METHODS

We used resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) to investigate this issue. A total of 48 men (aged 22.5 ± 3.03 years [mean ± SD], range: 18-30 years) and 27 women (aged 20.3 ± 2.03 years [mean ± SD], range: 18-25 years) participated in the experiment. After the EEG was collected, participants were instructed to complete a facial attractiveness judgment task. Connectome-based predictive modeling was used to predict individual judgment of facial attractiveness.

RESULTS

Men with high arousal judged female faces as more attractive (M = 3.85, SE = 0.81) than did men with low arousal (M = 3.33, SE = 0.81) and women (M = 3.24, SE = 1.02). Functional connectivity of the alpha band predicted judgment of female facial attractiveness in men but not in women. After controlling for the age and variability, the prediction effect was still significant.

CONCLUSION

Our results provide neural evidence for the enhancement of the judgment of facial attractiveness in men with high arousal levels, which supports the hypothesis that individuals' spontaneous arousal contributes to variations in facial attractiveness preferences.

Facial morphometric differences across face databases: influence of ethnicities and sex

The scientific need for standardized, high-quality facial stimuli has driven the creation of several face image databases in recent years. These stimuli are particularly important in facial asymmetry research. However, previous studies have reported facial anthropometric differences across a variety of ethnicities. This highlights the need to investigate whether these differences can also impact the use of face image databases, particularly in facial asymmetry research. In this study, we investigated facial asymmetry-based morphometric differences between the multi-ethnic Chicago Face Database (CFD) and the LACOP Face Database, which is composed of Brazilian subjects. We found reliable differences in facial asymmetry between the two databases, which were related to ethnic groups. Specifically, differences in eye and mouth asymmetry seem to drive these differences. The asymmetry-based morphometric differences among databases and ethnicities found in this study reinforce the necessity of creating multi-ethnic face databases.

Light makeup decreases receivers' negative emotional experience

Makeup is widely used in modern society and has a positive effect on perceived attractiveness. However, little is known about the other possible outcomes of makeup use. In this study, we investigated whether makeup enhances a receiver's emotional experience. Dynamic faces with or without makeup are presented in Experiments 1 and 2. Participants were asked to imagine themselves video chatting with a target person (expresser) with different expressions: neutral, angry, sad, or happy, and then to appraise their own subjective emotional experience. Emotional valence, arousal, and willingness to communicate were also assessed in Experiment 2. The results showed that makeup improved perceived facial attractiveness and increased the willingness to communicate. More importantly, it revealed that wearing makeup could weaken receivers' negative experiences arising from the angry and sad conditions, which is not the case for the non-makeup condition, but could not affect the happy contagion. Furthermore, incremental changes in the amount of makeup were not accompanied by incremental changes in emotional appraisal (valence and arousal). Overall, we found that makeup may affect emotional contagion and interpersonal communication. Whether the alleviated negative experience due to makeup is adaptive may need further discussion.