scholarly journals Non-Pregnant and Pregnant Women’s Femininity Preferences in Male Faces: Tests Based on Within- and Between-Sex Sexual Dimorphism Facial Manipulations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangfang Wen ◽  
Bin Zuo ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Shuhan Ma ◽  
Shijie Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Facial Stimulus ◽  
Facial Cues ◽  
Facial Masculinity ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
Pregnancy Status ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Women’S Preferences

AbstractPast research on women’s preferences for male facial masculinity in Western cultures has produced inconsistent results. Some inconsistency may be related to the use of different facial stimulus manipulations (e.g., between-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation or within-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation) that do not perfectly avoid non-facial cues, and pregnancy status may also influence women’s face preferences. We therefore recruited pregnant and nonpregnant Chinese women and manipulated the sexual dimorphism of male facial stimuli to explore the influences of manipulation methods, non-facial cues, and pregnancy status on face preferences. Results showed that: (1) in contrast with a general masculinity preference observed in Western cultures, both pregnant and nonpregnant Chinese women preferred feminized and neutral male faces generally; (2) pregnant women’s preference for feminized male faces was stable across manipulation methods, while nonpregnant women preferred feminized male faces except under between-sex sexual dimorphism manipulation; and (3) manipulation methods, rather than non-facial cues, influenced participants’ face preferences. Specifically, women showed the strongest preferences for femininity when face stimuli were manipulated by within-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation, followed by unmanipulated faces and between-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation. This effect was stronger for nonpregnant women in the unmanipulated condition and for pregnant women in the between-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation. This research provides empirical evidence of women’s preferences for sexual dimorphism in male faces in a non-Western culture, as well as the effects of facial manipulation methods, pregnancy status, and the interactions between these factors.

scholarly journals Cues for facial attractiveness and preference of sexual dimorphism: A comparison across five cultures

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vojtěch Fiala ◽  
Vít Třebický ◽  
Juan David Leongómez ◽  
Petr Tureček ◽  
Farid Pazhoohi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Facial Attractiveness ◽  
Facial Cues ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
Sexual Shape Dimorphism ◽  
Facial Images ◽  
Strength Of Association ◽  
Adaptive Pattern

It has been hypothesised that the strength of association between sex typicality and attractiveness follows an adaptive pattern across cultures. Such pattern allows for adjustment of individual preferences for facial cues associated with direct (parenting) and indirect (biological quality) benefits from mating with a potential mate according to environmental conditions. To test this hypothesis, we examined associations among intra-culturally perceived sex typicality, attractiveness, measured skin lightness, measured averageness, and sexual dimorphism of shape from facial images, while controlling for age, body mass, and facial width, in five distinct cultures with different environmental and socioeconomic conditions (Cameroon, N of facial stimuli = 200, 100 women; Colombia, N = 138, 66 women; Czechia, N = 100, 50 women; Iran, N = 87, 43 women; and Turkey, N = 185, 93 women). Our results suggest that measured sexual shape dimorphism and averageness are not significantly associated with neither perceived sex typicality nor attractiveness across the cultures. In all samples of female faces, however, perceived sex typicality was positively related to facial attractiveness. Women found perceived sex typicality in men as more attractive only in the Czech environment, with its relatively abundant resources, and in Colombia, which is a highly socioeconomically heterogeneous and competitive culture. Lighter skin raised the ratings of both attractiveness and sex typicality only in Cameroonian women. Darker men were perceived significantly more sex-typical but not more attractive in Cameroonian, Colombian, and Iranian samples. Altogether, our results highlight the need to control for which measure of sexual dimorphism is used (perceived or measured) and make a detailed description of the local environment. It is the perceived, rather than measured, sexual dimorphism that is associated with perceived attractiveness, and wealth distribution, rather than public, health that seems to affect masculinity preferences.

scholarly journals Do We See Masculine Faces as Competent and Feminine Faces as Warm? Effects of Sexual Dimorphism on Facial Perception

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 147470492098064
Author(s):  
Fangfang Wen ◽  
Bin Zuo ◽  
Shuhan Ma ◽  
Yian Xu ◽  
John D. Coley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Social Judgment ◽  
Perceived Competence ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Implicit Measures ◽  
Facial Cues ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Facial Perception ◽  
Facial Masculinity

Previous research on non-facial features demonstrated that masculinity and femininity correlated highly with perceived competence and warmth, respectively. Several studies focused on dimorphic facial cues and found an association between masculine faces and competence. However, there’s no study exploring the association between facial dimorphism and social judgment both using explicit and implicit experimental paradigms, i.e. Triad Classification Task, Implicit Associate Task. This study examined the association of masculinity/femininity and competence/warmth via explicit and implicit measures in three experiments. The results showed that participants saw feminine/masculine faces as more consistent with warmth/competence for both male and female faces. Besides, it was found that the above associations were more obvious in female participants. The current studies extended research of effects of dimorphic facial cue in social judgment and provided direct evidence linking facial masculinity with perceived competence, and facial femininity with perceived warmth.

scholarly journals No compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity track changes in women’s hormonal status

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict C Jones ◽  
Amanda C Hahn ◽  
Claire I Fisher ◽  
Hongyi Wang ◽  
Michal Kandrik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oral Contraceptive ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
Steroid Hormone ◽  
Hormonal Status ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Facial Masculinity ◽  
Oral Contraceptive Use ◽  
Women’S Preferences

AbstractAlthough widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial attractiveness judgments, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s faces are related to women’s hormonal status is equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women’s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subject and between-subject comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men’s faces, particularly when assessing men’s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

scholarly journals Do more attractive women show stronger preferences for male facial masculinity?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ciaran Docherty ◽  
Anthony J Lee ◽  
Amanda Hahn ◽  
Lisa Marie DeBruine ◽  
Benedict C Jones
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Physical Condition ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Facial Attractiveness ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Facial Masculinity ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Women’S Preferences

Researchers have suggested that more attractive women will show stronger preferences for masculine men because such women are better placed to offset the potential costs of choosing a masculine mate. However, evidence for correlations between measures of women’s own attractiveness and preferences for masculine men is mixed. Moreover, the samples used to test this hypothesis are typically relatively small. Consequently, we conducted two large-scale studies that investigated possible associations between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their own attractiveness as assessed from third-party ratings of their facial attractiveness (Study 1, N = 454, laboratory study) and self-rated attractiveness (Study 2, N = 8972, online study). Own attractiveness was positively correlated with preferences for masculine men in Study 2 (self-rated attractiveness), but not Study 1 (third-party ratings of facial attractiveness). This pattern of results is consistent with the proposal that women’s beliefs about their own attractiveness, rather than their physical condition per se, underpins attractiveness-contingent masculinity preferences.

scholarly journals No evidence that partnered and unpartnered gay men differ in their preferences for male facial masculinity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Cassar ◽  
Victor Kenji Medeiros Shiramizu ◽  
Lisa Marie DeBruine ◽  
Benedict C Jones
Keyword(s):  
Gay Men ◽  
Facial Masculinity ◽  
Null Result ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Partnership Status ◽  
Women’S Preferences

Women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s faces have been extensively studied. By contrast, little is known about how gay men respond to masculine facial characteristics. One area of disagreement in the emerging literature on this topic is the association between gay men’s partnership status and masculinity preference. One study found that partnered gay men showed stronger preferences for masculine faces than did single gay men, while another study found that partnered gay men showed weaker preferences for masculine faces than did single gay men. We re-examined this issue in a sample of 618 gay men, finding no significant difference between partnered and single gay men’s masculinity preferences. Together with the mixed previous findings, our null result suggests that the effect of partnership status on gay men’s face preferences is not robust.

scholarly journals Does self-rated attractiveness predict women’s preferences for facial masculinity? Data from an Arab sample

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Aied Alharbi ◽  
Iris Jasmin Holzleitner ◽  
Anthony J Lee ◽  
Selahattin Adil Saribay ◽  
Benedict C Jones
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Arab Women ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Facial Masculinity ◽  
Women’S Preferences ◽  
Physically Attractive ◽  
The Relationship

Because more attractive women may be better able to attract and/or retain masculine mates, many researchers have proposed that women who consider themselves to be more physically attractive will show stronger preferences for men displaying masculine facial characteristics. Empirical evidence for this putative association between women’s self-rated attractiveness and preference for facial masculinity has come almost entirely from studies of Western women. To investigate whether this pattern of results also occurs in a sample of non-Western women, we investigated the relationship between self-rated attractiveness and facial-masculinity preferences in a sample of Arab women (N = 281). By contrast with previous findings for Western women’s self-rated attractiveness, we observed no compelling evidence that Arab women who considered themselves to be more attractive showed stronger preferences for masculine men. This result suggests that associations between self-rated attractiveness and masculinity preferences might be somewhat culture specific, potentially reflecting cultural differences in typical mating strategies.

scholarly journals The Qingdao Preschooler Facial Expression Set: Acquisition and Validation of Chinese Children’s Facial Emotion Stimuli

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Chen ◽  
Yulin Zhang ◽  
Guozhen Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Facial Stimulus ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Children's Emotion ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Face

Traditional research on emotion-face processing has primarily focused on the expression of basic emotions using adult emotional face stimuli. Stimulus sets featuring child faces or emotions other than basic emotions are rare. The current study describes the acquisition and evaluation of the Qingdao Preschooler Facial Expression (QPFE) set, a facial stimulus set with images featuring 54 Chinese preschoolers’ emotion expressions. The set includes 712 standardized color photographs of six basic emotions (joy, fear, anger, sadness, surprise, and disgust), five discrete positive emotions (interest, contentment, relief, pride, and amusement), and a neutral expression. The validity of the pictures was examined based on 43 adult raters’ online evaluation, including agreement between designated emotions and raters’ labels, as well as intensity and representativeness scores. Overall, these data should contribute to the developmental and cross-cultural research on children’s emotion expressions and provide insights for future research on positive emotions.

scholarly journals EMOSEX – emotion prevails over sex during implicit judgment of faces

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Korb ◽  
Nace Mikus ◽  
Claudia Massaccesi ◽  
Jack Grey ◽  
Suvarnalata Xanthate Duggirala ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
The Face ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Voice Processing ◽  
Male To Female

Appraisals can be influenced by cultural beliefs and stereotypes. In line with this, past research has shown that judgments about the emotional expression of a face are influenced by the face’s sex, and vice versa that judgments about the sex of a person somewhat depend on the person’s facial expression. For example, participants associate anger with male faces, and female faces with happiness or sadness. However, the strength and the bidirectionality of these effects remain debated. Moreover, the interplay of a stimulus’ emotion and sex remains mostly unknown in the auditory domain. To investigate these questions, we created a novel stimulus set of 121 avatar faces and 121 human voices (available at https://bit.ly/2JkXrpy) with matched, fine-scale changes along the emotional (happy to angry) and sexual (male to female) dimensions. In a first experiment (N=76), we found clear evidence for the mutual influence of facial emotion and sex cues on ratings, and moreover for larger implicit (task-irrelevant) effects of stimulus’ emotion than of sex. These findings were replicated and extended in two preregistered studies – one laboratory categorisation study using the same face stimuli (N=108; https://osf.io/ve9an), and one online study with vocalisations (N=72; https://osf.io/vhc9g). Overall, results show that the associations of maleness-anger and femaleness-happiness exist across sensory modalities, and suggest that emotions expressed in the face and voice cannot be entirely disregarded, even when attention is mainly focused on determining stimulus’ sex. We discuss the relevance of these findings for cognitive and neural models of face and voice processing.

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