Facial attractiveness: evolutionary based research

Face preferences affect a diverse range of critical social outcomes, from mate choices and decisions about platonic relationships to hiring decisions and decisions about social exchange. Firstly, we review the facial characteristics that influence attractiveness judgements of faces (e.g. symmetry, sexually dimorphic shape cues, averageness, skin colour/texture and cues to personality) and then review several important sources of individual differences in face preferences (e.g. hormone levels and fertility, own attractiveness and personality, visual experience, familiarity and imprinting, social learning). The research relating to these issues highlights flexible, sophisticated systems that support and promote adaptive responses to faces that appear to function to maximize the benefits of both our mate choices and more general decisions about other types of social partners.

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Facial Attractiveness and Averageness: Individual Differences in Perceived Attractiveness Reflect Degree of Access to Right Hemisphere Processing

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e633262013-307 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Stephen D. Christman ◽

Jessica Baker

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Facial Attractiveness ◽

Perceived Attractiveness

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Facial attractiveness and lip morphology of Caucasian women

Anthropological Review ◽

10.2478/anre-2018-0035 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 81 (4) ◽

pp. 404-413 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zdzisław Lewandowski ◽

Dariusz P. Danel

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

Facial Attractiveness ◽

Facial Features ◽

Sexually Dimorphic ◽

Men And Women ◽

Repeated Measures Anova ◽

Adult Men ◽

Caucasian Women

Abstract Human lips are one of the most sexually dimorphic facial features. Although lip morphology is considered particularly important for female facial attractiveness no systematic empirical study has been conducted in this respect. This study aimed to investigate a relationship between female Caucasian facial attractiveness and their lip morphology. Two series of morphologically average composite portraits with digitally increased and decreased lip width and height measurements were assessed by adult men and women. Results were analysed using repeated measures ANOVA. When compared to the average lip shape both a decrease and an increase in lip width were associated with lower female facial attractiveness. A systematic increase in lip height from the lowest values to the highest, was associated with an increase in attractiveness scores. Attractiveness assessments of men and women did not differ significantly. The results show that perception of lip attractiveness may be intersexually congruent and that a variation in lip morphology may significantly affect female facial attractiveness.

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Probing Vividness Increment through Imagery Interruption

Imagination Cognition and Personality ◽

10.2190/fd86-rwdh-flx2-ulrg ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 63-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Amedeo D'Angiulli ◽

Adam Reeves

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Visual Experience ◽

Mental Image ◽

Full Detail ◽

Implicit Assumption ◽

Generation Process ◽

Image Generation ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Over Time

The purpose of the present study was to trace how visual experience changes over time during mental image generation, by using an interruption paradigm. In one experiment, participants were asked to read the verbal descriptions of eight common objects and imagine these objects. Changes in the quality of the images evoked by the eight stimuli were probed by interrupting the visual mental image generation process at various times from 0 to 1.7 s, and asking participants to rate the vividness of their image at the time of interruption. We found that vividness increased as the time allowed for image generation was augmented. This relationship was consistently detected in half of the participants and for all stimuli. The present findings support the implicit assumption of some current imagery models positing that mental images “improve” over time, and reject the alternative that images are generated in full detail before becoming accessible to consciousness. However, the “incremental” view is unsatisfactory for imagery models which make no (or not enough) room for individual differences.

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Racial characteristics and individual differences in women's evaluations of men's facial attractiveness and personality

Personality and Individual Differences ◽

10.1016/s0191-8869(03)00202-2 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 36 (5) ◽

pp. 1083-1092 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

T. Joel Wade ◽

Kristin Irvine ◽

Marjorie Cooper

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Facial Attractiveness

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Sexual orientation predicts men’s preferences for sexually dimorphic face-shape characteristics: a replication study.

10.31234/osf.io/9kyur ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Victor Kenji Medeiros Shiramizu ◽

Ciaran Docherty ◽

Lisa Marie DeBruine ◽

Benedict C Jones

Keyword(s):

Sexual Orientation ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Mate Choice ◽

Gay Men ◽

Romantic Partners ◽

Replication Study ◽

Sexually Dimorphic ◽

Face Shape ◽

Shape Characteristics

Many researchers have proposed that straight men prefer women’s faces displaying feminine shape characteristics at least partly because mating with such women will produce healthier offspring. Although a prediction of this adaptation-for-mate-choice hypothesis is that straight men will show stronger preferences for feminized versus masculinized versions of women’s faces than will gay men, only one previous study has directly tested this prediction. Here we directly replicated that study by comparing 623 gay and 3163 straight men’s preferences for feminized versus masculinized versions of faces. Consistent with the adaptation-for-mate-choice hypothesis of straight men’s femininity preferences, we found that straight men showed significantly stronger preferences for feminized female faces than did gay men. Consistent with previous research suggesting that gay men place a premium on masculinity in potential romantic partners, we also found that gay men showed significantly stronger preferences for masculinized versions of male faces than did straight men. Together, these findings indicate the sexual orientation contributes to individual differences in men’s face preferences.

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Dynamic social learning in temporally and spatially variable environments

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.200734 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (12) ◽

pp. 200734

Author(s):

Dominik Deffner ◽

Vivien Kleinow ◽

Richard McElreath

Keyword(s):

Social Learning ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Learning Task ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽

Adaptive Responses ◽

Strategic Learning ◽

Time Dynamics ◽

Variable Environments ◽

Theoretical Predictions ◽

Group Members

Cultural evolution is partly driven by the strategies individuals use to learn behaviour from others. Previous experiments on strategic learning let groups of participants engage in repeated rounds of a learning task and analysed how choices are affected by individual payoffs and the choices of group members. While groups in such experiments are fixed, natural populations are dynamic, characterized by overlapping generations, frequent migrations and different levels of experience. We present a preregistered laboratory experiment with 237 mostly German participants including migration, differences in expertise and both spatial and temporal variation in optimal behaviour. We used simulation and multi-level computational learning models including time-varying parameters to investigate adaptive time dynamics in learning. Confirming theoretical predictions, individuals relied more on (conformist) social learning after spatial compared with temporal changes. After both types of change, they biased decisions towards more experienced group members. While rates of social learning rapidly declined in rounds following migration, individuals remained conformist to group-typical behaviour. These learning dynamics can be explained as adaptive responses to different informational environments. Summarizing, we provide empirical insights and introduce modelling tools that hopefully can be applied to dynamic social learning in other systems.

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Theoretical approaches to elder abuse: a systematic review of the empirical evidence

The Journal of Adult Protection ◽

10.1108/jap-04-2021-0014 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

João Filipe Fundinho ◽

Diana Cunha Pereira ◽

José Ferreira-Alves

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Social Learning ◽

Social Exchange ◽

Learning Theory ◽

Social Learning Theory ◽

Elder Abuse ◽

Theoretical Explanation ◽

Review Of The Literature ◽

Content Type ◽

Theoretical Approaches

Purpose The study of theoretical models explaining elder abuse has been one of the main gaps in the literature of the field. The extent of support of each theory is not clear. This study aims to conduct a systematic review to examine research supporting or opposing six theories of elder abuse: caregiver stress theory, social exchange theory, social learning theory, bidirectional theory, dyadic discord theory and the psychopathology of the caregiver. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts a systematic review of the literature. Seven databases were searched six times using different keywords about each theory. Findings This paper finds 26,229 references and then organised and analysed these references using pre-established criteria. In total, 89 papers were selected, which contained 117 results of interest; these papers were summarised and assessed for conceptual, methodological and evidence quality. The results showed evidence in favour of all the explored theories, except for social learning theory, whose results indicate multiple interpretations of the theory. This study finishes this paper by proposing that each of these theories might explain different facets of elder abuse and that more research is necessary to understand how the predictions of these different theories interact. Originality/value This paper presents an extensive review of the literature on theoretical explanations of elder abuse. The findings can be of value for selecting theories for prevention programmes or providing a summary of the evidence for researchers and practitioners interested in the theoretical explanation of elder abuse.

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