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Personality manipulations: Do they modulate facial attractiveness ratings?

November 2014
Personality and Individual Differences 70:80–84

DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.033

Authors:

Yan Zhang

Southwest University in Chongqing

Fanchang Kong

Central China Normal University

Hui Kou

Southwest University in Chongqing

This study examines the influence of personality manipulations on female facial attractiveness ratings. One hundred and twenty participants (60 males and 60 females) were randomly divided into three groups (40 per group). Prior to the experiment, all participants rated 60 facial stimuli on attractiveness. After two weeks, the participants again rated the same facial stimuli on attractiveness, when they were presented with positive, negative, or no personality information. Results showed no significant difference in attractiveness scores among the three groups during the first rating. However, during the second rating, a significant effect for each group as well as a significant interaction between attractiveness and the group were found, with the attractiveness scores of all three groups differing significantly for the faces with high, medium, and low attractiveness (positive information group > no information group > negative information group, all p < 0.05). We find that “what is good is beautiful,” with personality reflecting desired traits as facial attractiveness. This phenomenon can also be called the “halo effect.” We can thus presume that personality traits may contribute to judging facial attractiveness and that the personality traits desired in a person are reflected in facial preference.

ANOVA examining attractive rating scores by group and participant gender.

…

Attractiveness scores among three groups for high, medium, and low attractiveness.

…

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Personality manipulations: Do they modulate facial attractiveness

ratings?

Yan Zhang

a,b,

⇑

, Fanchang Kong

c,1

, Yanli Zhong

, Hui Kou

Academy of Educational Science, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

School of Educational Science, Mianyang Normal University, Mianyang, China

School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education), School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

article info

Article history:

Received 15 May 2014

Received in revised form 20 June 2014

Accepted 21 June 2014

Keywords:

Facial attractiveness

Ratings

Personality

Manipulations

abstract

This study examines the inﬂuence of personality manipulations on female facial attractiveness ratings.

One hundred and twenty participants (60 males and 60 females) were randomly divided into three

groups (40 per group). Prior to the experiment, all participants rated 60 facial stimuli on attractiveness.

After two weeks, the participants again rated the same facial stimuli on attractiveness, when they were

presented with positive, negative, or no personality information. Results showed no signiﬁcant difference

in attractiveness scores among the three groups during the ﬁrst rating. However, during the second rat-

ing, a signiﬁcant effect for each group as well as a signiﬁcant interaction between attractiveness and the

group were found, with the attractiveness scores of all three groups differing signiﬁcantly for the faces

with high, medium, and low attractiveness (positive information group > no information group > nega-

tive information group, all p< 0.05). We ﬁnd that ‘‘what is good is beautiful,’’ with personality reﬂecting

desired traits as facial attractiveness. This phenomenon can also be called the ‘‘halo effect.’’ We can thus

presume that personality traits may contribute to judging facial attractiveness and that the personality

traits desired in a person are reﬂected in facial preference.

1. Introduction

Facial attractiveness reﬂects inner beauty, that is, spiritual and

moral beauty. The beauty-is-good stereotype (Dion, Berscheid, &

Walster, 1972) has been the focus of social psychological research

for more than three decades (Dion et al., 1972). The facial attrac-

tiveness stereotype illustrates that attractive individuals are

assumed to possess positive personality traits and to be morally

good (Dion et al., 1972; Langlois et al., 2000). Therefore, facial

attractiveness is positively related to socially favorable personality

traits such as friendliness, kindness, honesty, and trustworthiness

(Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011). The attractiveness stereotype has

received extensive empirical support (Feingold, 1992). Evidence

gathered over the past 10 years has suggested that the key factors

used in judging facial attractiveness are averageness (Komori,

Kawamura, & Ishihara, 2009a,b), symmetry (Baudouin &

Tiberghien, 2004; Jones, DeBruine, & Little, 2007; Little, Burt,

Penton-Voak, & Perrett, 2001), and hormone-dependent facial fea-

tures (DeBruine, Jones, Smith, & Little, 2010; DeBruine et al., 2006;

Rennels, Bronstad, & Langlois, 2008). Although research on facial

attractiveness and health is prevalent in literature (Boothroyd,

Scott, Gray, Coombes, & Pound, 2013; Coetzee, Re, Perrett,

Tiddeman, & Xiao, 2011; Fink, Bunse, Matts, & D’Emiliano, 2012;

Gray & Boothroyd, 2012; Kramer & Ward, 2010; Marcinkowska

et al., 2014; Matthews, Rhee, Neuburg, Burzynski, & Nattinger,

2006; Reither, Hauser, & Swallen, 2009; Rhodes et al., 2007;

Stephen, Law Smith, Stirrat, & Perrett, 2009; Thornhill &

Gangestad, 2006), studies on personality attributions to facial

attractiveness remain lacking, particularly within an evolutionary

framework. Only a few studies have explored the association

between facial characteristics and personality in this domain

(Coetzee et al., 2011; Gray & Boothroyd, 2012; Jones, Kramer, &

Ward, 2012; Kramer & Ward, 2012).

Regarding facial symmetry, research has shown that people

who are facially symmetrical are emotionally healthy

(Shackelford & Larsen, 1997). This ﬁnding is based on the assump-

tion that facial symmetry is an indicator of physiological health.

Moreover, recent studies have extended and tested the hypothesis

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.033

⇑

Corresponding author. Address: Academy of Educational Science, Huazhong

University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. Tel.: +86 151 0710

4427.

E-mail address: zhangyan1981@hust.edu.cn (Y. Zhang).

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Personality and Individual Differences 70 (2014) 80–84

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

that facial symmetry may be related to certain personality charac-

teristics. In one study, 121 undergraduate students were asked to

use the 44-item Big-Five Inventory to rate digital photograph tar-

gets of 16 females of various races and ages (Noor & Evans,

2003). Targets with asymmetrical faces were rated to be signiﬁ-

cantly more neurotic, less agreeable, and less conscientious than

targets with normal faces. However, the study failed to detect an

effect of facial symmetry on facial attractiveness ratings. Similarly,

Fink et al. investigated associations between facial symmetry and

actual self-report personality assessed by using the 60-item NEO

Five-Factor Inventory among 120 undergraduate students (Fink,

Neave, Manning, & Grammer, 2005). In contrast to previous results,

the data collected from the aforementioned research conﬁrmed

that facial symmetry is positively associated with extraversion

but signiﬁcantly negatively related with agreeableness and open-

ness. In particular, neuroticism and conscientiousness are not sig-

niﬁcantly related with facial symmetry. Furthermore, the same

authors recorded 20 female faces with varying facial symmetries

and recruited 55 Caucasian volunteers to rate the faces based on

10 adjectives by using a seven-point Likert scale (Fink, Neave,

Manning, & Grammer, 2006). The results showed that faces with

high symmetry received signiﬁcantly high ratings on attractive-

ness and on some personality attributes such as sociability, intelli-

gence, and self-conﬁdence (Fink et al., 2006). Pound, Penton-Voak,

and Brown (2007) tested the ﬁndings of Fink et al. (2006) a signif-

icant positive association between self-reported extraversion and

facial symmetry by using a landmark-based measure of facial sym-

metry in males and females. These results are inconsistent with

those of previous experiments.

Gangestad and Thornhill (2003) showed that the degree of

facial masculinity is an indicator of honesty in men. However,

Thornhill and Gangestad (2006) argued that this ﬁnding may apply

to both sexes. Furthermore, facial masculinization was found to

covary with symmetry, thus resulting in the conclusion that facial

masculinity partly reﬂects underlying developmental stability and

disease resistance (Fink et al., 2006; Rhode & Arriaza, 2006). How-

ever, the ﬁndings of Rantala et al. (2013) challenged the view of

masculinity-health association, which indicated that adiposity,

compared with masculinity, serves as a more important cue to

immunocompetence in female mate choice. In addition, masculin-

ized faces, in relation to high levels of androgen, were considered

to possess fewer desirable personality traits compared with femi-

nized faces (Boothroyd, Jones, Burt, & Perrett, 2007; Kruger,

2006; Penton-Voak et al., 2001). Furthermore, Koehler, Simmons,

Rhodes, and Peters (2004) provided reliable measures of asymme-

try, which are perceived to be symmetrical, and of sexual dimor-

phism, which are perceived as feminine in females and

masculine in males; however, they did not examine the relation-

ship between facial sexual dimorphism and personality.

Previous studies have examined the relation among facial sym-

metry, masculinity, perceived dimorphism, and personality, but

the results found were mixed. Fink et al. (2005) showed that facial

symmetry contributes to personality attributes but they did not

consider other attractiveness factors, which hinders direct compar-

isons. Moreover, such associations may arise if perceived attrac-

tiveness covaries with other facial traits (such as averageness,

masculinity, and perceived dimorphism) that drive personality

attributions rather than if symmetry directly drives these attribu-

tions (Scheib, Gangestad, & Thornhill, 1999). Rhodes et al. found

that averageness, symmetry, and masculinity were all signiﬁcant

components of attractiveness, as rated from videos (Rhodes et al.,

2011). Furthermore, existing studies have investigated whether

facial attractiveness contributes to personality, but only a few

studies have explored whether personality contributes to facial

attractiveness because the effects are considered reciprocal.

Therefore, the present study explored whether integral facial

attractiveness, rather than one kind of traits (such as symmetry,

averageness, or dimorphism), is affected by personality informa-

tion. We hypothesized that facial attractiveness is signiﬁcantly

affected by personality information. In particular, the rating scores

on facial attractiveness were evaluated by following positive per-

sonality words in contrast to without personality words. Moreover,

the rating scores on facial attractiveness were reduced by follow-

ing negative personality words in contrast to without personality

words.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

The participants comprised 120 volunteers (60 males and 60

females) between 19 and 22 years old from native Chinese Han

in a university. Each participant signed an informed consent before

the procedure was fully explained. Participants were given small

tokens for their participation. All participants were right-handed

and had normal vision, with no self-reported history of neurologi-

cal or psychiatric disorder.

2.2. Stimuli

We collected 845 photographs of unfamiliar Chinese female

faces (approximately 20–30 years of age) with neutral emotional

expression from the Google database. Standardized facial stimuli

was validated from a recent study (Zhang et al., 2011), with 60

facial images (including 20 each with high, medium, and low

attractiveness) selected as experimental stimuli. Personality attri-

butes were also selected from a standardized personality word

pool (Kong, Zhang, & Chen, 2012). A total of 30 words were selected

to describe positive personality traits (e.g., decent, honest),

whereas the remaining 30 were selected to describe negative per-

sonality traits (e.g., evil, mean). The ratings demonstrated excellent

reliability (Cronbach’s alpha was 0.857 for positive personality

traits, and 0.869 for negative personality traits) by a sample of

125 college students. The visual stimuli was 2-character Chinese

words above the facial images.

2.3. Procedure

The participants were randomly divided into three groups, with

ﬁrst group 18 boys, 22 girls (age ranges from 19 to 22 years old),

second group 21 boys, 19 girls (age ranges from 19 to 21 years

old), and third group 21 boys, 19 girls (age ranges from 19 to

22 years old). Prior to the experiment, all the participants rated

the 60 facial stimuli from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest) in terms of

attractiveness. Each trial began with a ﬁxation cross (300 ms),

and the target stimulus (800 ms), followed by a 300-ms clear

screen, and ﬁnally followed by a 1500-ms responded screen.

After two weeks, the participants again rated the same 60 facial

stimuli from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest). However, one of three con-

ditions (positive personality, negative personality, or no informa-

tion) was assigned to each group before the second rating. Two

words belonging to either the positive or negative personality

traits were randomly selected from the personality word pool to

describe the personality of each facial image before the partici-

pants rated the facial stimuli. The facial stimuli were then

randomly presented within two rating processes.

2.4. Statistical analyses

Data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 for windows (SPSS Inc, Chi-

cago, Illinois). The repeated-measure ANOVA was conducted to

Y. Zhang et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 70 (2014) 80–84 81

compare the rating scores on facial attractiveness, with group

(positive/negative/no information) and gender (male/female) as

between factors, and attractiveness (high/medium/low) as a within

factor. For all analyses, p-values were corrected for deviation from

sphericity according to the Greenhouse–Geisser method. The

results section reports the main effects and interactions, based

on the main hypothesis of the study. Bonferroni post hoc test

was conducted when the main effect was signiﬁcant, and simple

effect test was performed when the interaction effect was

signiﬁcant.

3. Results

A repeated-measure ANOVA to analyze the attractiveness

scores for the ﬁrst time rating (ANOVA values are presented in

Table 1). There was a signiﬁcant main effect for attractiveness.

Bonferroni post hoc test revealed that the attractiveness scores dif-

fered signiﬁcantly [high (3.83 ± 0.03) > medium (3.62 ± 0.02) > low

(3.45 ± 0.02)] (all p< 0.001). However, there was no signiﬁcant

effect for gender or group, and no signiﬁcant attractiveness gen-

der group interaction.

A repeated-measure ANOVA to analyze the mean differences on

attractiveness scores for the second time rating (ANOVA values are

presented in Table 1). There was a signiﬁcant main effect for attrac-

tiveness. Bonferroni post hoc test revealed that the attractiveness

scores differed signiﬁcantly [high (3.83 ± 0.03) > medium

(3.62 ± 0.02) > low (3.45 ± 0.02)] (all p< 0.001). Specially, a signiﬁ-

cant main effect for group was found. Bonferroni post hoc test

revealed that the attractiveness scores of all three groups differed

signiﬁcantly [positive group (5.18 ± 0.14) > no information group

(4.44 ± 0.14) > negative group (3.10 ± 0.14)] (all p< 0.001). There

also was a signiﬁcant attractiveness group interaction. Simple

effect analysis revealed that attractiveness scores of all three

groups differed signiﬁcantly for high, medium, and low attractive

faces (positive group > no information group > negative group, all

p< 0.05). Furthermore, a paired-t test to compare the differences

of attractiveness scores between the ﬁrst time rating and the sec-

ond time rating. It showed that the differences were signiﬁcant

on positive group (ﬁrst time rating < the second time rating, all

p< 0.05) and negative group (ﬁrst time rating > the second time

rating, all p< 0.05) (see Fig. 1).

4. Discussion

Meta-analyses indicate that attractive children and adults are

judged more positively than unattractive children and adults, even

by those who know them, and that attractive children and adults

exhibit more positive behaviors and traits than unattractive chil-

dren and adults (Langlois et al., 2000). However, we hypothesized

that personality trait manipulation could inﬂuence attractiveness

ratings, with participants giving high attractiveness scores when

they were presented with positive personality information about

a target and low attractiveness scores when they were presented

with negative personality information. Our results suggest that

the personality of an individual may affect his or her facial attrac-

tiveness evaluation and that personality correlates with facial

attractiveness. Positive personality characteristics can increase

perceptions of physical attractiveness, which is in line with exist-

ing research, e.g., Knifﬁn and Wilson (2004). A meta-analytic

review of research on physical attractiveness stereotype also sug-

gested that the subjects in such studies ascribed more favorable

personality traits and more successful life outcomes to attractive

targets than to unattractive targets (Eagly, Makhijani, Ashmore, &

Longo, 1991). These ﬁndings shed new light on the ‘‘what is beau-

tiful is good’’ stereotype. Furthermore, Little, Burt, and Perrett

(2006) found that if a trait is desired, then faces perceived to pos-

sess such a trait are considered more attractive than faces that do

not possess such a trait. Thus, possessing desirable personality

traits may be a factor in making a face attractive, and the person-

ality desired in a partner is reﬂected in face preference. We ﬁnd

that ‘‘what is good is beautiful,’’ with personality reﬂecting desired

traits as facially attractive. This phenomenon has also been called

the ‘‘halo effect’’ (Zebrowitz & Franklin, 2014).

Researchers have recently explored the relationships between

attractiveness and personality. A number of ﬁndings suggest posi-

tive associations between attractiveness and socially desirable

characteristics in individuals (e.g., facial attractiveness, olfactory

attractiveness, auditory attractiveness, and dancing ability)

(Pound et al., 2007). However, most studies have only explored

whether attractiveness is a predictive factor of good personality

traits. The major contribution of this study is the ﬁnding that per-

sonality characteristics may be linked to facial attractiveness, such

that positive personality characteristics can promote facial attrac-

tiveness, whereas negative personality characteristics can reduce

facial attractiveness.

The putative mechanisms underlying the associations between

personality traits and facial attractiveness remain unclear. One

possibility relates to the effect of physiology on the developmental

processes of the face and on the sex-dependent aspects of person-

ality. For example, hormones (i.e., testosterone and estrogen) can

affect growth rates and facial proportions (Gangestad &

Thornhill, 2003). It suggests that asymmetry and negative person-

alities should be associated more than asymmetry and positive

personality. However, this requires further study. Another possible

explanation for this outcome is the mere exposure effect

(Bornstein, 1989), by which people show less favorable attitudes

toward novel stimuli than toward stimuli that they encounter fre-

quently. The participants may have attributed traits that are not

too favorable to asymmetrical, abnormal, or unfamiliar faces

because they undoubtedly have less exposure to asymmetrical or

abnormal faces than to normal faces. Attractive faces frequently

presented on TV or magazines carry a strong social-desirability

connotation, which leads us to believe that facial attractiveness

Table 1

ANOVA examining attractive rating scores by group and participant gender.

Source 1st round of ratings 2nd round of ratings

df F p

Attractiveness 1.95 102.256 .000 .473 1.61 101.504 .000 .471

Attractiveness gender 1.95 2.627 .076 .023 1.61 1.953 .154 .017

Attractiveness group 3.90 1.636 .168 .028 3.21 2.810 .037 .047

Attractiveness gender group 3.90 1.362 .249 .023 3.21 1.395 .244 .024

Within-group error 221.87 182.93

Gender 1 .058 .811 .001 1 2.207 .140 .019

Group 2 .291 .748 .005 2 54.867 .000 .490

Gender group 2 .659 .519 .011 2 .351 .705 .006

Between-group error 114 114

82 Y. Zhang et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 70 (2014) 80–84

has an interactive effect on personality impressions. Thus, people

who are frequently judged to have a positive personality, either

those with good conduct, or those who are virtuous or honest,

are also judged to be facially attractive.

Future work should also explore whether the differential effects

of facial attractiveness, as well as other moderators, including

social status and age, exist across race. Although several studies

have explored facial attractiveness perception differences among

various race or gender groups (Lewis, 2012; Yamamoto, Ariely,

Chi, Langleben, & Elman, 2009), personality factors were rarely

considered. Additional research is also necessary to assess the

inﬂuence of personality information on rating male targets. More-

over, the present data suggest that the ﬁndings do not only apply

to facial attractiveness ratings, but also to personality attributions.

In summary, we hope that the results of this study will broaden

our understanding of the constellation of facial attractiveness,

personality, and social desirability, which comprise the beauty-

is-good stereotype.

Our ﬁndings suggest that human preferences for faces are

shaped by adaptive mechanisms, which are driven by the interest

of good quality. In humans, this quality may not be restricted to

physical conditions, such as attractiveness, but may also relate to

certain personality characteristics. This ﬁnding indicates that

human interior psychological activity is related to exterior physical

feature, and that a human is the whole entity of psychology and

physiology.

5. Ethics statement

Each participant signed an informed consent before the proce-

dure was fully explained. Approval was granted by the Research

Ethics Committee of the Academy of Educational Sciences, Huaz-

hong University of Science and Technology, China. All participants

were right-handed and had normal vision, with no self-reported

history of neurological or psychiatric disorder. All the authors have

approved the manuscript and agree with submission to your

esteemed journal. There are no conﬂicts of interest to declare.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported and granted by Chinese National

Natural Science Foundation at Youth Project (31200787), and

Huazhong University of Science and Technology Innovation Foun-

dation at Youth Project (2014AC012) to Yan Zhang. We thank all

participants for their time and interest as well as the editor and

reviewers for their valuable feedback.

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Why do you attract me but not others? Retrieval of person knowledge and its generalization bring diverse judgments of facial attractiveness

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2020

Judgments of facial attractiveness play an important role in social interactions. However, it still remains unclear why these judgments are malleable. The present study aimed to understand whether the retrieval of person knowledge leads to different judgments of attractiveness of the same face. Event-related potentials and learning-recognition tasks were used to investigate the effects of person knowledge on facial attractiveness. The results showed that compared with familiar faces that were matched with negative person knowledge, those matched with positive person knowledge were evaluated as more attractive and evoked a larger early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive complex (LPC). Additionally, positive similar faces had the same behavioral results and evoked large LPC, while unfamiliar faces did not have any significant effects. These results indicate that the effect of person knowledge on facial attractiveness occurs from early to late stage of facial attractiveness processing, and this effect could be generalized based on the similarity of the face structure, which occurred at the late stage. This mechanism may explain why individuals form different judgments of facial attractiveness.

What is good is beautiful (and what isn't, isn't): How moral character affects perceived facial attractiveness

Preprint

Full-text available

Oct 2021

A well-documented “beauty-is-good” stereotype is expressed in the expectation that physically attractive people have more positive characteristics. Recent evidence also finds that unattractive faces are associated with negative character inferences. Is what is good (bad) also beautiful (ugly)? Whether this conflation of aesthetic and moral values is bidirectional is not known. This study tested the hypothesis that complementary “good-is-beautiful” and “bad-is-ugly” stereotypes bias aesthetic judgments. Using highly controlled face stimuli, this pre-registered study examined whether moral character influences perceptions of attractiveness for different ages and sexes of faces. Compared to faces paired with non-moral vignettes, those paired with prosocial vignettes were rated significantly more attractive, confident, and friendlier. The opposite pattern characterized faces paired with antisocial vignettes. A significant interaction between vignette type and the age of the face was detected for attractiveness. Moral transgressions affected attractiveness more negatively for younger than older faces. Sex-related differences were not detected. These results suggest information about moral character affects our judgments about facial attractiveness. Better people are considered more attractive. These findings suggest that beliefs about moral goodness and physical beauty influence each other bidirectionally.

Comparisons make faces more attractive: An ERP study

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

Facial attractiveness judgment largely depends on the characteristics of the facial structure and the personality of the observer. However, little is known about the influence of contextual variations on facial attractiveness. In this electroencephalogram study, participants judged the attractiveness of faces presented individually or in pairs with either a higher‐attractive face (HAF) or lower‐attractive face (LAF). The attractiveness judgment rating of the target face was significantly higher when presented in pairs with HAFs or LAFs than when presented individually and was accompanied by a larger late positive complex. These results suggest that contextual faces enhance the attractiveness judgment of target faces. Microstate analyses revealed that the global field power (GFP) of state 3 was significantly correlated with the attractiveness judgment in the HAF condition whereas the GFP of state 2 was significantly correlated with the attractiveness judgment in the LAF condition. Interestingly, the GFP of state 2 mediated the relationship between narcissism and facial attractiveness judgment in the context of LAFs. Source location analyses showed that states 3 and 2 activated the superior and middle frontal gyrus, which are involved in emotion processing. Our findings suggest that facial attractiveness can be enhanced by contextual comparison with other faces, subject to personality of the observer. By using the electroencephalogram (EEG), the spatiotemporal dynamics of the brain were measured when faces were paired with high and low attractiveness faces. Our results show that the face was judged more attractive than it presents alone when it appears with others faces. Our findings contribute to the understanding of neurocognitive mechanisms and processes of facial attractiveness.

What is good is beautiful (and what isn’t, isn’t): How moral character affects perceived facial attractiveness.

Article

Mar 2022

A well-documented “beauty is good” stereotype is expressed in the expectation that physically attractive people have more positive characteristics. Recent evidence has also found that unattractive faces are associated with negative character inferences. Is what is good (bad) also beautiful (ugly)? Whether this conflation of aesthetic and moral values is bidirectional is not known. This study tested the hypothesis that complementary “good is beautiful” and “bad is ugly” stereotypes bias aesthetic judgments. Using highly controlled face stimuli, this preregistered study examined whether moral character influences perceptions of attractiveness for different ages and sexes of faces. Compared to faces paired with nonmoral vignettes, those paired with prosocial vignettes were rated significantly more attractive, confident, and friendlier. The opposite pattern characterized faces paired with antisocial vignettes. A significant interaction between vignette type and the age of the face was detected for attractiveness. Moral transgressions affected attractiveness more negatively for younger than older faces. Sex-related differences were not detected. These results suggest information about moral character affects our judgments about facial attractiveness. Better (worse) people are considered more (less) attractive. These findings suggest that beliefs about moral goodness and physical beauty influence each other bidirectionally.

Positive referential meaning and color metaphor bring beauty: Evidence on aesthetic appraisal of ancient Chinese character from Han, Bai, and Yi ethnic groups

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2022
CURR PSYCHOL

Ancient Chinese characters were produced using two systems, one were produced according to man-made conventions to convey abstract meanings (oracle bone script), and another were generated by outlining the shape of object (pictograph). Whether these two kinds of ancient Chinese characters elicit different aesthetic appraisals of font structure depend on the referential meaning or object? And whether this aesthetic appraisal vary by color metaphors? In this present study, participants recruited from the Han, Bai, and Yi ethnic groups were unacquainted with the ancient Chinese characters. Experiment 1a, 1b, and 1c used abstract oracle bone scripts as materials, and Experiment 2a, 2b, and 2c used concrete pictographs as materials. Across three Chinese ethnic groups, the results showed the font structure of oracle bone script or pictograph was more likely to be judged as beautiful when its referential meaning was positive or its referential object was beautiful. Whereas, when its referential meaning was negative or its referential object was ugly, the font structure was more likely to be judged as ugly. Moreover, beauty judgment was facilitated when a positive oracle bone script was presented in the ethnic preferred color, and ugliness judgment was facilitated in the ethnic disliked color. However, this modulation effect was not obvious in the aesthetic appraisal of pictograph. The results indicated that aesthetic appraisal of ancient Chinese characters may depend on the referential meaning or object, and this sense of beauty or ugliness is also modulated by the color preference and metaphors in different Chinese ethnic cultures.

Neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022
BRAIN STRUCT FUNCT

The judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty objectively refer to the perception and evaluation of moral traits, which are generally influenced by facial attractiveness. For centuries, people have equated beauty with the possession of positive qualities, but it is not clear whether the association between beauty and positive qualities exerts a similarly implicit influence on people's responses to moral goodness and moral beauty, how it affects those responses, and what is the neural basis for such an effect. The present study is the first to examine the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty. We found that beautiful faces in both moral judgments activated the left ventral occipitotemporal cortices sensitive to the geometric configuration of the faces, demonstrating that both moral goodness and moral beauty required the automatic visual analysis of geometrical configuration of attractive faces. In addition, compared to beautiful faces during moral goodness judgment, beautiful faces during moral beauty judgment induced unique activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and midline cortical structures involved in the emotional-valenced information about attractive faces. The opposite comparison elicited specific activity in the left superior temporal cortex and premotor area, which play a critical role in the recognition of facial identity. Our results demonstrated that the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the process of higher order moral decision-makings exhibit both task-general and task-specific characteristics. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality and aesthetics.

An Investigation of Patient Decisions to Use eHealth: A View of Multichannel Services

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2021

eHealth service has received increasing attention. Patients can consult online doctors via the internet and then physically visit the doctors for further diagnosis and treatments. Although extant research has focused on the adoption of eHealth services, the decision-making process from online to offline health services remains unclear. This study aims to examine patients’ decisions to use online and offline health services by integrating the extended valence framework and the halo effect. By analyzing 221 samples with online consultation experiences, the results show that trust significantly influences perceived benefits and perceived risks, while trust, perceived benefits, and perceived risks significantly influence the intention to consult. The intention to consult positively influences the intention to visit. Considering the moderating effects of payment types, the influence of perceived risks on the intention to consult is larger for the free group than for the paid group. The findings are useful to better understand patients’ decisions to use eHealth.

Neural Responses to Facial Attractiveness in the Judgments of Moral Goodness and Moral Beauty

Preprint

Full-text available

Oct 2021

The judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty objectively refer to the perception and evaluation of moral traits, which are generally influenced by facial attractiveness. For centuries, people have equated beauty with the possession of positive qualities, but it is not clear whether the association between beauty and positive qualities exerts a similarly implicit influence on people`s responses to moral goodness and moral beauty, how it affects those responses, and what is the neural basis for such an effect. The present study is the first to examine the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty. We found that beautiful faces in both moral judgments activated the left ventral occipitotemporal cortices sensitive to the geometric configuration of the faces, demonstrating that both moral goodness and moral beauty required the automatic visual analysis of geometrical configuration of attractive faces. In addition, compared to beautiful faces during moral goodness judgment, beautiful faces during moral beauty judgment induced unique activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and midline cortical structures involved in the emotional-valenced information about attractive faces. The opposite comparison elicited specific activity in the left superior temporal cortex and premotor area, which play a critical role in the recognition of facial identity. Our results demonstrated that the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the process of higher order moral decision-makings exhibits both task-general and task-specific characteristics. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality and aesthetics.

Campaign trail cliche: an analysis of U.S. politicians photo-taking behavior with children

Preprint

Full-text available

May 2021

During recent years, several researchers investigated politicians' public appearances to understand the impact of their actions on voters' intentions. Despite the large body of literature surrounding the politicians' families, especially in the U.S. context, little is known about the practice and general influence of politicians taking photographs with infants and children. In this study, politicians' behavior, and especially their public appearances next to infants and children during the presidential campaigns, is evaluated. Results across different presidential campaigns (from 1924 to 2020) confirm that politicians are more likely to take pictures with infants and children the closer it gets to the actual election date. Moreover, results reveal that the different parties —Democratic and Republican— engage in this practice at different stages of the campaign, which varies their likelihood of being elected.

The Good-looking Giver Effect: The Relationship Between Doing Good and Looking Good

Article

Aug 2020
NONPROF VOLUNT SEC Q

Evidence exists that beautiful is seen as good: the halo effect wherein more physically attractive people are perceived to be good, and the reverse halo that good is seen as beautiful. Yet research has rarely examined the evidence linking the beautiful with the good, or the reverse, without the halo effect. We examine the relationship between physical attractiveness (beauty) and giving behaviors (good), where ratings of attractiveness are independent of giving behaviors. We use three U.S. datasets: (a) a nationally representative sample of older adults (NSHAP), (b) a nationally representative longitudinal study of adolescents (ADD Health), and (c) the 54-year Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), to present evidence that these two characteristics (attractiveness and giving) are indeed correlated without the halo effect. We find a ‘good-looking giver’ effect–that more physically attractive people are more likely to engage in giving behaviors, and vice versa. Thus, in ecologically valid real-world samples, people who do good are also likely to look good.

Cross-cultural variation in men's preference for sexual dimorphism in women's faces

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2014
BIOL LETTERS

Both attractiveness judgements and mate preferences vary considerably cross-culturally. We investigated whether men's preference for femininity in women's faces varies between 28 countries with diverse health conditions by analysing responses of 1972 heterosexual participants. Although men in all countries preferred feminized over masculinized female faces, we found substantial differences between countries in the magnitude of men's preferences. Using an average femininity preference for each country, we found men's facial femininity preferences correlated positively with the health of the nation, which explained 50.4% of the variation among countries. The weakest preferences for femininity were found in Nepal and strongest in Japan. As high femininity in women is associated with lower success in competition for resources and lower dominance, it is possible that in harsher environments, men prefer cues to resource holding potential over high fecundity.

The Attractiveness Halo Effect and the Babyface Stereotype in Older and Younger Adults: Similarities, Own-Age Accentuation, and Older Adult Positivity Effects

Article

Full-text available

May 2014
EXP AGING RES

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Two well-documented phenomena in person perception are the attractiveness halo effect (more positive impressions of more attractive people), and the babyface stereotype (more childlike impressions of more babyfaced people), shown by children, young adults (YA), and people from diverse cultures. This is the first study to systematically investigate these face stereotypes in older adults (OA) and to compare effects for younger and older adult faces. Methods: YA and OA judges rated competence, health, hostility, untrustworthiness, attractiveness, and babyfaceness of older and younger neutral expression faces. Multilevel modeling assessed effects of rater age and face age on appearance stereotypes. Results: Like YA, OA showed both the attractiveness halo effect and the babyface stereotype. However, OA showed weaker effects of attractiveness on impressions of untrustworthiness, and only OA associated higher babyfaceness with greater competence. There also was own-age accentuation, with both OA and YA showing stronger face stereotypes for faces closer to their own age. Age differences in the strength of the stereotypes reflected an OA positivity effect shown in more influence of positive facial qualities on impressions or less influence of negative ones, rather than vice versa. Conclusion: OA own-age biases, previously shown in emotion, age, and identity recognition, and OA positivity effects, previously revealed in attention, memory, and social judgments, also influence age differences in the strength and content of appearance stereotypes. Future research should assess implications of these results for age-related differences in susceptibility to appearance biases that YA have shown in socially significant domains, such as judicial and personnel decisions.

Male Facial Masculinity as a Cue to Health Outcomes

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2013

Evolutionary theories of human attraction draw heavily upon nonhuman literature, and currently the Immunocompetence Handicap Hypothesis dominates research into female attraction to male facial masculinity. Although some studies have shown links between masculinity and some measures of health, other data have failed to support the Immunocompetence Hypothesis as applied to human face preferences. Here we summarize that literature and present new data regarding links between masculinity and multiple measures of health condition in human males. Undergraduate males were photographed and their faces were assessed for sexual dimorphism using multiple methods and rated for apparent healthiness and attractiveness. Participants also reported recent health experiences both prior to being photographed and then again 10 weeks later. Although both attractiveness and rated health were associated with better actual health in the past and future (mainly indexed by lower antibiotic use), results were mixed for masculinity. With respect to respiratory illnesses, facial masculinity (assessed using morphometric techniques) was associated with better past health but with worse future health. Possible reasons for the complex and inconsistent findings are discussed and some potentially fruitful avenues of future research are outlined.

The Activity and Thermal Biology of the Fossorial Reptile, Diplometopon zarudnyi (Amphisbaenia: Trogonophiidae) in Central Saudi Arabia

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1999

Awadh M. Al-Johany

The nocturnal activity of the fossorial amphisbaenid Diplometopon zarudnyi was studied in the field and its thermal selection and tolerance were determined in the laboratory. During the study period (summer) the animals commenced activity at 20.00 hrs (ground temperature 30-32°C) and finish their foraging between 3.00 to 4.00 hrs (ground temperature 28-26°C) before the break of dawn. The mean activity temperature determined in the field was 31.5°C, which was usually 0.5 to 1°C higher than the ground temperature. The mean selected body temperatures in a gradient during day and night were 26.4°C (range 15-38°C) and 26.3°C (range 14-38°C) respectively. The Critical Thermal Maximum was 47.6°C and the Critical Thermal Minimum was 7°C. D. zarudnyi tolerates a wide range of temperatures while maintaining its mean body temperature within a narrow range. The role of Selected Body Temperature is discussed in relation to metabolism.

What Is Beautiful Is Good, But...: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research on the Physical Attractiveness Stereotype

Article

Jul 1991

This review demonstrates that the physical attractiveness stereotype established by studies of person perception is not as strong or general as suggested by the often-used summary phrase what is beautiful is good. Although subjects in these studies ascribed more favorable personality traits and more successful life outcomes to attractive than unattractive targets, the average magnitude of this beauty-is-good effect was moderate, and the strength of the effect varied considerably from study to study. Consistent with our implicit personality theory framework, a substantial portion of this variation was explained by the specific content of the inferences that subjects were asked to make: The differences in subjects' perception of attractive and unattractive targets were largest for indexes of social competence; intermediate for potency, adjustment, and intellectual competence; and near zero for integrity and concern for others. The strength of the physical attractiveness stereotype also varied as a function of other attributes of the studies, including the presence of individuating information.

Development of the Facial Skin Care Index

Article

Jul 2006

BACKGROUND: Existing health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) tools do not appear to capture patients' specific skin cancer concerns. OBJECTIVE: To describe the conceptual foundation, item generation, reduction process, and reliability testing for the Facial Skin Cancer Index (FSCI), a HRQOL outcomes tool for skin cancer researchers and clinicians. METHODS: Participants in Phases I to III consisted of adult patients (N=134) diagnosed with biopsy-proven nonmelanoma cervicofacial skin cancer. Data were collected via self-report surveys and clinical records. RESULTS: Seventy-one distinct items were generated in Phase I and rated for their importance by an independent sample during Phase II; 36 items representing six theoretical HRQOL domains were retained. Test–retest I results indicated that four subscales showed adequate reliability coefficients (α=0.60 to 0.91). Twenty-six items remained for test–retest II. Results indicated excellent internal consistency for emotional, social, appearance, and modified financial/work subscales (range 0.79 to 0.95); test–retest correlation coefficients were consistent across time (range 0.81 to 0.97; lifestyle omitted). CONCLUSION: Pretesting afforded the opportunity to select items that optimally met our a priori conceptual and psychometric criteria for high data quality. Phase IV testing (validity and sensitivity before surgery and 4 months after Mohs micrographic surgery) for the 20-item FSCI is under way.

Facial sexual dimorphism, developmental stability, and susceptibility to disease in men and women

Article

Mar 2006
EVOL HUM BEHAV

We investigated aspects of self-reported health history–the number and duration of respiratory and stomach or intestinal infections and the number of uses of antibiotics over the last 3 years–in relation to measured facial masculinity, developmental instability [facial asymmetry and body fluctuating asymmetry (FA)] and facial attractiveness in a sample of 203 men and 203 women. As predicted from the hypothesis that the degree of facial masculinity is an honest signal of individual quality, men's facial masculinity correlated negatively and women's positively with respiratory disease number and duration. Stomach illness, however, was not associated significantly with facial masculinity and antibiotic use correlated significantly (negatively) only with men's facial masculinity. For both facial asymmetry and body FA, significant, positive associations were seen with the number of respiratory infections. In addition, facial asymmetry was associated positively with the number of days infected and marginally, in the same direction, with antibiotic use. Facial attractiveness showed no significant relationships with any of our health-history measures. This study provides some evidence that facial masculinity in both sexes may signal disease resistance and that developmental stability covaries positively with disease resistance. The validity of our health measures is discussed.

Facial masculinity and fluctuating asymmetry

Article

Jul 2003
EVOL HUM BEHAV

Recently, women have been found to prefer the scent of symmetrical men and relatively masculine male faces more during the fertile (late follicular and ovulatory) phases of their menstrual cycles than during their infertile (e.g., luteal) phases. These findings make most theoretical sense if men's symmetry is associated with the masculinity of their faces and, therefore, men's symmetry and facial masculinity tap a shared underlying quality. This study examined associations between masculine facial features and nonfacial body symmetry as well as facial symmetry in samples of 141 men and 154 women. As predicted, a component of facial features that discriminates the sexes and reflects masculinization of the face significantly covaried with symmetry in men. No significant correlation was observed for women. These findings suggest that men's facial masculinity partly advertises underlying developmental stability.

Male facial masculinity influences attributions of personality and reproductive strategy

Article

Dec 2006

Daniel J Kruger

Facial masculinity may be used as a cue in female mate choice, as it reflects the success of the male genotype in its developmental environment. Women may maximize reproductive success by using a conditional strategy favoring highly masculine facial features for short-term relationships and feminized facial features in men for long-term relationships. Three studies examine reactions to masculinized and feminized male facial composites. Properties of the original composite image affect ratings of critical attributes and the magnitude of the differences in ratings between versions undergoing identical processes of geometric manipulation (Study 1). Both men and women attri- bute personality, behavior, and mating strategies consistent with predictions derived from the good genes and mating trade-off hypotheses (Study 2). Participants accurately grouped behavioral tendencies related to high mating effort/risky strategies and high parenting effort/risk adverse strategies and associated mating effort more so with masculinized faces and parenting effort more so with feminized faces (Study 3). These results indicate that male facial masculinity serves as a visual cue for inferring personality and reproductive strategy. Male facial masculinity may be used as a cue in female mate choice, as it reflects the success of the male genotype in the developmental environment. Men exhibiting these features may have a greater rate of return from mating effort compared to other men and thus may allocate more effort toward mating and less to parental investment. Women may maximize their reproductive success by showing stronger preferences for partners with highly masculine faces for short-term sexual relationships but favor less masculinized faces in prospective long-term relationship partners. Three studies examine whether facial masculinity is related to attributions of male reproductive strategy and contingent female mating strategies.

Exposure and Affect: Overview and Meta-Analysis of Research, 1968-1987

Article

Sep 1989

Robert F. Bornstein

A review and meta-analysis of methodological and subject variables influencing the exposure-affect relationship was performed on studies of the mere exposure effect published in the 20 years following Zajonc's (1968) seminal monograph. Stimulus type, stimulus complexity, presentation sequence, exposure duration, stimulus recognition, age of subject, delay between exposure and ratings, and maximum number of stimulus presentations all influence the magnitude of the exposure effect. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of previous reviews of the literature on exposure effects and with respect to prevailing theoretical models of the exposure-affect relationship. Modifications of the 2-factor model of exposure effects that increase the heuristic value of the model are described. A possible evolutionary basis of the exposure effect is discussed.