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Visual attention to variation in female facial skin color distribution
Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology
Abstract
Visible skin condition of women is argued to influence human physical attraction. Recent research has shown that people are sensitive to variation in skin color distribution, and such variation affects visual perception of female facial attractiveness, healthiness, and age.
The eye gaze of 39 males and females, aged 13 to 45 years, was tracked while they viewed images of shape- and topography-standardized stimulus faces that varied only in terms of skin color distribution.
The number of fixations and dwell time were significantly higher when viewing stimulus faces with the homogeneous skin color distribution of young people, compared with those of more elderly people. In accordance with recent research, facial stimuli with even skin tones were also judged to be younger and received higher attractiveness ratings. Finally, visual attention measures were negatively correlated with perceived age, but positively associated with attractiveness judgments.
Variation in visible skin color distribution (independent of facial form and skin surface topography) is able to selectively attract people's attention toward female faces, and this higher attention results in more positive statements about a woman's face.
... In studies employing viewing time as a measure of sexual interest, viewing times of male and female models increased as the attractiveness of the models increased, and this was found for both androphilic women and gynephilic men (Lippa, 2012;Lippa et al., 2010). Men and women tend to orient quicker to and fixate preferentially on attractive relative to unattractive female faces (Fink et al., 2008;Maner et al., 2007Maner et al., , 2008Sui & Liu, 2009). Similarly, women have been found to gaze longer at attractive male faces than at male faces of average attractiveness (Anderson et al., 2010). ...
... In contrast, androphilic women viewed attractive images longer than unattractive images, and they also viewed male images longer than female images, though this gender effect was rather small (η p 2 = .07). This attractiveness effect is consistent with our expectations and previous literature that has found attractiveness effects on gaze and viewing time of faces among androphilic women (e.g., Anderson et al., 2010;Fink et al., 2008;Lippa et al., 2010;Maner et al., 2007;Sui & Liu, 2009). However, in previous literature, androphilic women have largely demonstrated gender-nonspecific patterns of controlled attention, with similar viewing times found for sexual stimuli depicting both preferred and non-preferred genders and/or viewing non-preferred targets longer than men do (Dawson et al., 2012;Ebsworth & Lalumière, 2012;Israel & Strassberg, 2009;Lykins et al., 2008;Nummenmaa et al., 2012;Rupp & Wallen, 2007). ...
Previously documented sexual response patterns of gender-specificity among gynephilic men and gender- nonspecificity among gynephilic women could be explained by women responding more strongly to non- gendered aspects of sexual stimuli. Cues of attractiveness are known determinants of sexual decision- making, yet have not been directly tested as determinants of sexual response. The current study investi- gated the role of attractiveness cues in explaining gender-based patterns of sexual response. Thirty-one gynephilic men and 60 androphilic women were presented slideshows of images depicting individual nude men and women that were pre-rated in a pilot study as either attractive or unattractive. The men and women were posed with legs spread and aroused genitals displayed prominently. Images were isolated against a white background and included minimal contextual information. Three sexual responses – genital arousal (via photoplethysmographs), self-reported arousal, and visual attention (via eye-tracking) – were recorded continuously. Across all three response modalities, men’s and women’s responses were stronger for the attractive versus unattractive images and for their preferred versus non-preferred gender. For men’s arousal and women’s self-reported arousal, the effect of attractiveness was stronger for their preferred versus non-preferred gender. Thus, both men and women demonstrated preference-specific patterns of sexual response. Gender cues had the strongest effect on men’s visual attention, whereas attractiveness cues had the strongest effect on women’s visual attention. Findings establish the importance of target attractiveness in arousal to sexual stimuli and add to mounting evidence that androphilic women’s sexual responses are sensitive to gender, but may be more sensitive to non-gendered features of sexual stimuli.
... Attractiveness and perceived age are negatively correlated (Matts et al. 2007). People perceive faces with wrinkling around the eyes and mouth and uneven skin tone (e.g., presence of pigment spots) as older and less attractive, while faces of women with more even skin tone are judged to be younger and more attractive, and receive more visual attention from perceivers compared to more elderly faces (Fink et al. 2008). Perceived attractiveness is important because it underpins mate selection. ...
... Correlation between measured and perceived asymmetry can further be enhanced by weighting with the color difference ∆E between two corresponding contralateral points [49]. A low-contrast, fine-grained, randomly distributed texture, which is typical of older skin in particular, is evaluated as less attractive in itself, but this kind of color distribution is presumably not checked for symmetry [51,52]. It stands to reason that the perception of an asymmetrical color distribution depends strongly on the contrast and texture. ...
Animal bodies in general and faces in particular show mirror symmetry with respect to the median-sagittal plane, with exceptions rarely occurring. Bilateral symmetry to the median sagittal plane of the body also evolved very early. From an evolutionary point of view, it should therefore have fundamental advantages, e.g., more effective locomotion and chewing abilities. On the other hand, the recognition of bilaterally symmetric patterns is an important module in our visual perception. In particular, the recognition of faces with different spatial orientations and their identification is strongly related to the recognition of bilateral symmetry. Maxillofacial surgery and Dentistry affect effective masticatory function and perceived symmetry of the lower third of the face. Both disciplines have the ability to eliminate or mitigate asymmetries with respect to form and function. In our review, we will demonstrate symmetric structures from single teeth to the whole face. We will further describe different approaches to quantify cranial, facial and dental asymmetries by using either landmarks or 3D surface models. Severe facial asymmetries are usually caused by malformations such as hemifacial hyperplasia, injury or other diseases such as Noma or head and neck cancer. This could be an important sociobiological reason for a correlation between asymmetry and perceived disfigurement. The aim of our review is to show how facial symmetry and attractiveness are related and in what way dental and facial structures and the symmetry of their shape and color influence aesthetic perception. We will further demonstrate how modern technology can be used to improve symmetry in facial prostheses and maxillofacial surgery.
... 21,22 Skin lacking color and texture homogeneity, with visible hypo or hyperpigmentations, negatively affects the perceived physical attractiveness of a female. 20,23 A gradual decrease in HA concentration and structural changes of collagen fibers, resulting in dehydration and loss of elasticity, accompany the ageing process of the skin. 6 HA concentrations among women aged 19-47, or 60, or 70 years have been estimated at approximately 0.03%, 0.015% and 0.007%, respectively. ...
Background
Skin ageing is a physiological process, progressive and irreversible. Hyaluronic acid injection treatments are used to correct the signs of skin ageing.
Material and Methods
Hyaluronic acid was implanted in the area of the cheek and the forehead aesthetic units in 57 women, aged 35−55 years. Apart from the clinical observation, self-assessment of the therapeutic results was conducted. The “My skin” questionnaire was used for subjective evaluation of the treatment results.
Results
Mean wrinkle score in the pre-menopausal group changed after the treatment, from 3.2±0.6 to 1.1±0.3 and from 3.2±0.6 to 0.8±0.6 for the forehead and the cheek esthetic units, respectively. In the post-menopausal group, the score decreased from 3.8±0.4 to 1.7± 0.7 and from 3.2±0.617 to 0.8± 0.6 for the forehead and the cheek esthetic units, respectively. The changes were age-dependent. Improved appearance of the facial skin – higher satisfaction with skin tone and scent – was reported after hyaluronic acid injections. Higher subjective perception of improvement corresponded to older age, irrespectively of the menopausal status. Correlations between age and the effect of the treatment on maintaining proper skin hydration as well as between improved appearance of the forehead area and feelings of autonomy and well-being were found.
Conclusion
Hyaluronic acid injections significantly improved the subjective perception and overall assessment of the scent and appearance of the facial skin.
... Attractiveness and perceived age are negatively correlated (Matts et al. 2007). People perceive faces with wrinkling around the eyes and mouth and uneven skin tone (e.g., presence of pigment spots) as older and less attractive, while faces of women with more even skin tone are judged to be younger and more attractive, and receive more visual attention from perceivers compared to more elderly faces (Fink et al. 2008). Perceived attractiveness is important because it underpins mate selection. ...
The process of age categorization serves biologi- cal, psychological, and social functions by enabling us to deal with stimuli from the world around us more effectively. For instance, catego- rizing the self as belonging to a particular age group can inform and provide a meaningful social identity, which is fundamental to how we define and see ourselves (Harwood et al. 1995; Tajfel and Turner 1979; Tajfel 1981). Perceiving others’ age can inform our feelings and behavior toward them, and can underpin judgments about attrac- tiveness, which is associated with reproductive success (Jokela 2009). In this entry, we draw on social psychological, cognitive, and evolutionary theories to provide an overview of categorization by age. After defining age categories or groups and providing examples of the subjective nature of their boundaries, we provide an overview of the cognitive processes underpinning how people perceive others’ age, the biological and social cues used to estimate, and categorize others by age. We consider the function of age categoriza- tion, both as a way of classifying others to sim- plify the world around us and classifying ourselves to help define our own identity. We then explore the social psychological and behav- ioral consequences or risks of age categorization and how it underpins age stereotypes, age preju- dice, and aged-based discrimination.
... The result of Studies 1 and 2 are consistent with previous studies in Western samples. Fink and colleagues Fink et al., 2008;Matts et al., 2007) also showed that faces with even colouration were judged as healthier and more attractive in Caucasian samples, and previous studies have shown associations between even skin colour distribution and perceived age Matts et al., 2007). ...
Facial skin texture and colour play an important role in observers' judgments of apparent health and have been linked to aspects of physiological health, including fitness, immunity and fertility. However, most studies have focused on Caucasian populations. Here, we report two studies that investigate the contribution of skin texture and colour to the apparent health of Malaysian Chinese faces. In Study 1, homogenous skin texture, as measured by wavelet analysis, was found to positively predict ratings of apparent health of Asian faces. In study 2, homogenous skin texture and increased skin yellowness positively predicted rated health of Malaysian Chinese faces. This finding suggests that skin condition serves as an important cue for subjective judgements of health in Malaysian Chinese faces
... Infants look longer at the faces of attractive adults (Langlois et al. 1987). In adults, eye-tracking research has shown that men look more often and longer at the faces of attractive women relative to faces they judge to be less attractive (Fink et al. 2008; Maner et al. 2008) and at the female body when viewing both erotic and non-erotic heterosexual scenes (Lykins et al. 2006, 2008; Rupp and Wallen 2007). When viewing clothed full-body images, men initially fixate on women's faces, followed by long fixations on the breasts (Hewig et al. 2008). ...
Eye-tracking techniques were used to measure men’s attention to back-posed and front-posed images of women varying in waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Irrespective of body pose, men rated images with a 0.7 WHR as most attractive. For back-posed images, initial visual fixations (occurring within 200 milliseconds of commencement of the eye-tracking session) most frequently involved the midriff. Numbers of fixations and dwell times throughout each of the five-second viewing sessions were greatest for the midriff and buttocks. By contrast, visual attention to front-posed images (first fixations, numbers of fixations, and dwell times) mainly involved the breasts, with attention shifting more to the midriff of images with a higher WHR. This report is the first to compare men’s eye-tracking responses to back-posed and front-posed images of the female body. Results show the importance of the female midriff and of WHR upon men’s attractiveness judgments, especially when viewing back-posed images.
... Men also attend more to female targets when viewing erotic than non-erotic sexual scenes (Lykins, Meana, & Kambe, 2006, Lykins, Meana, & Strauss, 2008). Many other experiments using displays of multiple stimuli that compete for attention have demonstrated rapid attentional orienting to, and fixation on, attractive vs. unattractive female faces (Fink et al., 2008; Maner, Gailliot, & DeWall, 2007; Maner et al., 2003; Sui & Liu, 2009) and female bodies (Suschinsky, Elias, & Krupp, 2007), particularly when mating motives are activated (Duncan et al., 2007; Maner et al., 2007). ...
Judging physical attractiveness involves sight, touch, sound and smells. Where visual judgments are concerned, attentional processes may have evolved to prioritize sex-typical traits that reflect cues signaling direct or indirect (i.e. genetic) benefits. Behavioral techniques that measure response times or eye movements provide a powerful test of this assumption by directly assessing how attractiveness influences the deployment of attention. We used eye-tracking to characterize women’s visual attention to men’s back-posed bodies, which varied in overall fat and muscle distribution, while they judged the potential of each model for a short- or long-term relationship. We hypothesized that when judging male bodily attractiveness women would focus more on the upper body musculature of all somatotypes, as it is a signal of metabolic health, immunocompetence and underlying endocrine function. Results showed that mesomorphs (muscular men) received the highest attractiveness ratings, followed by ectomorphs (lean men) and endomorphs (heavily-set men). For eye movements, attention was evenly distributed to the upper and lower back of both ectomorphs and mesomorphs. In contrast, for endomorphs the lower back, including the waist, captured more attention over the viewing period. These patterns in visual attention were evident in the first second of viewing, suggesting that body composition is identified early in viewing and guides attention to body regions that provide salient biological information during judgments of men’s bodily attractiveness.
... Similar effects are seen in a range of other species including house finches Carpodacus mexicanus
[12], [13] although the relationship between ornamental traits and immune competence is not always a straightforward one [14]. In the context of humans, a variety of ornament displays have been proposed including voice quality [15], waist-to-hip ratio [16] and skin tone [17], [18]. The importance of symmetry [19], [20] and the reproductive advantages associated with height [21] are also well documented. ...
Ornament displays seen in animals convey information about genetic quality, developmental history and current disease state to both prospective sexual partners and potential rivals. In this context, showing of teeth through smiles etc is a characteristic feature of human social interaction. Tooth development is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Adult teeth record environmental and traumatic events, as well as the effects of disease and ageing. Teeth are therefore a rich source of information about individuals and their histories. This study examined the effects of digital manipulations of tooth colour and spacing. Results showed that deviation away from normal spacing and/or the presence of yellowed colouration had negative effects on ratings of attractiveness and that these effects were markedly stronger in female models. Whitening had no effect beyond that produced by natural colouration. This indicates that these colour induced alterations in ratings of attractiveness are mediated by increased/decreased yellowing rather than whitening per se. Teeth become yellower and darker with age. Therefore it is suggested that whilst the teeth of both sexes act as human ornament displays, the female display is more complex because it additionally signals residual reproductive value.
Sunlight exposure causes different effects on skin of colour, as compared to lighter skin types. Apart from photocarcinogenesis, the risk of which is low in SOC, even conditions like photoaging and photopigmentation manifest very differently in melanocompetent individuals. Specific photosensitivity conditions like polymorphous light eruption (PLE) and pigmentary conditions like melasma are very common in SOC and remain challenging which needs to be addressed by an ideal sunscreen. Traditionally, protection from UVB has been the main focus of sunscreen development. However, for skin of colour and for the concerns of photoageing and photopigmentation, the domains of UVA, VL, and IR coverage become very important. Anyway, UVA has recently been established to play an important role in skin cancer. Therefore, sunscreens for SOC need to have a broad-spectrum protection, with a high critical wavelength, and preferably, include antioxidants that can scavenge free radicals.
Beauty has been defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a combination of qualities, such as shape and color, that pleases the senses, especially the sight [1]. Even though beauty may be difficult to define, it is easily recognizable. The fascination with aesthetics dates back from the ancient Greek times through the Renaissance to modern surgical practice. The classical position that attributes beauty to a few key specifics, such as symmetrical proportions, has been a matter of debate [1]. Human aesthetic judgment is a complicated mixture of objective, subjective, and sociocultural factors or trends. The subjective component of beauty is influenced by the individual beholder and goes beyond symmetric measurements [2]. David Hume argued that beauty is entirely subjective, a matter of feelings and emotion [3]. What is beautiful to one observer may not be so to another. Immanuel Kant also believed that aesthetic judgment is based on feelings of pleasure that depend on personal taste [4]. Plato and Aristotle viewed beauty as objective in the sense that it is not localized in the eyes of the beholder. Plato believed that beauty resides in the domain of the forms, not in the observer’s experience [3, 5]. Aristotle held a similar view and considered beauty to be defined by characteristics such as symmetry, order, balance, and proportion [3]. This chapter explores perceptions of beauty over time across different cultures, the research behind evolutionary theories, and the reasoning behind beauty ideals.
Aesthetic ideologies have long dictated and impacted the science of aesthetics in dermatology. More often than not, industry practices and trends have promulgated evolutionary instincts and undercurrents. Its impact on perception of health and beauty needs a reflective pause, and a re-structuring of mindset, to dissociate current standards of beauty.
Skin cancer continues to increase in incidence year‐on‐year and represents the most common form of cancer across the globe. Every human undergoes premature ageing, particularly on the face, neck and hands. Both phenomena are driven primarily by chronic, daily exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). While sunscreen products play a primary role in the prevention of UVR skin damage, the active ingredients, i.e., UVR filters, are facing unprecedented challenges in the coming 10 years and their future is by no means certain. This article, therefore, reviews afresh the facts around photoprotection and the role of sunscreen products in the prevention of acute (sunburn) and chronic (cancer, photoageing) skin damage and compares/contrasts these with various emerging questions and opinions around UVR filter technology. We present a passionate defence of this remarkable technology, but also attempt to imagine a world without it.
Previous studies suggested that (1) facial attractiveness perception can be increased with facial skin homogeneity improving; and (2) human’s facial change detection increases along with facial skin homogeneity increases. However, it’s unknown whether a face can be perceived prettier than it did before while still being considered as physically the same. It is possible that these two kinds of cognitive-aesthetic processing may have separate mathematical functions in psychophysical studies. In other words, human’s facial attractiveness differentiation may be more sensitive than facial change detection. In this current study, we explored the above questions. Using three types of psychophysical techniques to manipulate facial skin homogeneity, we measured how participants’ sensitivity to facial skin homogeneity and attractiveness change. Results showed a linear function curve for facial physical change detection and a logarithmic function curve was drawn in the forced-choice technique, which was the most sensitive one, indicating that participants can judge a face prettier than before without being aware of it has physically changed. Besides, two linear function curves were shown in the same/different technique and a rating technique. Taken together, this current study revealed that facial attractiveness can be enhanced and discriminated by improving facial skin homogeneity, without being realized by people with conscious awareness that the face has been changed.
Pathologising ugliness refers to the use of disease language and medical processes to foster and support the claim that undesirable features are pathological conditions requiring medical or surgical intervention. Primarily situated in cosmetic surgery, the practice appeals to the concept of "aesthetic pathology", which is a medical designation for features that deviate from some designated aesthetic norms. This article offers a two-pronged conceptual analysis of aesthetic pathology. First, I argue that three sets of claims, derived from normativist and naturalistic accounts of disease, inform the framing of ugliness as disease. These claims concern: (1) aesthetic harms, (2) aesthetic dysfunction and (3) aesthetic deviation. Second, I introduce the notion of hybridisation loop in medicine, which merges the naturalist and normative understanding of disease that potentially enables pathologising practices. In the context of cosmetic surgery, the loop simultaneously promotes the framing of beauty ideals as normal biological attributes and the framing of normal appearance as an aesthetic ideal to legitimise the need for cosmetic interventions. The article thus offers an original discussion of the conceptual problems arising from a specific practice in cosmetic surgery that depicts ugliness as disease.
Background:
Morphological characteristics of major facial hyperpigmented spots have been well documented. However, detailed alterations of respective transcriptional profile for each spot and in-depth comparisons across multiple spot types have not been reported.
Objectives:
To comprehensively assess and compare multiple facial hyperpigmented spot types at the morphological and molecular levels by utilising transcriptional expression profiling with correlation to quantified histological features.
Methods:
Multiple types of facial spot biopsies were collected from Chinese women and compared to additional biopsies taken from adjacent healthy skin. The types of spots included Solar Lentigos with both elongated dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ) (SL[E]) and flat DEJ (SL[F]), Seborrhoeic Keratosis (SK), Melasma, Freckles, Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation of resolving acne (PIH[A]) and other stimuli (PIH[O]). Combined histomorphometry, immunohistology, and transcriptome analysis for suprabasal-epidermis, basal-epidermis, and dermal compartments dissected by Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) were conducted and compared across different spot types.
Results:
Each spot type was confirmed to have the unique histological pathology already documented elsewhere. Most of the spot types except Melasma and PIH (A) revealed similar melanocyte density to adjacent skin. All spots exhibited increased melanin synthesis, melanosome transportation, as well as enhanced melanocyte dendricity, however, each spot revealed a distinct transcriptome regulation pattern in pigmentation pathways. Upregulation of pigmentation genes was also observed in the dermis of SL(F), SL(E), SK and PIH(O), associated with significant modulation of DEJ related genes in basal-epidermis and/or dermal compartments, suggesting potential melanocyte infiltration into the dermis due to impaired DEJ quality. Beyond upregulated pigmentation, for most spots, gene expression in the suprabasal-epidermis regulating keratinisation was significantly upregulated in conjunction with thickened stratum corneum. Furthermore, downregulation of tight junction related genes represented by claudin-1 was observed in majority of spot types, suggesting compromised barrier function could be a similarity across spots. Additionally, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) was upregulated in all types of spots, indicating involvement of cell senescence as a common theme.
Conclusion:
This comprehensive and comparative study based on the histological and transcriptional analysis of three skin compartments provided unique insights into specific causations as well as differences and similarities across multiple hyperpigmented spot types.
ntroduction: Skin appearance plays as an important moderator in human daily social interactions so everyday we see new and innovative solutions to fight the signs of aging. One of the important parameters of skin appearance is skin complexion radiance as it could Reflect the general health, emotional State, hormonal status, nutrition, fatigue, age or environmental factors such as smoking, drinking, seasons, etc. Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of the daily application of a bi-phasic serum during 8 weeks on the skin radiance and skin aging parameters of healthy women with dull complexion. Subjects and method: 30 healthy female volunteers of 35 to 60 years old were enrolled in the study. The activated product (aquaserum and liposerum) were applied to the face, twice a day for 8 weeks. The evaluation was performed on T0 and T8 weeks by measuring the skin radiance using clinical scoring C.L.B.T.TM and Glossymeter® GL200, Crow’s feet wrinkles by Bazin visual perioral scale, skin elasticity by Cutometer® SM575, and also the subject’s self-assessment. Results: All 30 subjects finished the study without any serious adverse events. The results revealed a significant improvement in all C.L.B.T.TM indicators presenting skin radiance through an increase of Luminosity (29%), Transparency (28%), Brightness (27%) (p=0.001) while a decrease of Pink Red (38%), Olive (31%), Beige (30%), Light Pink (21%) parameters (p<0.001).For skin relief, statistical analyses revealed a significant decrease of wrinkles’ depth evaluated by clinical scoring (9%, p=0.003). For the elasticity, an improvement which tends to be significant (0.462±0.098 at T0 and 0.506±0.111 at T8 weeks; p=0.06) for the Ur/Ue parameter, was observed.After 8 weeks of topical application of Perfectil® Twin-Serum, the subjects significantly found that their skin is less dull (p=0.002), less red (p=0.002), with less spots (p=0.044), less sagging (p=0.002) and less wrinkles (p=0.002). Conclusion: The results observed in this trial show that 8 weeks of Perfectil® Twin Serum use provide beneficial effect on skin radiance and skin surface relief (wrinkle depth). The action of the bi-phasic product may have a positive effect on the immediate penetration of the product which should be evaluated through the further studies. Furthermore, the ingredients seem to restore the skin lipidic layer, which explains its protective effect during winter time.
Background: Hyperpigmentation is a complex physiological process associated with alterations of skin colour due to melanin overproduction and distribution. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence discolouration with the involvement of multiple pathways in cooperative manners. Restoring natural skin colour requires a multi-targeted approach. Latest advances in anti-melanogenic compounds and microneedle delivery system have presented opportunities for tackling hyperpigmentation successfully.
Aims: This work was aimed at assessing the dermal tolerability and efficacy of hyaluronic acid-based microneedle patches loaded with anti-melanogenic actives for improvements of skin discolouration.
Patients/Methods: The test products consist of hyaluronic acid with niacinamide, ascorbic acid 2-glucoside, tranexamic acid, resveratrol, 4-n-butyl-resorcinol and Halidrys siliquosa extract. In a monocentric 12-weeks clinical trial, the HA-MNs patches were applied to the affected areas of the faces on subjects with hyper-pigmented skin. The colour properties of the skin were analysed spectrophotometrically.
Results: The products were tolerated remarkably; none of the subjects informed any primary or cumulative skin responses. Evaluation of colour related measurable skin properties provided insight into the general effectiveness: The individual topology measurements showed 51.4% noticeable improvements in hyper-pigmented zones, which were also in good agreement with the personal impressions of the subjects determined by questionnaires before and after the treatments.
Conclusions: The concentrated blends of actives in microneedle patches act in a multi-targeted manner and they could be worked in a complementary fashion for the improvement of skin colour and appearance. The study has established the overall convenience of the HA-MNs with the formulation of anti-melogenic compounds against skin discolouration.
Designing and marketing of antiaging skin care products for consumers is a huge global business. Often, the principles for successful design and marketing of antiaging skin care products have not been well articulated to guide product developers or researchers. This chapter seeks to fill that void.
As we age, our skin develops visible signs of aging [1]. In contrast to other body organs, the skin as our first line of defense is constantly exposed to challenges from the environment. Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, and to some extent visible light, climate changes and pollution are the major external environmental contributory factors whereas psychological stress, fatigue and dietary habits are internal stress factors also contribute to the skin aging exposome [2]. Recent global consumer surveys on the primary cosmetic concerns of women have identified that not only are the presence of wrinkles and uneven skin tone perceived as major signs of aging but also the presence of conspicuous skin pores (unpublished data). Moreover, there are ethnic differences in frequency of expression of such skin problems, with the presence of enlarged pores and age spots being of major cosmetic concern for Asian women [3‐5].
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Objective:
Previous studies investigating the effects of skin surface topography and colouration cues on the perception of female faces reported a differential weighting for the perception of skin topography and colour evenness, where topography was a stronger visual cue for the perception of age, whereas skin colour evenness was a stronger visual cue for the perception of health. We extend these findings in a study of the effect of skin surface topography and colour evenness cues on the perceptions of facial age, health and attractiveness in males.
Methods:
Facial images of six men (aged 40 to 70 years), selected for co-expression of lines/wrinkles and discolouration, were manipulated digitally to create eight stimuli, namely, separate removal of these two features (a) on the forehead, (b) in the periorbital area, (c) on the cheeks and (d) across the entire face. Omnibus (within-face) pairwise combinations, including the original (unmodified) face, were presented to a total of 240 male and female judges, who selected the face they considered younger, healthier and more attractive.
Results:
Significant effects were detected for facial image choice, in response to skin feature manipulation. The combined removal of skin surface topography resulted in younger age perception compared with that seen with the removal of skin colouration cues, whereas the opposite pattern was found for health preference. No difference was detected for the perception of attractiveness. These perceptual effects were seen particularly on the forehead and cheeks. Removing skin topography cues (but not discolouration) in the periorbital area resulted in higher preferences for all three attributes.
Conclusion:
Skin surface topography and colouration cues affect the perception of age, health and attractiveness in men's faces. The combined removal of these features on the forehead, cheeks and in the periorbital area results in the most positive assessments.
In women with lightly pigmented skin in particular, facial skin color homogeneity decreases with age, primarily due to chronic exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR), leading to a decrease in perceived health and attractiveness. Perception of female skin may be influenced by continuous exposure to, and thus familiarity with, age-related changes in visible skin condition in a given society. Men and women of two traditional societies, the Maasai (Tanzania) and the Tsimane’ (Bolivia), unfamiliar with lighter colored skin, judged images of British women’s facial skin for age, health, and attractiveness. In both samples, images with homogeneous skin color (from the cheeks of younger women) were judged to be younger and healthier and received a stronger preference than corresponding images with heterogeneous skin color (from older women). We suggest that (i) human sensitivity for quality-related information from facial skin color distribution is universal and independent of any known age-dependent variation in skin in a given population and (ii) skin discoloration is universally associated with less positive judgment.
Previous research has indicated that women prefer men who exhibit an android physical appearance where fat distribution is deposited on the upper body (i.e., shoulders and arms) and abdomen. This ideal physical shape has been associated with perceived dominance, health, and immunocompetence. Although research has investigated attractability of men with these ideal characteristics, research on how women visually perceive these characteristics is limited. The current study investigated visual perception and attraction toward men in Hispanic women of Mexican American descent. Women exposed to a front-posed image, where the waist-to-chest ratio (WCR) and hair distribution were manipulated, rated men’s body image associated with upper body strength (low WCR 0.7) as more attractive. Additionally, conceptive risk did not play a strong role in attractiveness and visual attention. Hair distribution did not contribute to increased ratings of attraction but did contribute to visual attraction when measuring total time where men with both facial and body hair were viewed longer. These findings suggest that physical characteristics in men exhibiting upper body strength and dominance are strong predictors of visual attraction.
In most categories of life deemed to be important, beautiful people achieve more desirable outcomes. Human beings prefer to associate with the most beautiful as these people are considered to be more successful, intelligent, and interesting than their unattractive counterparts. For much of history, it has been assumed that our preferences for beauty are gradually learned through cultural transmission and exposure to contemporary media. However, cross-cultural and infant studies have negated this and support the notion of the universality of beauty with some standards set by nature. Beauty preferences seem to be a result of a basic cognitive process that appears quite early in life, with humans having a near automatic tendency to categorize a person as attractive or unattractive. Although one can often articulate that a face is beautiful quite rapidly and from just small amounts of visual information, it is sometimes difficult to decipher the exact reasons as to what constitutes this beauty. Research suggests that the main attributes that humans find universally attractive in others include facial averageness, symmetry, sexual dimorphism, and skin homogeneity. In this chapter, these characteristics are defined and supported with research and evidence from the scientific community.
Designing and marketing of antiaging skin care products for consumers is a huge global business. Often, the principles for successful design and marketing of antiaging skin care products have not been well articulated to guide product developers or researchers. This chapter seeks to fill that void.
Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and breast size are morphological traits that are associated with female attractiveness. Previous studies using line drawings of women have shown that men across cultures rate low WHRs (0.6 and 0.7) as most attractive. In this study, we used additional viewing measurements (i.e., first fixation duration and visual regressions) to measure visual attention and record how long participants first focused on the female body and whether they regressed back to an area of interest. Additionally, we manipulated skin tone to determine whether they preferred light- or dark-skinned women. In two eye tracking experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of female nude images varying in WHR (0.5-0.9), breast size, and skin tone. We measured first fixation duration, gaze duration, and total time. The overall results of both studies revealed that visual attention fell mostly on the face, the breasts, and the midriff of the female body, supporting the evolutionary view that reproductively relevant regions of the female body are important to female attractiveness. Because the stimuli varied in skin tone and the participants were mainly Hispanic of Mexican American descent, the findings from these studies also support a preference for low WHRs and reproductively relevant regions of the female body.
Designing and marketing of anti-aging skin care products for consumers is a huge global business. Often, the principles for successful design and marketing of antiaging skin care products have not been well articulated to guide product developers or researchers. This chapter seeks to fill that void.
Until recently, the three conventional evaluation methods, which are instrumental (Chromameter^{(R)} CR-400 and Mexameter^{(R)} M18) and visual assessments have been used frequently for skin color evaluation. However, we took notice the potential of image analysis as a new tool to evaluate color change of skin. To reveal the reliability of the image analysis for the evaluation of whitening agents, 34 healthy female volunteers with hyperpigmentation were recruited, and the selected volunteers applied the whitening products containing Vitamin C twice a day in the morning and evening and received iontophoresis treatments once a week for 8 weeks. The changes in hyperpigmentation evaluated by Chromameter^{(R)}, Mexameter^{(R)} and visual assessment were compared with the results from the image analysis. As with L^* value trends of the analysis using Chromameter^{(R)}, the V value from the image analysis increased after applying the test products compared with baseline values. Furthermore, V value showed a positive correlation with L^* value (r
Human replicas may elicit unintended cold, eerie feelings in viewers, an effect known as the uncanny valley. Masahiro Mori, who proposed the effect in 1970, attributed it to inconsistencies in the replica's realism with some of its features perceived as human and others as nonhuman. This study aims to determine whether reducing realism consistency in visual features increases the uncanny valley effect. In three rounds of experiments, 548 participants categorized and rated humans, animals, and objects that varied from computer animated to real. Two sets of features were manipulated to reduce realism consistency. (For humans, the sets were eyes–eyelashes–mouth and skin–nose–eyebrows.) Reducing realism consistency caused humans and animals, but not objects, to appear eerier and colder. However, the predictions of a competing theory, proposed by Ernst Jentsch in 1906, were not supported: The most ambiguous representations—those eliciting the greatest category uncertainty—were neither the eeriest nor the coldest.
PurposeThis pilot study was to assess a smartphone application regarding its use as an objective evaluation tool for subject age in comparison to human raters and to identify potential factors influencing the estimation of age.Materials and Methods
Ten Caucasian participants (six females, four males, mean age 42.1 ± 22.6 years) were randomly chosen, and frontal facial pictures of each participant were taken. The smartphone application PhotoAge (Version 1.5, ©2012, Percipo Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA) was used to evaluate the age of the participants. For comparison, 100 randomly selected raters (60 females, 40 males, mean age 29.3 ± 1.3 years) were asked to evaluate the age of the same participants. The influence of participants' facial expression, age, and sex as well as raters' age, sex, and profession was investigated as well. Statistical analyses (linear mixed models with random intercepts; least square means, confidence interval 95%; p < 0.05) were implemented.ResultsPhotoAge resulted in a mean age of 43.1 ± 18.2 years, with a difference from the true mean age of 1.0 ± 8.2 years (p = 0.5996). The evaluation by the raters revealed a mean age of 41.5 ± 19.0 years, with a difference from the true mean age of −0.6 ± 8.5 years (p = 0.6078). There was no statistical significance between the two groups (p = 0.2783).Conclusion
The evaluation of age with the software application PhotoAge seems to be a reliable procedure with comparable results to human raters.Clinical SignificanceThis study gives a better understanding about the reliability of a software-based evaluation tool for age and identifies factors (e.g., the visibility of the teeth) potentially affecting the estimation of age. Naturally looking teeth seem to have no influence on the evaluation of a person's age. Thus, the application of this specific application for dental purposes is questionable; however, in forensics, it might be a valuable tool for estimating a person's age.
Statement of problem:
The difficulty of evaluating esthetics in an unbiased way may be overcome by using automated software applications.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to assess the use of a smartphone application as an objective tool for evaluating attractiveness and to evaluate its potential in dentistry.
Material and methods:
Ten white participants (mean age ±SD, 42.1 ±22.6 years) were randomly chosen, and frontal facial pictures of each participant were made. The smartphone application PhotoGenic was used to evaluate the attractiveness of the participants. For comparison, 100 randomly (age>16 years, social environment of the research team) selected raters were asked to evaluate the same participants. The influence of participants' facial expression, age, and sex as well as the raters' age, sex, and occupation was investigated. Statistical analyses (linear mixed models with random intercepts; least square means, 95% confidence interval; P<.05) were implemented.
Results:
PhotoGenic produced a mean ±SD attractiveness score of 6.4 ±1.2 and the rater group of 4.9 ±1.8 (P<.001; score range, 0-10). Female raters tended to slightly higher attractiveness scores. The participants' sex, facial expression, and age seemed to not be of high relevance; however, the raters' sex and occupation had an impact on the evaluation.
Conclusion:
PhotoGenic rated the participants' attractiveness with higher scores (more attractive) than did the human raters. Currently, PhotoGenic is not used as an objective evaluation tool for treatment outcomes for dental treatments because the visibility of the teeth (smiling facial expression) has no influence on the evaluation.
Various indicators representing skin characteristics such as skin hydration, sebum excretion rate, lightness, and pH are different depending on environmental and genetic factors. However, they are absolute skin indicators and are different from skin characteristics that a person recognizes. Based on this fact, many recent studies have been mainly conducting researches on perspective changes according to changes of absolute skin. This study was proposed not only to find out differences on skin colors of asian by nations, but also to find out whether there was any difference in skin brightness they perceive depending on actual skin color changing. As many as 410 subjects of three Asia nations were participated in this study, and investigated their responses on skin brightness using questionnaire, which was answered their skin color in three different levels. It was also were analyzed how actual skin brightness were changed depending on their perceived skin color changes of subjects. There was a trend showing that the brightness of the actual skin color was increased when participants felt their skin color got brighter regardless of their nationalities. However, there were some differences in color between perceived color and actual color. In addition, there was a different aspect by nations in changes of skin redness and skin yellowness. In conclusion, it was revealed that factors which help people to perceive their own skin brightness were not based on absolute skin brightness, but on different criteria depending on where they are from.
Patients and clinicians use skin color attributes such as color uniformity, color distribution, and texture to infer physiologic health status. Normalization of skin color, surface texture, and height are important treatment goals in the treatment of scars. Skin color, structure, and response to trauma, vary with ethnicity. The incidence of hypertrophic and keloid scar formation is influenced by these inherent skin attributes. Skin type influences the response to various modalities including laser therapy and surgical intervention, and skin differences must be considered in treatment planning to achieve optimal results.
Pilot data from eye-tracking research suggest that each male participant has his own gaze pattern, usefully regarded as an individual difference, when viewing female targets whom they are rating for attractiveness. Gaze patterns appear to be consistent within a given male participant across a variety of target models, and these individual differences may override characteristics of the model in determining fixation points, body region focus, and other eye-tracker variables. The goal of the present study was to elucidate these variations of gaze pattern by assessing the extent to which systematic "types" of gaze patterns exist among a group of male participants. Latent class analysis was used to place 60 men into groups based on their gaze pattern. A two-cluster solution produced the most interpretable analysis, and groups formed by this clustering were significantly different from each other on variables of interest. Cross validation of this solution across three additional female models resulted in some support for generalization, though exceptions were noted.
Acne vulgaris is a common inflammatory disease that manifests on the face and affects appearance. In general, facial acne has a wide-ranging negative impact on the psychosocial functioning of acne sufferers and leaves physical and emotional scars. In the present study, we investigated whether patients with acne vulgaris demonstrate enhanced psychological bias when assessing the attractiveness of faces with acne symptoms and whether they devote greater selective attention to acne lesions than to acne-free (control) individuals. Participants viewed images of faces under two different skin (acne vs. acne-free) and emotional facial expression (happy and neutral) conditions. They rated the attractiveness of the faces, and the time spent fixating on the acne lesions was recorded with an eye tracker. We found that the gap in perceived attractiveness between acne and acne-free faces was greater for acne sufferers. Furthermore, patients with acne fixated longer on facial regions exhibiting acne lesions than did control participants irrespective of the facial expression depicted. In summary, patients with acne have a stronger attentional bias for acne lesions and focus more on the skin lesions than do those without acne. Clinicians treating the skin problems of patients with acne should consider these psychological and emotional scars.
Il colore della cute è influenzato da numerosi parametri fisiologici, quali il volume di sangue contenuto nella cute, la pigmentazione (melanina) e lo stato della superficie cutanea (desquamazione, rugosità). Per questi motivi, il colore della cute è un parametro clinico essenziale per il dermatologo, nel suo iter diagnostico. Il cosmetologo, dal canto suo, si interessa piuttosto al colore come componente dell’aspetto generale della cute. L’occhio umano è molto efficace nell’evidenziare una differenza di colore, ma è incapace di misurarla e di associarvi una grandezza. La misurazione normalizzata del colore cutaneo con l’ausilio di apparecchi che portano a dei risultati obiettivi e riproducibili è uno sviluppo piuttosto recente, che ha permesso dei progressi importanti, soprattutto in cosmetologia. Lo sviluppo delle immagini digitali è notevolmente progredito in questi ultimi anni, sia a livello della risoluzione dei sistemi fotografici digitali che dei programmi di ritocco fotografico. Questa tecnica è tanto più interessante, in dermato-estetica, in quanto il suo costo è modesto e il suo utilizzo è apparentemente semplice. La dermatologia ha fortemente approfittato di questi progressi, ma l’utilizzo delle immagini digitali e dell’analisi dell’immagine resta un settore da affrontare con cautela e umiltà. Vi sono due grandi problemi ricorrenti e inevitabili da risolvere: il riposizionamento nello spazio e la calibrazione colorimetrica. È tenendo conto di queste difficoltà e con un livello di esigenza ben superiore rispetto a quello richiesto per un utilizzo semplicemente illustrativo che le immagini digitali possono presentarsi come uno strumento imprescindibile in dermatologia e in cosmetologia. Alla condizione espressa che l’acquisizione e la restituzione (display, stampa) delle immagini siano standardizzate e calibrate, la fotografia digitale apre la strada alla telediagnosi, che cambierà un giorno completamente le condizioni della pratica medica.
Recent research shows that ‘good’ male dancers display larger and more variable movements of their head, neck and trunk, and differ in certain personality characteristics from ‘bad’ dancers. Here we elaborate on these findings by testing the hypothesis that ‘good’ male dancers will also receive higher visual attention and will be judged as being more attractive by women. The eye-gaze of 46 women aged 19–33 years was tracked whilst they viewed pairs of video clips of male dancers in the form of avatars created using motion capture, each pair showing one ‘good’ and one ‘bad’ dancer together on the screen. In a subsequent rating task, women judged each dance avatar on perceived attractiveness and masculinity. Our data show that women viewed ‘good’ dancers significantly longer and more often than ‘bad’ dancers. In addition, visual attention was positively correlated with perceived attractiveness and masculinity, though the latter association failed to reach statistical significance. We conclude that (i) ‘good’ male dancers receive higher visual attention from women as compared to ‘bad’ dancers, and (ii) ‘good’ dancers are being judged as more attractive. This suggests that in following mating-related motives, women are selectively processing male dynamic displays, such as dance movements.
This study examined women's looking time towards female faces while they judged them for attractiveness, prettiness, cuteness and beauty. In Study 1, ratings were similar for scales of attractiveness and prettiness, and participants looked longer at prettier over less pretty faces. Judging female faces on the basis of attractiveness did not elicit visual preferences, although in this case females’ biases to look at attractive women might have been inhibited by the physical presence of an experimenter while looking times were being recorded. In Study 2, duration of viewing time was computer-recorded without participants’ knowledge, after priming them to judge faces in terms of attractiveness, prettiness, beauty or cuteness. Viewing time increased with face appeal; the differences between low and high appeal faces turned out to be greatest when participants evaluated them in terms of attractiveness and least apparent when asked to judge them in cuteness. In conclusion, both studies revealed a correspondence between aesthetic and looking preferences, yet some variation in women's visual attention depending on how female beauty is labeled.
Color is a ubiquitous perceptual stimulus that is often considered in terms of aesthetics. Here we review theoretical and empirical work that looks beyond color aesthetics to the link between color and psychological functioning in humans. We begin by setting a historical context for research in this area, particularly highlighting methodological issues that hampered earlier empirical work. We proceed to overview theoretical and methodological advances during the past decade and conduct a review of emerging empirical findings. Our empirical review focuses especially on color in achievement and affiliation/attraction contexts, but it also covers work on consumer behavior as well as food and beverage evaluation and consumption. The review clearly shows that color can carry important meaning and can have an important impact on people's affect, cognition, and behavior. The literature remains at a nascent stage of development, however, and we note that considerable work on boundary conditions, moderators, and real-world generalizability is needed before strong conceptual statements and recommendations for application are warranted. We provide suggestions for future research and conclude by emphasizing the broad promise of research in this area. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 65 is January 03, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Objective:
There is an increasing demand for scientifically documented over-the-counter products on the cosmetic market. Salmon eggs are rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals with anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as free amino acids and lipids documented to be beneficial for skin. Of the fatty acids, several are commonly used as skin penetration enhancers. The unique combination of active substances led us to study whether an extract from salmon eggs could serve as an ingredient for skin care.
Methods:
We conducted a double-blinded, randomized clinical trial with 66 healthy female volunteers. Efficacy of the salmon egg extract was evaluated at concentrations of 1% and 5% in vehicle formulation, and responses after 7, 14, 28 and 56 days of treatment were compared with baseline. Composition of the extract was analysed to improve the understanding of the effects of the extract on skin. The salmon egg extract was safety-tested by repeat insult patch test.
Results:
Treatment of facial skin with the salmon egg extract significantly improved all parameters investigated, wrinkles, pigmentation, redness, brightness and hydration and led to global improvement of the facial skin. Efficacy of the extract was dose dependent and time dependent. There were no adverse reactions noted during the course of the repeat insult patch test, demonstrating that the extract causes neither skin irritation nor sensitization. Furthermore, chemical analyses of the extract revealed the composition of a vast number of active substances, including unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, proteins, minerals, DNA and RNA.
Conclusion:
The salmon egg extract serves as a skin care ingredient that significantly improves characteristics important for perception of skin ageing and health. The efficacy of the treatment is conceivably accounted for by the unique combination of numerous active substances present in the salmon egg extract.
Recent studies have noted positive effects of red clothing on success in competitive sports, perhaps arising from an evolutionary predisposition to associate the color red with dominance status. Red may also enhance judgments of women's attractiveness by men, perhaps through a similar association with fertility. Here we extend these studies by investigating attractiveness judgments of both sexes and by contrasting attributions based on six different colors. Furthermore, by photographing targets repeatedly in different colors, we could investigate whether color effects are due to influences on raters or clothing wearers, by either withholding from raters information about clothing color or holding it constant via digital manipulation, while retaining color-associated variation in wearer's expression and posture. When color cues were available, we found color-attractiveness associations when males were judged by either sex, or when males judged females, but not when females judged female images. Both red and black were associated with higher attractiveness judgments and had approximately equivalent effects. Importantly, we also detected significant clothing color-attractiveness associations even when clothing color was obscured from raters and when color was held constant by digital manipulation. These results suggest that clothing color has a psychological influence on wearers at least as much as on raters, and that this ultimately influences attractiveness judgments by others. Our results lend support for the idea that evolutionarily-derived color associations can bias interpersonal judgments, although these are limited neither to effects on raters nor to the color red.
Objectives Evolutionary psychology suggests that a woman’s age and physical appearance are important mate choice criteria. Given that changes in female facial skin surface topography are important, prominent visible signs of aging, male perceptual sensitivity for variation in this trait may also affect preference and attractiveness judgment.
Methods Two experiments were conducted to investigate perception (Experiment 1) and noticeability (Experiment 2) of skin surface topography manipulations in facial images of six British women, aged 45–65 years. In Experiment 1 skin surface topography cues were completely removed on the cheeks, the “crow’s feet” area adjacent to the eye, under the eyes, above the upper lip, and on the forehead while, in Experiment 2, it was removed gradually (20% increments) on the forehead and around the eyes. In both experiments, stimuli were presented to American and German participants (total N = 300, aged 15–55 years) in omnibus pair-wise combinations (within-face). With each pair, respondents were asked to select that face which they considered as younger looking (Experiments 1 and 2) and more attractive (Experiment 1).
Results Faces with skin surface topography cues removed were judged significantly younger and more attractive than their original (unmodified) counterparts, with modifications on the forehead and around the eyes showing the highest differences. In these areas, participants were able to detect at least a 20% visual change in skin surface topography.
Conclusions The results support the assertion that even small changes in skin surface topography affect the perceptions of a woman’s facial age and attractiveness and may, thus, also influence men’s mate preferences.
The management of scarring (from acne, surgery, or disease) remains a common concern and an ongoing challenge, with improvement, not eradication, the goal.
To describe a growing strategy used in esthetic dermatology illustrating the effects of movement, volume, and surface changes on skin aging, deformity, or disease using a grading scale of disease burden to classify scarred patients.
Through the use of this grading scale and with emphasis on the role of surface, volume changes, and recurrent movement, treatment planning will be suggested and relevant treatments reviewed. Tabulated treatment planning will also present algorithms summarizing a logical approach to the treatment of more-minor grades of scarring.
More-minor grades of scarring may be assessed in terms of treatments to restore minor volume loss and to improve the surface of the skin.
Synopsis
Our external appearance plays a key role in everyday life’s social interactions. Hence, taking care of our appearance allows us to adjust and protect ourselves, as well as communicate emotional disposition (i.e. sympathy or aversion) and social information (i.e. values, status). However, some discrete body parts or characteristics appear to be more salient than others in contributing to global body image. For example, authors showed that facial attractiveness is one of the best predictors of overall physical attractiveness and represent one of the primary factors influencing global self‐esteem. Make‐up is therefore ought to play a major influence in these parameters. Moreover, in a previous study whose subject was to explain the reasons that motivate women to make‐up, we showed a high implication of specific psychological traits in correlation with two make‐up functions (i.e. psycho‐behavioural profiles ‘Seduction’ and ‘Camouflage’; group S and group C, respectively). The purpose of this study was to assess the possible relation between our two psycho‐behavioural profiles and some morphological parameters know to be involved in facial attraction (i.e. facial asymmetry and skin visual quality). First of all, our study revealed for women from the group C a greater asymmetry of the lower face (i.e. mouth area) that could be related to a possible larger amount of negative emotional experiences. Concerning make‐up behaviour, women from the group S more extensively manipulated their relative facial attractiveness, by using a large range of colours, but also through a significantly longer make‐up process used to adjust their visual asymmetry and therefore increase their potential of attractiveness. On the overall, our results suggest that make‐up is used differentially, according to stable psychological profiles of women, to manipulate specific visual/morphological facial features involved in attractiveness.
Evolutionary psychologists have been interested in male preferences for particular female traits that are thought to signal health and reproductive potential. While the majority of studies have focused on what makes specific body traits attractive-such as the waist-to-hip ratio, the body mass index, and breasts shape and size-there is little empirical research that has examined individual differences in male preferences for specific traits (e.g., favoring breasts over buttocks). The current study begins to fill this empirical gap. In the first experiment (Study 1), 184 male participants were asked to report their preference between breasts and buttocks on a continuous scale. We found that (1) the distribution of preference was bimodal, indicating that Argentinean males tended to define themselves as favoring breasts or buttocks but rarely thinking that these traits contributed equally to their choice and (2) the distribution was biased towards buttocks. In a second experiment (Study 2), 19 male participants were asked to rate pictures of female breasts and buttocks. This study was necessary to generate three categories of pictures with statistically different ratings (high, medium, and low). In a third experiment (Study 3), we recorded eye-movements of 25 male participants while they chose the more attractive between two women, only seeing their breasts and buttock. We found that the first and last fixations were systematically directed towards the self-reported preferred trait.
As the most visible interface between the individual and the others, the skin is a key element of visually-carried inter-individual social information, since skin displays a wide array of information regarding gender, age, or health status. Adequate skin perception is central in individual identification and social interactions. This topic elicited marked interest in artists since the first development of visual arts in Antiquity. Often performed in order to identify the biological correlates of attractiveness, psychological research on skin perception made a jump forward with the development of virtual image synthesis. Here, we investigate how advances in both computer graphics and the psychology of skin perception may be turned to use in real-time virtual worlds. We propose a model of skin perception based both on purely physical dimensions such as color, texture, and symmetry, and on dimensions carrying socially-oriented information, such as perceived youth (information regarding putative fertility), markers of sexual dimorphism (information regarding hormonal status), and level of oxygenation (information regarding health status). It appears that for almost all of the dimensions of skin, maximal attractiveness and realism are the two opposite extremities of a single perceptive continuum.
An eye-movement-based memory effect was demonstrated in 2 experiments showing different patterns of eye movements elicited to famous versus nonfamous faces, across a range of different processing tasks. The effects of prior exposure emerged early in viewing, within the first 5 fixations, and were observed on multiple measures of eye-movement behavior, reflecting a change in viewers' sampling behavior to the famous faces. Accordingly, the eye-movement-based memory effect can be seen as a change in the nature of processing of novel versus repeated items, with implications for other effects of prior exposure such as those seen in examples of repetition priming. The authors argue that the eye-movement-based memory effect is an obligatory consequence of previous exposure—a reprocessing effect caused by re-engaging the visual pattern analyzers and face processing machinery of the brain.
Humans and animals make inferences about the world under limited time and knowledge. In contrast, many models of rational inference treat the mind as a Laplacean Demon, equipped with unlimited time, knowledge, and computational might. Following Herbert Simon's notion of satisficing, this chapter proposes a family of algorithms based on a simple psychological mechanism: one-reason decision making. These fast-and-frugal algorithms violate fundamental tenets of classical rationality: It neither looks up nor integrates all information. By computer simulation, a competition was held between the satisficing "take-the-best" algorithm and various "rational" inference procedures (e.g., multiple regression). The take-the-best algorithm matched or outperformed all competitors in inferential speed and accuracy. This result is an existence proof that cognitive mechanisms capable of successful performance in the real world do not need to satisfy the classical norms of rational inference.
Humans and animals make inferences about the world under limited time and knowledge. In con-
trast, many models of rational inference treat the mind as a Laplacean Demon, equipped with un-
limited time, knowledge, and computational might. Following H. Simon's notion of satisficing, the
authors have proposed a family of algorithms based on a simple psychological mechanism: one-
reason decision making. These fast and frugal algorithms violate fundamental tenets of classical
rationality: They neither look up nor integrate all information. By computer simulation, the authors
held a competition between the satisficing "Take The Best" algorithm and various "rational" infer-
ence procedures (e.g., multiple regression). The Take The Best algorithm matched or outperformed
all competitors in inferential speed and accuracy. This result is an existence proof that cognitive
mechanisms capable of successful performance in the real world do not need to satisfy the classical
norms of rational inference.
Everywhere the issue has been examined, people make discriminations about others’ physical attractiveness. Can human standards of physical attractiveness be understood through the lens of evolutionary biology? In the past decade, this question has guided much theoretical and empirical work. In this paper, we (a) outline the basic adaptationist approach that has guided the bulk of this work, (b) describe evolutionary models of signaling that have been applied to understand human physical attractiveness, and (c) discuss and evaluate specific lines of empirical research attempting to address the selective history of human standards of physical attractiveness. We also discuss ways evolutionary scientists have attempted to understand variability in standards of attractiveness across cultures as well as the ways current literature speaks to body modification in modern Western cultures. Though much work has been done, many fundamental questions remain unanswered.
Examined whether physically attractive stimulus persons, both male and female, are (a) assumed to possess more socially desirable personality traits than physically unattractive stimulus persons, and (b) expected to lead better lives (e.g., be more competent husbands and wives and more successful occupationally) than unattractive stimulus persons. Sex of Subject * Sex of Stimulus Person interactions along these dimensions also were investigated. Results with 30 male and 30 female undergraduates indicate a "what is beautiful is good" stereotype along the physical attractiveness dimension with no Sex of Judge * Sex of Stimulus interaction. Implications of such a stereotype on self-concept development and the course of social interaction are discussed.
Eye movements were recorded while participants viewed line-drawing pictures of natural scenes in preparation for a memory test (Experiment 1) or to find a target object (Experiment 2). Initial saccades in a scene were not controlled by semantic information in the visual periphery, although fixation densities and fixation durations were affected by semantic consistency. The results are compared with earlier eye-tracking studies, and a qualitative model of eye movement control in scene perception is discussed in which initial saccades in a scene are controlled by visual but not semantic analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The notion that surface texture may provide important information about the geometry of visible surfaces has attracted considerable attention for a long time. The present study shows that skin texture plays a significant role in the judgment of female facial beauty. Following research in clinical dermatology, the authors developed a computer program that implemented an algorithm based on co-occurrence matrices for the analysis of facial skin texture. Homogeneity and contrast features as well as color parameters were extracted out of stimulus faces. Attractiveness ratings of the images made by male participants relate positively to parameters of skin homogeneity. The authors propose that skin texture is a cue to fertility and health. In contrast to some previous studies, the authors found that dark skin, not light skin, was rated as most attractive.
Current theoretical and empirical findings suggest that mate preferences are mainly cued on visual, vocal and chemical cues that reveal health including developmental health. Beautiful and irresistible features have evolved numerous times in plants and animals due to sexual selection, and such preferences and beauty standards provide evidence for the claim that human beauty and obsession with bodily beauty are mirrored in analogous traits and tendencies throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Human beauty standards reflect our evolutionary distant and recent past and emphasize the role of health assessment in mate choice as reflected by analyses of the attractiveness of visual characters of the face and the body, but also of vocal and olfactory signals. Although beauty standards may vary between cultures and between times, we show in this review that the underlying selection pressures, which shaped the standards, are the same. Moreover we show that it is not the content of the standards that show evidence of convergence – it is the rules or how we construct beauty ideals that have universalities across cultures. These findings have implications for medical, social and biological sciences.
The face communicates an impressive amount of visual information. We use it to identify its owner, how they are feeling and to help us understand what they are saying. Models of face processing have considered how we extract such meaning from the face but have ignored another important signal – eye gaze. In this article we begin by reviewing evidence from recent neurophysiological studies that suggests that the eyes constitute a special stimulus in at least two senses. First, the structure of the eyes is such that it provides us with a particularly powerful signal to the direction of another person’s gaze, and second, we may have evolved neural mechanisms devoted to gaze processing. As a result, gaze direction is analysed rapidly and automatically, and is able to trigger reflexive shifts of an observer’s visual attention. However, understanding where another individual is directing their attention involves more than simply analysing their gaze direction. We go on to describe research with adult participants, children and non-human primates that suggests that other cues such as head orientation and pointing gestures make significant contributions to the computation of another’s direction of attention.
This experiment involved the question of where human observers look in a picture. The results indicated that observers fixate earlier, more often, and with longer durations on objects that have a low probability of appearing in a scene (e.g., an octopus in a farm scene) than on objects that have a high probability of appearing (e.g., a tractor in a farm scene). These findings (a) imply a role of cognitive factors in peripheral visual processing and (b) suggest a possible relationship between the nature of information initially acquired from a picture and subsequent recognition memory for that picture.
This study investigated visual cues to age by using facial composites which blend shape and colour information from multiple faces. Baseline measurements showed that perceived age of adult male faces is on average an accurate index of their chronological age over the age range 20-60 years. Composite images were made from multiple images of different faces by averaging face shape and then blending red, green and blue intensity (RGB colour) across comparable pixels. The perceived age of these composite or blended images depended on the age bracket of the component faces. Blended faces were, however, rated younger than their component faces, a trend that became more marked with increased component age. The techniques used provide an empirical definition of facial changes with age that are biologically consistent across a sample population. The perceived age of a blend of old faces was increased by exaggerating the RGB colour differences of each pixel relative to a blend of young faces. This effect on perceived age was not attributable to enhanced contrast or colour saturation. Age-related visual cues defined from the differences between blends of young and old faces were applied to individual faces. These transformations increased perceived age.
The notion that surface texture may provide important information about the geometry of visible surfaces has attracted considerable attention for a long time. The present study shows that skin texture plays a significant role in the judgment of female facial beauty. Following research in clinical dermatology, the authors developed a computer program that implemented an algorithm based on co-occurrence matrices for the analysis of facial skin texture. Homogeneity and contrast features as well as color parameters were extracted out of stimulus faces. Attractiveness ratings of the images made by male participants relate positively to parameters of skin homogeneity. The authors propose that skin texture is a cue to fertility and health. In contrast to some previous studies, the authors found that dark skin, not light skin, was rated as most attractive.
Face perception is mediated by a distributed neural system in humans that consists of multiple, bilateral regions. The functional organization of this system embodies a distinction between the representation of invariant aspects of faces, which is the basis for recognizing individuals, and the representation of changeable aspects, such as eye gaze, expression, and lip movement, which underlies the perception of information that facilitates social communication. The system also has a hierarchical organization. A core system, consisting of occipitotemporal regions in extrastriate visual cortex, mediates the visual analysis of faces. An extended system consists of regions from neural systems for other cognitive functions that can act in concert with the core system to extract meaning from faces. Of regions in the extended system for face perception, the amygdala plays a central role in processing the social relevance of information gleaned from faces, particularly when that information may signal a potential threat.
Whilst the relationship between aspects of facial shape and attractiveness has been extensively studied, few studies have investigated which characteristics of the surface of faces positively influence attractiveness judgments. As many researchers have proposed a link between attractiveness and traits that appear healthy, apparent health of facial skin might be a property of the surface of faces that positively influences attractiveness judgments. In experiment 1 we tested for a positive correlation between ratings of the apparent health of small skin patches (extracted from the left and right cheeks of digital face images) and ratings of the attractiveness of male faces. By using computer-graphics faces, in experiment 2 we aimed to establish if apparent health of skin influences male facial attractiveness independently of shape information. Results suggest that apparent health of facial skin is correlated both with ratings of male facial attractiveness (experiment 1) and with being a visual cue for judgments of the attractiveness of male faces (experiment 2). These findings underline the importance of controlling for the influence of visible skin condition in studies of facial attractiveness and are consistent with the proposal that attractive physical traits are those that positively influence others' perceptions of an individual's health.
The eye-tracking method was used to assess attentional orienting to and engagement on emotional visual scenes. In Experiment 1, unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant target pictures were presented simultaneously with neutral control pictures in peripheral vision under instruction to compare pleasantness of the pictures. The probability of first fixating an emotional picture, and the frequency of subsequent fixations, were greater than those for neutral pictures. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to avoid looking at the emotional pictures, but these were still more likely to be fixated first and gazed longer during the first-pass viewing than neutral pictures. Low-level visual features cannot explain the results. It is concluded that overt visual attention is captured by both unpleasant and pleasant emotional content.
It is extraordinarily difficult to recognize a face in an image with negated contrast, as in a photographic negative. The variation among faces can be partitioned into two general sources: (a) shape and (b) surface reflectance, here termed 'pigmentation'. To determine whether negation differentially affects the processing of shape or pigmentation, we made two sets of faces where the individual faces differed only in shape in one set and only in pigmentation in the other. Surprisingly, matching performance was significantly impaired by contrast negation only when the faces varied in pigmentation. This provides evidence that the perception of pigmentation, not shape, is selectively disrupted by negation and, by extension, that pigmentation contributes to the neural representation of face identity.
Studies of secondary sexual ornamentation and its maintenance by sexual selection tend to focus on males; however, females may also possess showy ornaments. For example, female mandrills possess facial coloration that ranges from black to bright pink. We used fortnightly photographs of 52 semi-free-ranging females aged above 3years over 19 months to evaluate whether colour conveys information concerning female competitive ability, reproductive quality, age or reproductive status. Colour was not related to female rank or quality (body mass index, age at first birth or mean inter-birth interval); however, colour did increase significantly with age and primiparous females were darker than multiparous females. Colour may therefore signal reproductive quality, as younger females are less fertile and produce smaller offspring. Colour was brighter during the follicular phase than during the luteal phase, suggesting that it may signal fertility. Colour also varied across gestation and peaked at four and eight weeks post-parturition, suggesting that it may signal approaching parturition and lactation. Future studies should examine the relationship between colour and the menstrual cycle in more detail, the hormonal basis of female colour, and determine experimentally whether mandrills of both sexes attend to differences in colour between and within females.
Across 5 experimental studies, the authors explore selective processing biases for physically attractive others. The findings suggest that (a). both male and female observers selectively attend to physically attractive female targets, (b). limiting the attentional capacity of either gender results in biased frequency estimates of attractive females, (c). although females selectively attend to attractive males, limiting females' attentional capacity does not lead to biased estimates of attractive males, (d). observers of both genders exhibit enhanced recognition memory for attractive females but attenuated recognition for attractive males. Results suggest that different mating-related motives may guide the selective processing of attractive men and women.
The authors examine the impact of looks on earnings using interviewers' ratings of respondents' physical appearance. Plain people earn less than average-looking people, who earn less than the good-looking. The plainness penalty is 5 to 10 percent, slightly larger than the beauty premium. Effects for men are at least as great as for women. Unattractive women have lower labor-force participation rates and marry men with less human capital. Better-looking people sort into occupations where beauty may be more productive but the impact of individuals' looks is mostly independent of occupation, suggesting the existence of pure employer discrimination. Copyright 1994 by American Economic Association.
This experiment involved the question of where human observers look in a picture. The results indicated that observers fixate earlier, more often, and with longer durations on objects that have a low probability of appearing in a scene (e.g., an octopus in a farm scene) than on objects that have a high probability of appearing (e.g., a tractor in a farm scene). These findings (a) imply a role of cognitive factors in peripheral visual processing and (b) suggest a possible relationship between the nature of information initially acquired from a picture and subsequent recognition memory for that picture. Language: en
Psychological evidence suggests that sex differences in morphology have been modified by sexual selection so as to attract mates (intersexual selection) or intimidate rivals (intrasexual selection). Women compete with each other for high quality husbands by advertising reproductive value in terms of the distribution of fat reserves and by exaggerating morphological indicators of youthfulness such as a small nose and small feet and pale, hairless skin. Men's physical appearance tends to communicate social dominance, which has the combined effects of intimidating reproductive rivals and attracting mates. In addition to their attractiveness and intimidatory effects, human secondary sexual characters also provide cues to hormonal status and phenotypic quality consistent with the good genes model of sexual selection (which includes parasite resistance). Low waist-hip ratio is sexually attractive in women and indicates a high estrogen/testosterone ratio (which favors reproductive function). Facial attractiveness provides honest cues to health and mate value. The permanently enlarged female breast appears to have evolved under the influence of both the good genes and the runaway selection mechanisms. The male beard is not obviously related to phenotypic quality and may have evolved through a process of runaway intersexual selection.
Current theoretical and empirical findings suggest that mate preferences are mainly cued on visual, vocal and chemical cues that reveal health including developmental health. Beautiful and irresistible features have evolved numerous times in plants and animals due to sexual selection, and such preferences and beauty standards provide evidence for the claim that human beauty and obsession with bodily beauty are mirrored in analogous traits and tendencies throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Human beauty standards reflect our evolutionary distant and recent past and emphasize the role of health assessment in mate choice as reflected by analyses of the attractiveness of visual characters of the face and the body, but also of vocal and olfactory signals. Although beauty standards may vary between cultures and between times, we show in this review that the underlying selection pressures, which shaped the standards, are the same. Moreover we show that it is not the content of the standards that show evidence of convergence - it is the rules or how we construct beauty ideals that have universalities across cultures. These findings have implications for medical, social and biological sciences.
Evolutionary psychologists have proposed that preferences for facial characteristics, such as symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism, may reflect adaptations for mate choice because they signal aspects of mate quality. Here, we show that facial skin color distribution significantly influences the perception of age and attractiveness of female faces, independent of facial form and skin surface topography. A set of three-dimensional shape-standardized stimulus faces-varying only in terms of skin color distribution due to variation in biological age and cumulative photodamage-was rated by a panel of naive judges for a variety of perceptual endpoints relating to age, health, and beauty. Shape- and topography-standardized stimulus faces with the homogeneous skin color distribution of young people were perceived as younger and received significantly higher ratings for attractiveness and health than analogous stimuli with the relatively inhomogeneous skin color distribution of more elderly people. Thus, skin color distribution, independent of facial form and skin surface topography, seems to have a major influence on the perception of female facial age and judgments of attractiveness and health as they may signal aspects of underlying physiological condition of an individual relevant for mate choice. We suggest that studies on human physical attractiveness and its perception need to consider the influence of visible skin condition driven by color distribution and differentiate between such effects and beauty-related traits due to facial shape and skin topography.
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) nonaverage sexually dimorphic features (hormone markers). Evolutionary psychology proposes that these characteristics all pertain to health, suggesting that humans have evolved to view certain features as attractive because they were displayed by healthy individuals. However, the question remains how single features that are considered attractive relate to each other, and if they form a single ornament that signals mate quality. Moreover, some researchers have recently explained attractiveness preferences in terms of individual differences that are predictable. This article briefly describes what is currently known from attractiveness research, reviews some recent advances, and suggests areas for future researchers' attention.
In previous research it has been shown that subject relative clauses are easier to process than object relative clauses. Several theories have been proposed that explain the difference on the basis of different theoretical perspectives. However, previous research tested relative clauses only with animate protagonists. In a corpus study of Dutch and German newspaper texts, we show that animacy is an important determinant of the distribution of subject and object relative clauses. In two experiments in Dutch, in which the animacy of the object of the relative clause is varied, no difference in reading time is obtained between subject and object relative clauses when the object is inanimate. The experiments show that animacy influences the processing difficulty of relative clauses. These results can only be accounted for by current major theories of relative clause processing when additional assumptions are introduced, and at the same time show that the possibility of semantically driven analysis can be considered as a serious alternative.
Eye gaze estimation via images has been well investigated and all methods worked on images with the full face. This makes the eye details small and accuracy is affected. We address this problem by zooming in on a single eye. In this paper, we will show the validity of the method and investigate the performance with controlled synthetic data and also with real images. The principle is to rely on the fact that the outer boundary of the iris is a circle. With a fully calibrated camera, its elliptical image can be back-projected into the 3D space yielding two possible circles. To disambiguate, the solution is found by making use of anthropomorphic knowledge of the structure of the eyeball. Hence, getting a larger eye image with a zoom camera enabled us to achieve higher resolutions and thereby higher accuracies. The robustness of the algorithm was verified by extensive statistical trials conducted on synthetic data and real images. The two key contributions in this paper are to show that it is possible to estimate eye gaze with only one eye image and that consequently this achieves higher accuracy of eye gaze estimation.
Three experiments addressed the question whether semantic content or pragmatic context can direct the initial syntactic analysis assigned to sentences. Each experiment determined whether syntactic processing biases that have been observed in sentences presented in isolation can be overcome. In two experiments that measured eye movements, we found that the syntactic processing biases remained even when they resulted in thematically based anomaly or when they conflicted with discourse biases. In a third experiment, we used a self-paced reading task to replicate some of the results obtained using eye movement measures. We argue that the data support the existence of a syntactic processing module.
to the Human Visual System (HVS).- Visual Attention.- Neurological Substrate of the HVS.- Visual Psychophysics.- Taxonomy and Models of Eye Movements.- Eye Tracking Systems.- Eye Tracking Techniques.- Head-Mounted System Hardware Installation.- Head-Mounted System Software Development.- Head-Mounted System Calibration.- Table-Mounted System Hardware Installation.- Table-Mounted System Software Development.- Table-Mounted System Calibration.- Eye Movement Analysis.- Eye Tracking Methodology.- Experimental Design.- Suggested Empirical Guidelines.- Case Studies.- Eye Tracking Applications.- Diversity and Types of Eye Tracking Applications.- Neuroscience and Psychology.- Industrial Engineering and Human Factors.- Marketing/Advertising.- Computer Science.- Conclusion.
Patterns in the data on human sexuality support the hypothesis that the bases of sexual emotions are products of natural selection. Most generally, the universal existence of laws, rules, and gossip about sex, the pervasive interest in other people's sex lives, the widespread seeking of privacy for sexual intercourse, and the secrecy that normally permeates sexual conduct imply a history of reproductive competition. More specifically, the typical differences between men and women in sexual feelings can be explained most parsimoniously as resulting from the extraordinarily different reproductive opportunities and constraints males and females normally encountered during the course of evolutionary history. Men are more likely than women to desire multiple mates; to desire a variety of sexual partners; to experience sexual jealousy of a spouse irrespective of specific circumstances; to be sexually aroused by the sight of a member of the other sex; to experience an autonomous desire for sexual intercourse; and to evaluate sexual desirability primarily on the bases of physical appearance and youth.
The evolutionary causes of human sexuality have been obscured by attempts to find harmony in natural creative processes and human social life and to view sex differences as complementary. The human female's capacity for orgasm and the loss of estrus, for example, have been persistently interpreted as marriage-maintaining adaptations. Available evidence is more consistent with the view that few sex differences in sexuality are complementary, that many aspects of sexuality undermine marriage, and that sexuality is less a unifying than a divisive force in human affairs.
1st Amer. Ed, 3rd Print Bibliogr. s. 243-252
Theories of object recognition have emphasized the information conveyed by shape information, whereas theories of face recognition have emphasized properties of superficial features. In the experiments reported here we used novel technology to investigate the relative contributions of shape and superficial colour information to simple categorization decisions about the sex and 'race' of faces. The results show that both shape and colour provide useful information for these decisions; shape information was particularly useful for race decisions while colour dominated sex decisions. When both sources of information were combined, the dominant source depended on viewpoint, with angled views emphasizing the contribution of shape and the full-face view colour. The results are discussed within the context of theories of face recognition and their implications for telecommunication applications are considered.
An eye-movement-based memory effect was demonstrated in 2 experiments showing different patterns of eye movements elicited to famous versus nonfamous faces, across a range of different processing tasks. The effects of prior exposure emerged early in viewing, within the first 5 fixations, and were observed on multiple measures of eye-movement behavior, reflecting a change in viewers' sampling behavior to the famous faces. Accordingly, the eye-movement-based memory effect can be seen as a change in the nature of processing of novel versus repeated items, with implications for other effects of prior exposure such as those seen in examples of repetition priming. The authors argue that the eye-movement-based memory effect is an obligatory consequence of previous exposure--a reprocessing effect caused by re-engaging the visual pattern analyzers and face processing machinery of the brain.
Gaze is an important component of social interaction. The function, evolution and neurobiology of gaze processing are therefore of interest to a number of researchers. This review discusses the evolutionary role of social gaze in vertebrates (focusing on primates), and a hypothesis that this role has changed substantially for primates compared to other animals. This change may have been driven by morphological changes to the face and eyes of primates, limitations in the facial anatomy of other vertebrates, changes in the ecology of the environment in which primates live, and a necessity to communicate information about the environment, emotional and mental states. The eyes represent different levels of signal value depending on the status, disposition and emotional state of the sender and receiver of such signals. There are regions in the monkey and human brain which contain neurons that respond selectively to faces, bodies and eye gaze. The ability to follow another individual's gaze direction is affected in individuals with autism and other psychopathological disorders, and after particular localized brain lesions. The hypothesis that gaze following is "hard-wired" in the brain, and may be localized within a circuit linking the superior temporal sulcus, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex is discussed.
The brain circuitry processing rewarding and aversive stimuli is hypothesized to be at the core of motivated behavior. In this study, discrete categories of beautiful faces are shown to have differing reward values and to differentially activate reward circuitry in human subjects. In particular, young heterosexual males rate pictures of beautiful males and females as attractive, but exert effort via a keypress procedure only to view pictures of attractive females. Functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T shows that passive viewing of beautiful female faces activates reward circuitry, in particular the nucleus accumbens. An extended set of subcortical and paralimbic reward regions also appear to follow aspects of the keypress rather than the rating procedures, suggesting that reward circuitry function does not include aesthetic assessment.
A biologically motivated computational model of bottom-up visual selective attention was used to examine the degree to which stimulus salience guides the allocation of attention. Human eye movements were recorded while participants viewed a series of digitized images of complex natural and artificial scenes. Stimulus dependence of attention, as measured by the correlation between computed stimulus salience and fixation locations, was found to be significantly greater than that expected by chance alone and furthermore was greatest for eye movements that immediately follow stimulus onset. The ability to guide attention of three modeled stimulus features (color, intensity and orientation) was examined and found to vary with image type. Additionally, the effect of the drop in visual sensitivity as a function of eccentricity on stimulus salience was examined, modeled, and shown to be an important determiner of attentional allocation. Overall, the results indicate that stimulus-driven, bottom-up mechanisms contribute significantly to attentional guidance under natural viewing conditions.
Eye-tracking applications are surveyed in a breadth-first manner, reporting on work from the following domains: neuroscience, psychology, industrial engineering and human factors, marketing/advertising, and computer science. Following a review of traditionally diagnostic uses, emphasis is placed on interactive applications, differentiating between selective and gaze-contingent approaches.
Gaze direction is a vital communicative channel through which people transmit information to each other. By signaling the locus of social attention, gaze cues convey information about the relative importance of objects, including other people, in the environment. For the most part, this information is communicated via patterns of gaze direction, with gaze shifts signaling changes in the objects of attention. Noting the relevance of gaze cues in social cognition, we speculated that gaze shifts may modulate people's evaluations of others. We investigated this possibility by asking participants to judge the likability (Experiment 1) and physical attractiveness (Experiment 2) of targets displaying gaze shifts indicative of attentional engagement or disengagement with the participants. As expected, person evaluation was moderated by the direction of gaze shifts, but only when the judgment under consideration was relevant to participants. We consider how and when gaze shifts may modulate person perception and its associated behavioral products.
What makes a face attractive and why do we have the preferences we do? Emergence of preferences early in development and cross-cultural agreement on attractiveness challenge a long-held view that our preferences reflect arbitrary standards of beauty set by cultures. Averageness, symmetry, and sexual dimorphism are good candidates for biologically based standards of beauty. A critical review and meta-analyses indicate that all three are attractive in both male and female faces and across cultures. Theorists have proposed that face preferences may be adaptations for mate choice because attractive traits signal important aspects of mate quality, such as health. Others have argued that they may simply be by-products of the way brains process information. Although often presented as alternatives, I argue that both kinds of selection pressures may have shaped our perceptions of facial beauty.
Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972), in their seminal article, labeled the attribution of positive characteristics to attractive people the "beauty-is-good" stereotype. The stereotyping literature since then provides extensive evidence for the differential judgment and treatment of attractive versus unattractive people, but does not indicate whether it is an advantage to be attractive or a disadvantage to be unattractive. Two studies investigated the direction of attractiveness stereotyping by comparing judgments of positive and negative attributes for medium vs. low and medium vs. high attractive faces. Taken together, results for adults (Experiment 1) and children (Experiment 2) suggest that most often, unattractiveness is a disadvantage, consistent with negativity bias (e.g., Rozin & Royzman, 2001) but contrary to the "beauty-is-good" aphorism.
It was once widely believed that standards of beauty were arbitrarily variable. Recent research suggests, however, that people's views of facial attractiveness are remarkably consistent, regardless of race, nationality or age. Facial characteristics are known to influence human attractiveness judgements and evolutionary psychologists suggest that these characteristics all pertain to health, leading to the conclusion that humans have evolved to view certain bodily features as attractive because the features were displayed by healthy others. Here we review some of the fundamental principles of sexual selection theory that apply to human beauty and summarize the major findings of human beauty perception.
Autrefois, l'idée que les standards de la beauté varient de façon arbitraire étaient largement répandue. Toutefois, de récentes recherches suggèrent que l'avis des gens sur l'attrait d'un visage est remarquablement concordant indépendamment de la race, de la nationalité ou de l’âge. Les caractéristiques faciales sont connues pour influencer les jugements sur l'attrait humain et les psychologues de l’évolution suggèrent que ces caractèristiques relèvent toutes de la santé. Ceci conduit à la conclusion que les humains ont évolué et jugent attrayants certains traits corporels parce que ces traits sont ceux de personnes en bonne santé. Nous verrons dans cet article quelques principes fondamentaux de la théorie de la sélection sexuelle qui s'appliquent à la beauté humaine et nous résumerons les principales découvertes dans la perception de la beauté humaine.
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