A group's facial attractiveness is the average attractiveness of its members

Are Individuals Perceived as More Attractive within a Group? A Confirmative Study of Group Attractiveness Effect and the Cheerleader Effect in China

“…By investigating Chinese participants’ evaluations on physical attractiveness, StudyI expanded the research on GA-effect to another cultural context, and confirmed previous findings on the higher perceived attractiveness of a group compared to the attractiveness of its individual members [ 10 ], as well as the higher attractiveness of an individual within a group context rather than in isolation [ 11 , 14 ]. Study II again confirmed the existence of GA-effect by investigating Chinese participants’ evaluations on both Chinese, Korean, and European facial photo stimuli, which was distinct with prior findings obtained in Korea in that the group attractiveness are an average [ 13 ]. In general, our main findings are: (a) the group’s physical attractiveness is significantly greater than the average attractiveness of its members, which confirmed the GA-effect; (b) an individual is more attractive in a group setting compared to when he or she is seen alone, which conformed the cheerleader effect; and (c) the larger the group size, the greater the GA-effect.…”

“…An attractive individual is imbued with almost all sorts of positive qualities, especially in western European and northern American cultures [ 7 ]. The phenomenon of “what is beautiful is good” has been studied for decades [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Physical attractiveness refers to people’s evaluations of individuals’ physical appearances based on aesthetic perspective.…”

“…After a quick review of recent studies, we found that in a Korean cultural context, the cheerleader effect was replicated [ 13 , 19 ]. Although the study presented a number of interesting hints about possible replication of the group attractiveness effects, this study is still preliminary as it was presented in a congress and manuscript unpublished, which leaves the question still open.…”

“…Since Van Osch et al found group size effect for the GA-effect [ 10 ], although Walker and Vul ‘s findings had no such effect for the cheerleader effect [ 11 ], we wished to check if individuals are perceived as more attractive in a group context, especially in a collectivist society such as China. Since China has a collectivist culture that emphasizes group cohesiveness, we hypothesize that the evidence for the GA effect and cheerleader effect in collectivist cultures is mixed: as Ojiro et al failed to replicate the cheerleader effect in Japan, while Eo and colleagues reported a cheerleader effect in Korea [ 13 , 19 ]. The aim of the current study is to investigate whether the GA and cheerleader effects occur in collectivist China, using a well powered experiment.…”

“…However, in 8 out of 9 studies, Van Osch et al found that people judge the physical attractiveness of a group to be more attractive than the average of its members. Although the GA-effect was originally found in European culture, its generalization is worth testing—especially in an Eastern culture such as China—since follow-up studies disclosed that a group’s facial attractiveness is indeed the average attractiveness of its members [ 13 ].…”