How Disgust Affects Romantic Attraction: the Influence of Moods on Judgments of Attractiveness

Abstract

Facial attractiveness is an important part of our initial judgments of people. Relatedly, the emotion disgust is one of the most adaptive emotions as it helps keep us away from potentially dangerous objects. The current experiment examined whether or not being disgusted created an avoidance behavior, in the form of lower attractiveness scores, of nondisfigured individuals similar to avoidance behavior towards individuals who are disfigured. Disgust was induced by showing participants a series of disgusting photos prior to making attractiveness ratings of potential mating targets. It was found that individuals who were disgusted rated photos significantly lower than participants who received a neutral mood induction. Potential explanations for this finding are discussed.

Good conduct makes your face attractive: The effect of personality perception on facial attractiveness judgments

“…However, reading the honest personality description might have induced a positive mood in the participants, while the low honesty description might have induced a negative mood. It is known that positive/negative moods influence face perception [61], trustworthiness and friendliness of faces 6 [62], and facial attractiveness [41,42] (see also [63]). In the prior studies, moods were induced in ways that were irrelevant to the main tasks of the facial attractiveness rating (e.g., background music), so it seemed probable that the "honesty premium" effect of Paunonen [59] box on the electronic forms.…”

“…Facial attractiveness is influenced by the observer's experiences [34][35][36], and there is a considerable contribution of both private and shared tastes [37]. Literature has reported countless factors modifying facial attractiveness, such as familiarity [38][39][40], observer's mood [41,42], alcohol 4 consumption [43], and nicotine intake [44]. Accessory stimuli accompanying a target face matter as well, including facial expressions [45,46], hair [47], flanking faces [48], bowing [49], and odor [50].…”

Good conduct makes your face attractive: The effect of personality perception on facial attractiveness judgments

“…However, reading the honest personality description might have induced a positive mood in the participants, while the low honesty description might have induced a negative mood. It is known that positive/negative moods influence face perception [ 63 ], trustworthiness and friendliness of faces [ 64 ], and facial attractiveness [ 41 , 42 ] (see also [ 65 ]). In these studies, moods were induced in ways that were irrelevant to the main tasks of the facial attractiveness rating (e.g., background music), so it seemed probable that the “honesty premium” effect of Paunonen [ 60 ] might be due to the effect of positive/negative mood induced by the high/low honesty descriptions (the mood hypothesis).…”

“…The observer's experiences also play a crucial role, as the physical appearances of individuals that the observer knows well are often judged as more attractive [35][36][37]. Literature has reported countless factors affecting perceptions of facial attractiveness, such as familiarity [38][39][40], observer's mood [41,42], alcohol consumption [43], and nicotine intake [44]. Accessory stimuli accompanying a target face matter as well, including facial expressions [45,46], hairstyle [47], flanking faces [48], bowing [49], and odor [50].…”