Limited evidence of hierarchical encoding in the cheerleader effect

Abstract

“The cheerleader effect” refers to the increase in attractiveness that an individual face experiences when seen in a group of other faces. It has been proposed that the cheerleader effect occurs because (a) the visual system rapidly summarises a group of faces into an ensemble representation, (b) which is hypothesised to be highly attractive because of its average facial characteristics, and (c) observers remember individual faces to be more alike the ensemble representation than they were, due to hierarchical structure of visual working memory. Across three experiments, we investigated whether the cheerleader effect is consistent with hierarchical encoding, by asking observers to give attractiveness ratings to the same target faces shown in groups and alone. Consistent with hierarchical encoding, the largest attractiveness increases of 1.5 - 2.0% occurred when target faces were presented in groups of faces that could be mentally summarised to create an ensemble representation with average facial characteristics. Surprisingly, smaller cheerleader effects still occurred in conditions that were incompatible with hierarchical encoding (i.e., groups with non-human images). Together, these results offer only limited evidence for the role of hierarchical encoding in the cheerleader effect, suggesting that alternative mechanisms must be explored in future research.

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

“…By replicating Walker and Vul’s work, the results generated from Study Ia, Ib, and Ic demonstrated that individuals give higher attractiveness ratings when targets are in group member condition (GMR) in comparison to the individual rating condition (IR). Such a result confirmed the cheerleader effect [ 11 ] and was consistent with very recent studies [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 24 ], therefore extending this finding to a collectivistic culture with a stronger effect size compared to previous studies [ 18 ]. According to the explanations proposed by Walker and Vul [ 11 ], when rating attractiveness: (1) people’s visual system would automatically compute ensemble representations of faces presented in a group; (2) making the individual members of the group biased toward this ensemble average; and (3) average faces were more attractive.…”

“…Walker and Vul found that people seem more attractive in a group context than in isolation, and such a phenomenon has been coined as the cheerleader effect [ 11 ]. Subsequent studies have been focused on exploring the mechanism behind the cheerleader effect, and to check the generalization of such an effect [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Both attractiveness effects, either the GA-effect or the cheerleader effect, seem to suggest that people in a group context enjoy higher attractiveness rating, irrespective of being rated alone or by comparison to other members within the group.…”

“…Ojiro et al replicated the design of the Experiment 4 conducted by Walker and Vul, and they found the cheerleader effect was not significant in a Japanese culture based on very small size effect [ 18 ]. Then, a group of psychologists [ 15 , 16 ] investigated whether the spatial arrangement of the faces in a group would influence the magnitude of the cheerleader effect. Their findings demonstrated that faces were again rated as significantly more attractive in each group configuration than in isolation, and the spatial location of the target face did not influence the size of the cheerleader effect.…”

“…Thus, the results supported the cheerleader effect in Australia, another individualistic culture, and confirmed that cheerleader effect is a robust phenomenon. A very recent work offered limited evidence for the role of hierarchical encoding in the cheerleader effect and continued to support the cheerleader effect [ 16 ]. Ying and colleagues provided evidence that supports the ensemble averaging in facial attractiveness, since one’s brain automatically averages each individual’s facial attractiveness together to create the gist of the collective attractiveness.…”

Contrast Effect of Facial Attractiveness in Groups

“…What causes the social positive effect remains unclear. There is debate on the mechanisms underlying the cheerleader effect, which is observed even though it is incompatible with hierarchical encoding ( Carragher et al, 2019 ). This offers limited evidence for the role of hierarchical encoding in the cheerleader effect ( Luo and Zhou, 2018 ).…”