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

Cheng, Qiuping; Han, Zhili; Liu, Shun; Kong, Yilong; Weng, Xuchu; Mo, Lei

doi:10.1007/s00429-021-02422-5

Cited by 10 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 152 publications

(143 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although no signi cant conjunction effect was found, ugly faces signi cantly evoked bilateral IOG in both the judgments of moral badness and moral ugliness. The IOG, which is primarily responsible for perceiving facial features, performs low-level visual analysis of face stimuli during early visual processing and has signi cant activation not only in the judgments of moral behavior acted by good-looking male [27], but also this brain region appears to be richly activated in the judgments of immoral behavior acted by ugly-looking male, implying that facial attractiveness in uences the bad and ugly judgments of immoral behavior in a task-general pattern, i.e., both judgments of immoral behavior automatically process the ugly face of the actor. This result is consistent with some recent ndings that occipitotemporal visual cortex responds not only to positive but also to negative stimuli [51][52][53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We note that beautiful face in the judgments of moral behavior also evoked similar brain areas associated with emotionally meaningful representations of faces [27]. Beautiful face carries positive emotional values, suggesting the stereotype of approach[78, 79], whereas ugly face carries negative emotional values, suggesting the stereotype of avoidance [32].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although previous work has found that moral behavior of good-looking people is more often evaluated as moral good and moral beauty [39], and the emotional meaning carried by beautiful face affects only the beautiful assessment of moral behavior but not the judgment of moral goodness [27]. However, it is unclear whether immoral behavior of ugly-looking people is evaluated as moral badness and moral ugliness, and whether the emotional meaning carried by ugly face affects only the ugly judgment of immoral behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Moral judgments are in uenced by facial attractiveness [27]. Facial attractiveness is typically a visual attraction and is considered to be a fundamental aspect of human social interaction with profound implications for human social behavior [28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Neural mechanisms by which facial attractiveness influences the judgments of immoral behaviors

chengqiuping

Zhou

Zhang

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Moral judgments are influenced by facial attractiveness. Moral behavior of good-looking people is more judged as morally beautiful and specifically activates brain regions involved in the representation of emotional meaning. In moral judgments, immoral behavior is more diagnostic than moral behavior. However, it is not clear whether the implied relationship between face and moral traits affects people's judgments of immoral behavior. The present study is the first to investigate the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral badness and ugliness. Results Experimental materials consisted of scenarios depicting behaviors at different levels of immorality acted by good- or ugly-looking males in daily life. Subjects were asked to rate how bad and how ugly the male immoral behavior was on a 4-point scale. A parametric general linear model (GLM) was performed to estimate neural response to face attractiveness that varies with the levels of immorality in the judgments of moral badness and moral ugliness. Results showed that ugly faces both in the judgments of moral badness and moral ugliness activated the anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral inferior occipital gyrus, suggesting that ugly faces in evaluation of immoral behavior elicited activity in brain regions associated with underlying general emotions and automatically processed visual features of faces. In addition, compared with ugly faces in moral badness judgment, ugly faces in moral ugliness judgment showed stronger activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left insula, left middle temporal gyrus and cortical midline structures, and specifically activated bilateral frontal poles. These brain regions are mainly involved in the representation of emotional meaning of faces, suggesting that emotional information carried by ugly faces only affects moral aesthetic judgment. And no differential activation was found for the opposite contrast. Conclusion The results of this study demonstrate that facial attractiveness is task-specific as well as task-general in evaluating the badness and ugliness of immoral behavior. The findings provide more experimental and neurological evidence for the impact of implied relationships between faces and moral traits on higher moral decision-making. Our findings are of great significance to the understanding of the essence between morality and aesthetics.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Neural mechanisms by which facial attractiveness influences the judgments of immoral behaviors

chengqiuping

Zhou

Zhang

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ethical judgment is in uenced by facial beauty (Cheng et al, 2022). The face is considered to be a fundamental aspect of human social interaction with profound implications for human social behavior (Chatterjee, 2004;Kocsor et al, 2013;Maner et al, 2003;Olson & Marshuetz, 2005;Todorov, 2008;Zebrowitz & Collins, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of facial ugliness on the bad and ugly judgments of unethical behavior: an fMRI study

chengqiuping

Zhou

Zhang

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: Unethical behavior has a powerful effect on an individual's overall judgment and is easily influenced by their looks. However, it remains unclear whether the unethical behavior of ugly-looking individuals is more likely to be judged as immoral and what the mechanisms behind it are. The present study investigates whether facial ugliness influences the bad and ugly judgments of unethical behavior from the perspective of neural mechanisms. Method: The experimental material consisted of scenarios describing different levels of unethical behavior committed by ugly-looking or non-ugly-looking people. Subjects were asked to rate the bad and ugly levels of behaviors on a 4-point scale while being scanned for brain activity. We conducted a parametric general linear model (GLM) to estimate neural responses to facial ugliness in morally bad and ugly judgments, which varied with the level of immorality. Results: The results showed that ugly-looking faces activated the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral inferior occipital gyrus in both judgments, indicating a task-general pattern. Ugly-looking faces in morally ugly judgment showed stronger activity than in morally bad judgment in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left insula, left middle temporal gyrus, and cortical midline structures that characterize the emotional significance of events, suggesting a task-specific pattern. Conclusions: The results of the current study demonstrate that facial ugliness is task-specific as well as task-general in evaluating unethical behaviors. The findings provide more experimental and neurological evidence for the understanding of the essence between morality and aesthetics.

show abstract

Equation for Attractiveness: Integrating Multidimensional Factors Through Computational Neuroaesthetics

Rahman,

Esfahlani,

Rao

et al. 2024

Aesth Plast Surg

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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

Cited by 10 publications

References 152 publications

Neural mechanisms by which facial attractiveness influences the judgments of immoral behaviors

Neural mechanisms by which facial attractiveness influences the judgments of immoral behaviors

Effects of facial ugliness on the bad and ugly judgments of unethical behavior: an fMRI study

Equation for Attractiveness: Integrating Multidimensional Factors Through Computational Neuroaesthetics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About