Preferences for sexual dimorphism on attractiveness levels: An eye-tracking study

Yang, Ting; Chang, Hong; Hu, Yuanyan; Zheng, Yingcan; Wang, Wei

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.005

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Stimuli. The stimuli were 120 digital pictures of faces depicting painful and non-painful conditions, revised from a picture database that had been previously validated and used in published studies, in which the face images were morphed pictures 37,38 . The database comprised photos of 30 more attractive faces (15 female faces and 15 male faces) and 30 less attractive faces (15 female faces and 15 male faces).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The interaction between pain and attractiveness perception in others

Meng

Peng

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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When considering the "beauty-is-good" stereotype, facial attractiveness should facilitate empathy for pain. On the other hand, having in mind the "threat value of pain" hypothesis, pain cues would be more salient, and thus, its processing would not suffer influence by facial attractiveness. The eventrelated potential (ERP) allows investigating if one of these theories could predict individuals' responses regarding the perception of pain or attractiveness in others' faces. We tracked 35 participants' reactions to pictures depicting more and less attractive faces displayed in a painful and non-painful condition. Each participant completed the following two tasks when presented the images of faces: (1) the Pain Judgment Task, in which participants should rate the pain levels, and (2) the Attractiveness Judgment Task, in which participants should rate the attractiveness. Results showed that participants exhibited differences rating more and less attractive faces in the non-painful pictures, but not in the painful pictures. These results were observed in P3 and LPC amplitudes in the Pain Judgment Task, as well as in N170 and P2 amplitudes in the Attractive Judgment Task. Our results suggested that both explicit and implicit empathic pain processing inhibited the processing of attractiveness perception. These findings supported the "threat value of pain" hypothesis. Besides, in the Attractive Judgment Task, the N170 and P2 amplitudes for more attractive painful pictures were larger than those for more attractive nonpainful pictures. In contrast, no significant difference was found between the amplitudes for painful and non-painful, less attractive pictures. Our findings suggest that explicit facial attractiveness processing for more attractive face images potentiates the implicit empathy for pain processing, therefore partly supporting the "beautiful-is-good" stereotype. Empathy refers to the ability to understand and share others' feelings 1. When individuals witness others' pain or injuries, they usually can identify the pain and relate to these experiences as if they were their own 2. This competency is thus called empathy for pain 3,4. According to the "threat value of pain" hypothesis 5-8 , the perception of another's pain activates the individual's survival mechanisms, meaning that, they may experience withdrawal and avoidance like when exposed to real or perceived danger. Therefore, the ability to recognize others' pain helps individuals to avoid possible hazards and promotes empathic behavior 9. Physical attractiveness, as a symbol of biological quality signaling fertility and health 10,11 , plays an important role in interpersonal interactions in daily life. Attractive faces can be considered rewarding stimuli, eliciting positive emotional reactions. Those activate brain areas associated with the processing of positive emotions and rewarding, such as the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area 12. According to the "beauty-is-good" stereotype 13 , people with higher physical attractiveness are deemed b...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples of more (left panel) and less (right panel) attractive pictures. Pictures were revised from a picture database that had been previously validated and used in published studies37,38 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The interaction between pain and attractiveness perception in others

Meng

Peng

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…The experimental stimuli consisted of 80 face images obtained from previous study by Yang et al (2015) . Images included two categories (i.e., 40 more and 40 less attractive faces), and each of the category consisted of 10 images for each of masculine male faces, feminine male faces, feminine female faces, and masculine female faces.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, recent research ( Yang et al, 2015 ) demonstrated that attractiveness levels of faces could contribute to preferences for male facial sexual dimorphism. More specifically, masculine male faces were preferred to feminine male faces by both men and women when the faces were more attractive (more attractive faces).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, in most of the previous studies ( Perrett et al, 1998 ; Penton-Voak and Perrett, 2001 ; Little et al, 2008b ; Komori et al, 2009 ; Yang et al, 2015 ), preference for sexual dimorphism was used as a general facial attractiveness rating task for participants. A few of the studies have taken into account the effect of facial sexual dimorphism on specific behavior from the observer’s view.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Target Sex, Sexual Dimorphism, and Facial Attractiveness on Perceptions of Target Attractiveness and Trustworthiness

Abbasi

Zhang

et al. 2018

Front. Psychol.

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Facial sexual dimorphism has widely demonstrated as having an influence on the facial attractiveness and social interactions. However, earlier studies show inconsistent results on the effect of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness judgments. Previous studies suggest that the level of attractiveness might work as a moderating variable among the relationship between sexual dimorphism and facial preference and have often focused on the effect of sexual dimorphism on general attractiveness ratings, rather than concentrating on trustworthiness perception. Male and female participants viewed target male and female faces that varied on attractiveness (more attractive or less attractive) and sexual dimorphism (masculine or feminine). Participants rated the attractiveness of the faces and reported how much money they would give to the target person as a measure of trust. For the facial attractiveness ratings, (a) both men and women participants preferred masculine male faces to feminine male ones under the more attractive condition, whereas preferred feminine male faces to masculine male ones under the less attractive condition; (b) all participants preferred feminine female faces to masculine female ones under the less attractive condition, while there were no differences between feminine female faces and masculine female faces under the more attractive condition. For the target trustworthiness perception, (a) participants showed no preference between masculine male faces and feminine male faces, neither under the more attractive condition nor the less attractiveness condition; (b) however, all the participants preferred masculine female faces over feminine female faces under the more attractive condition, exhibiting no preference between feminine female faces and masculine female faces under the less attractive condition. These findings suggest that the attractiveness of facial stimulus may be a reason to interpret the inconsistent results from the previous studies, which focused on the effect of facial sexual dimorphism on the facial attractiveness. Furthermore, implications about the effect of target facial sexual dimorphism on participants’ trustworthiness perception were discussed.

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Facial Masculinity

Lidborg

2023

Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior

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Preferences for sexual dimorphism on attractiveness levels: An eye-tracking study

Cited by 21 publications

References 38 publications

The interaction between pain and attractiveness perception in others

The interaction between pain and attractiveness perception in others

The Effect of Target Sex, Sexual Dimorphism, and Facial Attractiveness on Perceptions of Target Attractiveness and Trustworthiness

Facial Masculinity

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