Skin Blood Perfusion and Oxygenation Colour Affect Perceived Human Health

Abstract

Skin blood perfusion and oxygenation depends upon cardiovascular, hormonal and circulatory health in humans and provides socio-sexual signals of underlying physiology, dominance and reproductive status in some primates. We allowed participants to manipulate colour calibrated facial photographs along empirically-measured oxygenated and deoxygenated blood colour axes both separately and simultaneously, to optimise healthy appearance. Participants increased skin blood colour, particularly oxygenated, above basal levels to optimise healthy appearance. We show, therefore, that skin blood perfusion and oxygenation influence perceived health in a way that may be important to mate choice.

Discrimination of Attractiveness and Health in Men’s Faces: the Impact of Color Cues and Variation in Relation to Sex and Age of Rater

“…The significant Image type x Quality x Color condition interaction suggests that higher scores are awarded to high quality individuals compared with low quality individuals when presented in the color condition than in monochrome, but only for the skin images. Our results are consistent with recent findings that skin color and the distribution of skin coloration are important in judgements of mate quality (Fink et al 2001(Fink et al , 2006Jones et al 2004a, b;Stephen et al 2009). Color information is not the only cue to quality, however, since high quality individuals received higher scores than low quality individuals, even when judged in monochrome, in both face and skin image presentations.…”

“…It has been argued, for example, that men prefer women with relatively pale skin as this is associated with youth (van den Berghe and Frost 1986, but see Fink et al 2001) and that redness of cheeks could be a signal of health (Zahavi and Zahavi 1997). Indeed, skin redness has since been shown to be associated with both perceived health and attractiveness (Stephen et al 2009(Stephen et al , 2012 in facial rating studies. Furthermore, relating color attributes to attractiveness ratings, Fink et al (2001) found that attractiveness was negatively correlated with variability in blue color space in women's faces, but was also predicted by homogeneity of contrast, suggesting that both color and textural cues influence judgments.…”

“…In studies in which participants manipulate color-calibrated facial images to optimize the appearance of health, raters appear to be sensitive to differences arising from variation in relative levels of oxygenated to deoxygenated blood color, suggesting this variation is important to perceptions of health in facial skin (Stephen et al 2009;Re et al 2011). Furthermore, changes in skin coloration also occur within as little as 1 h following experimental infection with a bacterial endotoxin, with changes varying in facial skin (becoming lighter and less red) compared to elsewhere on the body (Henderson et al 2017).…”

Fruit over sunbed: Carotenoid skin colouration is found more attractive than melanin colouration

“…yellowness or redness axis in isolation), other 85 research has linked health perception to naturally occurring skin pigments: for skin redness, 86 participants increased the amount of oxygenated blood colour more than deoxygenated blood 87 colour, to maximise the appearance of health in faces (Stephen et al, 2009b been shown to increase T-lymphocyte counts in healthy adults (Alexander et al, 1985) and 115 has beneficial effects for thymus gland growth in children (Seifter, et al, 1981 The two groups did not differ on gender, age, BMI, or exercise behaviour. Skin colour was 157 measured on the forearm using spectrophotometry (for details see Whitehead et al, 2012b).…”

Miscalibrations in judgements of attractiveness with cosmetics

“…Some cosmetic products seem specifically tailored to modifying these perceptions. For example, blushers typically add redness to the face, a colouration tied to circulatory health and a healthy appearance (Stephen, Coetzee, Law-Smith, & Perrett, 2009). Indeed, an application of cosmetics has positive effects on health perceptions (Mulhern, Fieldman, Hussey, Lévêque, & Pineau, 2003).…”