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

Abstract

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.

In vitro cytocompatibility and osteogenic potential of calcium silicate-based dental cements in a root canal-filling model

“…In this study, we assessed the biological responses of hPDLSCs to three different endodontic materials: BIO-R, AH-P, and C-R. We showed that the new experimental root canal filling material, C-R, had comparable in vitro cytocompatibility to BIO-R and higher osteogenic potential than AH-P. We used hPDLSCs in this study because these are the predominant cell types present in the periodontal ligament and may have direct contact with the sealers during apical sealing. hPDLSCs are also multipotent cells able to differentiate into collagen-forming and cementoblast cells, 13 – 15 and are thus suitable for evaluating the osteogenic/odontogenic potentials of the sealing materials.…”

The interaction between pain and attractiveness perception in others

“…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).…”

“…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 .…”

The Effect of the Intensity of Happy Expression on Social Perception of Chinese Faces

“…However, the physical intensity of happy expressions did not strictly correspond to its perceived emotional intensity (Hess et al, 2000;Caulfield et al, 2016). Moreover, the composite images were more likely different from the natural faces that participants would encounter in daily life; therefore, they might not have matched with the mental representations of the participants (Hu et al, 2018). It is thus necessary to compare the influence of different intensities of happy expressions on the social perception of faces in the Chinese context with more natural photos.…”