The influence of skin tone, hair length, and hair colour on ratings of women's physical attractiveness, health and fertility

Swami, Viren; Furnham, Adrian; Joshi, Kiran

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2008.00651.x

Cited by 59 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Moreover, Sorokowski (2008) showed that men judged images of women with (digitally-enhanced) blonde hair significantly younger than the same images with brown hair (particularly in women around the age of 30). This result is, however, in contrast to the findings of Swami and Furnham (2007), who reported that blondes were rated as less physically attractive and more promiscuous than brunettes, a result that was replicated in two follow-up studies by the same authors (Swami et al, 2008a,b). …”

Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 62%

Age, Health and Attractiveness Perception of Virtual (Rendered) Human Hair

Fink

Hufschmidt

Hirn³

et al. 2016

Front. Psychol.

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The social significance of physical appearance and beauty has been documented in many studies. It is known that even subtle manipulations of facial morphology and skin condition can alter people’s perception of a person’s age, health and attractiveness. While the variation in facial morphology and skin condition cues has been studied quite extensively, comparably little is known on the effect of hair on social perception. This has been partly caused by the technical difficulty of creating appropriate stimuli for investigations of people’s response to systematic variation of certain hair characteristics, such as color and style, while keeping other features constant. Here, we present a modeling approach to the investigation of human hair perception using computer-generated, virtual (rendered) human hair. In three experiments, we manipulated hair diameter (Experiment 1), hair density (Experiment 2), and hair style (Experiment 3) of human (female) head hair and studied perceptions of age, health and attractiveness. Our results show that even subtle changes in these features have an impact on hair perception. We discuss our findings with reference to previous studies on condition-dependent quality cues in women that influence human social perception, thereby suggesting that hair is a salient feature of human physical appearance, which contributes to the perception of beauty.

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Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 62%

Age, Health and Attractiveness Perception of Virtual (Rendered) Human Hair

Fink

Hufschmidt

Hirn³

et al. 2016

Front. Psychol.

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“…This was done to further explore whether using lower WHRs than what has been commonly used so far (0.7, 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0) would significantly affect attractiveness ratings. In previous studies (e.g., Frost, 1988Frost, , 2007Frost, , 2008Frost, , 2011Swami, Furnham, & Joshi, 2008;van den Berghe & Frost, 1986), participants found lighter-skinned women to be more attractive. If skin tone plays a role in attractiveness, we would expect dark and light complexions to be assessed differently, as shown by eye movements and attractiveness ratings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male and Female Perception of Physical Attractiveness

2016

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Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and breast size are morphological traits that are associated with female attractiveness. Previous studies using line drawings of women have shown that men across cultures rate low WHRs (0.6 and 0.7) as most attractive. In this study, we used additional viewing measurements (i.e., first fixation duration and visual regressions) to measure visual attention and record how long participants first focused on the female body and whether they regressed back to an area of interest. Additionally, we manipulated skin tone to determine whether they preferred light-or dark-skinned women. In two eye tracking experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of female nude images varying in WHR (0.5-0.9), breast size, and skin tone. We measured first fixation duration, gaze duration, and total time. The overall results of both studies revealed that visual attention fell mostly on the face, the breasts, and the midriff of the female body, supporting the evolutionary view that reproductively relevant regions of the female body are important to female attractiveness. Because the stimuli varied in skin tone and the participants were mainly Hispanic of Mexican American descent, the findings from these studies also support a preference for low WHRs and reproductively relevant regions of the female body.

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“…It follows that individual features linked to high investment in offspring (reproductive potential) and strong commitment to children wellbeing (reproductive investment) would give a selective advantage to individuals in the process of mating choice (Geary et al, 2004). The choice of partner would therefore stem from considerations about elements associated to SES and social position as well as from attraction to physical characteristics concerning facial beauty and symmetry (Thornhill and Gangestad, 1993;Cornwell et al, 2006), height (Cavelaars et al, 2000;Silventoinen, 2003), hair and eye color (Frost, 2006;Swami et al, 2008), skin color (Hulse, 1967;Frost, 1994;Aoki, 2002), and other somatic traits linked to higher fitness. Accordingly, unhealthy individuals, especially those with evident signs of illness and malformation, would be negatively selected for marriage and, consequently, excluded from the reproductive process.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Spouse selection by health status and physical traits. Sardinia, 1856–1925

Manfredini

Breschi

Mazzoni

2009

American J Phys Anthropol

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Military medical information and data from civil registers of death and marriage have been used to study the role of physical characteristics and health conditions in explaining access to marriage for the male population of Alghero, a small city located in Sardinia Island (Italy), at the turn of 19th century. Literature data about contemporary populations have already demonstrated the influence of somatic traits in the mate choice. The results presented here show that men with low height and poor health status at the age of 20 were negatively selected for marriage. This holds true also in a society where families often arranged marriages for their children. This pattern of male selection on marriage was found to be particularly marked among the richest and wealthiest SES groups. Our hypothesis is that this social group carefully selected for marriage those individuals who were apparently healthier and therefore more likely to guarantee good health status and better life conditions to offspring. In evolutionary terms, the mate choice component of sexual selection suggests that the height of prospective partners could be claimed as one of the determinants, along with other environmental causes, of the observed higher stature of men belonging to the wealthiest social strata of the Alghero population.

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The influence of skin tone, hair length, and hair colour on ratings of women's physical attractiveness, health and fertility

Cited by 59 publications

References 34 publications

Age, Health and Attractiveness Perception of Virtual (Rendered) Human Hair

Age, Health and Attractiveness Perception of Virtual (Rendered) Human Hair

Male and Female Perception of Physical Attractiveness

Spouse selection by health status and physical traits. Sardinia, 1856–1925

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