You're only as pretty as you feel: Facial expression as a determinant of physical attractiveness.

Abstract

Photos of IS target persons posing happy, neutral, and sad facial expressions were rated for facial attractiveness using paired comparisons and Likert scales. Half the raters were instructed to compensate for the effects of facial expression. Paired comparisons and Likert ratings were highly correlated. Target persons were less attractive when posing sad expressions than when posing neutral or happy expressions, which did not differ. No effect of compensation instructions was found. In addition, independent ratings of four dimensions of the target persons' facial expression were obtained: pleasantness, surprise, intensity, and naturalness. Changes in these dimensions from the neutral to the happy and sad expressions and the corresponding changes in attractiveness were consistently related only to pleasantness supporting the reinforcement-affect theory of attraction. A second study related overall attractiveness to facial and bodily attractiveness. Both facial and bodily attractiveness were predictive of overall attractiveness, but the face was a slightly more powerful predictor. Results are discussed with respect to the stability of physical attractiveness, and alternative explanations of the mental-illness/physicalunattractiveness relation were proposed. This article is based on a thesis by the first author under the supervision of the fourth author submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the .roasters degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Assessing the What Is Beautiful Is Good Stereotype and the Influence of Moderately Attractive and Less Attractive Advertising Models on Self-Perception, Ad Attitudes, and Purchase Intentions of 8–13-Year-Old Children

“…Since previous research shows that the assessment of overall attractiveness strongly correlates to the assessment of the attractiveness of the face (Mueser et al 1984), we changed facial characteristics of the models. The models (one boy and one girl) used in this study were the same person in both the moderately attractive and less attractive ad, but were depicted as less attractive by changing some facial characteristics using Photoshop.…”

Asymmetric Effect of Expression Intensity on Evaluations of Facial Attractiveness

“…Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that this increased attractiveness of happy expressions is based on the reward system (O'Doherty et al, 2003; for a review, Phan, Wager, Taylor, & Liberzon, 2002). In contrast, negative expressions including sadness, anger, or disgust decrease attractiveness (Mueser, Grau, Sussman, & Rosen, 1984). …”

Concordant preferences for actual height and facial cues to height

“…These results indicate that faces and bodies have separate cues to attractiveness. Other studies have demonstrated that the face has a relatively greater impact than the body in judgments of overall attractiveness (Currie & Little, 2009;Mueser, Grau, Sussman, & Rosen, 1984;Peters et al, 2007), though this has not been replicated in all studies (Alicke, Smith, & Klotz, 1986). Together, these studies indicate that face and body cues have independent effects on overall attractiveness.…”

“…Here, we find that preferences for face cues to apparent height match preferences reported in the body height literature. While the relative impact of face cues to height and actual body height on attractiveness are not known, several studies have found that faces have a greater effect on attractiveness judgments than bodies (Currie & Little, 2009;Mueser et al, 1984;Peters et al, 2007). It is therefore likely that face cues to apparent height would impact perceived attractiveness even when actual body height is directly visible.…”