Is less more? : effects of race and information shortage on facial attractiveness

Dissertação de mestrado, Psicologia (Área de especialização em Cognição Social Aplicada), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia, 2021Facial attractiveness pertains a crucial role in social interaction, with attractive people being, generally, preferred and highly perceived comparatively to unattractive individuals. Contradicting the maxim beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, literature has enlightened an apparent crosscultural and cross-ethnicity agreement regarding attractiveness, suggesting a possible inherited universal beauty standard. Even though the exact features affecting attractiveness remain in debate, race and information shortage appear to have an influence, with White individuals perceived as more attractive than Black individuals, and Incomplete faces having higher attractiveness. In this thesis, the main goal was to further investigate the role of both variables. Therefore, we conducted a study in which people were divided in two conditions, Original (complete faces) and Mosaic (faces missing 1/3 of the information), and had to rate the attractiveness of White and Black faces of both genders. Our results replicated previous findings, with participants preferring White faces and Incomplete faces. Besides cultural and historical influences on racial bias, we propose a prototypicality account as the underlying mechanism for our results, suggesting that a more developed facial prototype leads to a higher attractiveness of White faces, and the holistic representation of incomplete faces using a facial prototype, more attractive than the original face, as the reason of the shortage information preference. We also found an unexpected gender effect, with women perceived as more attractive than men, that needs further study. Limitations and ideas for future studies are also disclosed.A maneira como interpretamos o mundo depende muito das nossas percepções, nomeadamente a maneira como percepcionamos os que nos rodeiam, as pessoas com quem nos cruzamos no nosso dia a dia, sejam estas estranhas ou conhecidas. Em relação à percepção, uma das principais fontes de estímulos e de informação são as faces (Leopold & Rhodes, 2010; Todorov & Oosterhof, 2011), e, em particular, a sua atratividade. A atratividade possui um papel crucial nas interações humanas, influenciando inferências, julgamentos e opiniões formados pelos indivíduos (Lewis, 2012). Na verdade, desde pequenas, as pessoas são capazes de discriminar faces atrativas de faces não atrativas, demonstrando uma preferência pelas primeiras (e.g., Langlois et al., 1987). A preferência por faces atrativas é demonstrada pela emergência de um beauty-is-good effect: pessoas atraentes são percepcionadas de forma mais positiva (e.g., qualidades sociais, sucesso na vida) e possuem vantagens em diversas áreas (e.g., mercado de trabalho) (Dermer & Thiel, 1975; Dion et al., 1972, Hamermesh & Biddle, 1994). É portanto importante, de forma a estarmos mais conscientes dos vieses que podem influenciar os nossos comportamentos e julgamentos, procurar um melhor entendimento relativamente às características que fazem uma pessoa ser percepcionada como atrativa ou não atrativa. Atualmente, existe ainda algum debate sobre quais as características que influenciam a atratividade de uma pessoa e/ou a magnitude da sua influência. Contudo, a literatura indica uma concordância entre diferentes culturas e etnias em relação à atratividade facial (Langlois et al., 2000), sugerindo a existência de visões semelhantes e partilhadas dentro e entre cultura relativamente a atributos atrativos. Estes resultados parecem indicar a existência de um padrão de beleza universal com um caráter mais inato, não adquirido somente por meio da cultura e da socialização (Langlois et al., 1987). Em particular, dois factores que aparentam influenciar a atratividade são a raça e falta de informação facial. Indivíduos Brancos tendem a ser percepcionados como mais atrativos do que indivíduos Negros (Bernstein et al., 1982; Cross & Cross, 1971), e faces incompletas consideradas mais atraentes do que as faces originais completas (Orghian & Hidalgo, 2020; Sadr & Krowicki, 2019; Sevilla & Meyer, 2020). A presente dissertação tem como objetivo estudar com mais detalhe o impacto da raça e da falta de informação na atratividade facial. De forma a atingir os objetivos mencionados, conduzimos uma experiência na qual os participantes tiveram de avaliar a atratividade das faces exibidas numa escala de 1 (“Nada atrativo) a 100 (“Muito atrativo). Os participantes foram divididos em duas condições: a Original, na qual as fotos exibidas apresentavam a informação completa, e a Mosaico, na qual um terço da informação facial tinha sido aleatoriamente retirada (de forma a minimizar potenciais influências do tipo de informação retirado na atratividade). Exceto as diferenças no tipo de informação exibido (Original ou Mosaic), todos os participantes observaram as mesmas fotos correspondentes a faces Brancas e Negras de ambos os géneros (masculino e feminino). Os resultados obtidos demonstram que os participantes atribuem uma maior atratividade a faces Brancas comparativamente a faces Negras, replicando resultados observados noutros estudos e fornecendo evidências de um possível viés racial. Uma possível explicação para este efeito é a prototipicidade facial, que representa a configuração média de uma população de faces, e depende da experiência perceptiva e do contexto cultural (Rhodes et al., 2003). Uma vez que Portugal é um país cuja população é maioritariamente Branca, os indivíduos podem possuir um maior expertise para caras Brancas, devido a uma maior experiência perceptiva relativamente às mesmas, resultando na formação de um protótipo mais desenvolvido para este tipo de faces. Consequentemente, isto permitiria que compreendessem melhor quais as pistas faciais importantes, mesmo que inconscientemente, para a realização dos julgamentos de atratividade, levando a uma maior atratividade das faces Brancas comparativamente às faces Negras, para as quais os indivíduos não teriam um protótipo tão desenvolvido (Coetzee et al., 2014). Adicionalmente, a interação entre a condição e raça fornece mais evidências relativamente a um possível papel da prototipicidade. Nas faces que não continham toda a informação (condição Mosaico), a preferência por caras Caucasianas possuiu uma magnitude maior. Quando a informação facial não está completa, o processamento holístico não é interrompido (Sadr & Krowicki, 2019), ocorrendo, possivelmente, o uso das representações faciais prototípicas dessa categoria para as completar (Orghian & Hidalgo, 2020). Uma vez que caras prototípicas são atrativas, o recurso às mesmas para completar as faces incompletas, faria estas novas versões mais atrativas do que as originais. Os indivíduos, ao possuírem um protótipo mais desenvolvido para caras Caucasianas, levaria a um aumento da magnitude do efeito do enviesamento racial na condição Mosaico. De facto, não houve diferenças significativas na atratividade das caras Africanas nas duas condições, possivelmente pelos participantes não possuírem um protótipo tão desenvolvido para estas faces. Um outro factor que pode influenciar o viés racial tem a sua origem no colonialismo (de Casanova, 2004; Miller, 1969), na escravatura e na opressão racial (Hill, 2002). O nosso estudo foi realizado com uma amostra portuguesa e, historicamente, Portugal foi um país colonizador, possuindo colónias no continente africano durante um largo período de tempo. Mais concretamente, a independência dessas colónias só foi obtida em 1975, depois de uma Guerra Colonial que durou de 1961 a 1974 (Infopédia, n.d.). Devido a tal, pode existir ainda alguma influência deste período colonial nos julgamentos e estereótipos da população portuguesa. De facto, um estudo de Araújo et al. (2016) demonstrou que Portugal é um país no qual as mulheres Negras são associadas a estereótipos negativos, enquanto as mulheres Brancas são alvo de um enviesamento positivo. Adicionalmente, crianças portuguesas, entre os cinco e os oito anos, aparentam possuir enviesamentos pro-white/anti-black e pro-light-skinned (Neto & Williams, 1997). Relativamente às inferências realizadas quando existe falta de informação facial, replicaram-se os resultados de estudos anteriores, com as caras incompletas a serem percepcionadas como mais atrativas. Novamente, propomos a hipótese da prototipicidade como um possível mecanismo para os efeitos observados: uma vez que a prototipicidade está associado à atratividade, a representação holística das faces incompletas com recurso ao protótipo da categoria facial, levaria a um aumento da atratividade das faces incompletas relativamente às faces originais completas. Adicionalmente, obtivemos um efeito inesperado do género da face na atratividade, com as mulheres a serem percepcionadas como significativamente mais atrativas. Devido a limitações da amostra, não foi possível explorar possíveis explicações para este efeito (e.g., own gender bias, ingroup bias, medo de associações homossexuais). Concluindo, neste estudo observámos uma preferência por caras Brancas a nível da atratividade facial. Este efeito foi mais significativo quando a informação facial era incompleta. Adicionalmente, replicámos os resultados de Orghian e Hidalgo (2020) e fornecemos mais evidências para um possível papel da prototipicidade como mecanismo subjacente à maior atratividade de faces que não possuem toda a informação. Relativamente à presente dissertação, também é importante denotar que a mesma possui limitações, nomeadamente a nível da amostra e da generalização de resultados, que podem ser mitigadas em estudos futuros. Por exemplo, uma amostra com números significativos de homens e mulheres e a recolha de informação relativamente à etnia dos participantes, permitiria explorar o efeito do género da face na atratividade. Adicionalmente, recorrer a faces de diferentes etnias ou que variem na sua tipicidade a nível categorial também permitiria uma melhor compreensão de possíveis influências da prototipicidade e da falta de informação na atratividade

Analysis and Construction of Engaging Facial Forms and Expressions: Interdisciplinary Approaches from Art, Anatomy, Engineering, Cultural Studies, and Psychology

The topic of this dissertation is the anatomical, psychological, and cultural examination of a human face in order to effectively construct an anatomy-driven 3D virtual face customization and action model. In order to gain a broad perspective of all aspects of a face, theories and methodology from the fields of art, engineering, anatomy, psychology, and cultural studies have been analyzed and implemented. The computer generated facial customization and action model were designed based on the collected data. Using this customization system, culturally-specific attractive face in Korean popular culture, “kot-mi-nam (flower-like beautiful guy),” was modeled and analyzed as a case study. The “kot-mi-nam” phenomenon is overviewed in textual, visual, and contextual aspects, which reveals the gender- and sexuality-fluidity of its masculinity. The analysis and the actual development of the model organically co-construct each other requiring an interwoven process. Chapter 1 introduces anatomical studies of a human face, psychological theories of face recognition and an attractive face, and state-of-the-art face construction projects in the various fields. Chapter 2 and 3 present the Bezier curve-based 3D facial customization (BCFC) and Multi-layered Facial Action Model (MFAF) based on the analysis of human anatomy, to achieve a cost-effective yet realistic quality of facial animation without using 3D scanned data. In the experiments, results for the facial customization for gender, race, fat, and age showed that BCFC achieved enhanced performance of 25.20% compared to existing program Facegen , and 44.12% compared to Facial Studio. The experimental results also proved the realistic quality and effectiveness of MFAM compared with blend shape technique by enhancing 2.87% and 0.03% of facial area for happiness and anger expressions per second, respectively. In Chapter 4, according to the analysis based on BCFC, the 3D face of an average kot-mi-nam is close to gender neutral (male: 50.38%, female: 49.62%), and Caucasian (66.42-66.40%). Culturally-specific images can be misinterpreted in different cultures, due to their different languages, histories, and contexts. This research demonstrates that facial images can be affected by the cultural tastes of the makers and can also be interpreted differently by viewers in different cultures

A neural marker for social bias toward in-group accents

Accents provide information about the speaker's geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic background. Research in applied psychology and sociolinguistics suggests that we generally prefer our own accent to other varieties of our native language and attribute more positive traits to it. Despite the widespread influence of accents on social interactions, educational and work settings the neural underpinnings of this social bias toward our own accent and, what may drive this bias, are unexplored. We measured brain activity while participants from two different geographical backgrounds listened passively to 3 English accent types embedded in an adaptation design. Cerebral activity in several regions, including bilateral amygdalae, revealed a significant interaction between the participants' own accent and the accent they listened to: while repetition of own accents elicited an enhanced neural response, repetition of the other group's accent resulted in reduced responses classically associated with adaptation. Our findings suggest that increased social relevance of, or greater emotional sensitivity to in-group accents, may underlie the own-accent bias. Our results provide a neural marker for the bias associated with accents, and show, for the first time, that the neural response to speech is partly shaped by the geographical background of the listener

The influence of angry customer outbursts on service providers’ facial displays and affective states

This article explores the existence and extent of emotional contagion, as measured by facial displays and reported affective states, in a service failure event. Using video vignettes of customers complaining about a service failure as stimulus material, the authors measured the facial displays and affective states of service providers as proxies for emotional contagion. Following a two-step approach, service providers’ facial expressions were first recorded and assessed, revealing that service providers’ facial displays matched those of the angry consumer. Second, a mixed ANOVA revealed service providers reported stronger negative affective states after exposure to an angry complaint than prior to exposure. The results demonstrated that during a complaint situation, angry outbursts by consumers can initiate the emotional contagion process, and service providers are susceptible to “catch” consumer anger through emotional contagion. Implications for complaint management and future research are discussed

Colorism Bias In Hiring Decisions: Disentangling The Effects Of Hair Type And Skin Tone

Studies on colorism bias are prevalent, but there exists a gap in the literature regarding how this construct operates within organizational contexts (Marira & Mitra, 2013). The current research explores colorism bias in organizational hiring decisions, considering both hair type and skin tone as physical markers which influence the enactment of colorism biases; as well as investigating the mediating effect of racial identity strength and attractiveness of the applicant, and moderating effects of job type. In a quasi-experimental design, participants viewed a Black female job applicant being considered for either a blue or white collar job, with varying degrees of Afrocentricity of skin tone and hair type. Conditional analyses suggest that the relationship between both skin tone and hair type with selection decisions is fully mediated by the perceived attractiveness of Black women applicants; but perceived racial identity strength of the applicant and job type were not significant. A discussion of theoretical and practical implications of the findings, and thoughts on future directions of colorism theory, are addressed

Women with Facial Disfigurements: Impact of Media-Constructed Images of Beauty

WOMEN WITH FACIAL DISFIGUREMENTS: IMPACT OF MEDIA-CONSTRUCTED IMAGES OF BEAUTY by Sophia M. Papadopoulos The purpose of this study was to analyze whether women with congenital or acquired facial disfigurements were negatively influenced by the images of beauty found in television, magazines, newspapers, and advertisements and to determine how these images affected their overall perceptions of self. A qualitative study was conducted through in-depth telephone interviews with 25 women with various facial disfigurements. The study showed that, although media-constructed images of beauty did have some influence on the participants\u27 overall perceptions of self, other factors such as the manner in which the participants were treated, their own personal insecurities about their appearance, and their life-experiences growing up and living with facial disfigurements were found to have had a greater influence on their self-esteem, self-worth, and overall perceptions of self

Does facial physiognomy in the context of anoccupational safety and health message predict outcomes?

Physiognomy, the practice of looking to another person’s outward facial appearance to unmask the inner character of that person, has had a diverse historical impact within art, medicine, theology, anthropology, law, criminology, political history, psychology, psychiatry, and popular culture, since it was conceptualised in Greece during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C (Physiognomy, 1999-2009, 2009a). Aristotle, the prominent Greek philosopher, penned many chapters on physiognomic properties and touched upon strength/weakness, genius/stupidity, and other trait characteristics and their opposites in so far as such characteristics were associated with facial form (Physiognomy, 2006, 2009b). In more modern times, facial recognition and evaluation of faces is seen as a function of evolution that has significance with regard to approach/avoidance behaviour (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008). These authors found that evaluation of emotionally neutral faces can be explained by judgements of two traits, facial trustworthiness and facial dominance, and that these traits can be related to the facial expressions for happy and angry, respectively. Evidence from advertising, psychological, and neurobiological experiments show that facial physiognomy, the concept that a person’s character can be revealed from their facial features, influences cognitive and emotional judgements. The belief is that people possess the ability to read the character of another person from facial expressions and facial appearance. People make trait judgements based on facial physiognomy (Highfield, Wiseman, & Jenkins, 2009). The exploration of facial physiognomy is an ever increasing endeavour, particularly when people make social judgements to infer another person’s ability to harm or the ability to cause harm (Oosterhof & Toderov, 2009; Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008). In this mixed method study, computer software was used to morph the facial physiognomy of an endorser, actor, model or spokesperson as shown in the context of an occupational safety and health promotional message. This study endeavoured to establish to what extent facial presentation, and the evaluation thereof, influences the effectiveness of health promotional images. Five versions of facial physiognomy were explored along trustworthy/untrustworthy and dominant/passive dimensions. The advertising believability scale was utilised as a primary measure of advertisement validity (Beltramini, 1988). For comparison purposes Ohanian’s (1990) source-credibility scale for evaluating endorser attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise was also utilised as a measuring instrument. Endorser dominance was measured with the perceived dominance scale (Manusov, 2005). Qualitative data was collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews to analyse the process of endorser selection. Transcribed interviews were coded and thematically analysed. These data were considered particularly useful to inform the creative strategy of marketing professionals in the development of visual domain advertising. Quantitative data was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire designed to measure recall of a safety message, agreement with the message, the likelihood of practicing the behaviours presented in the message, and belief of the information presented in the message. Quantitative data were analysed utilising descriptive statistics, advanced parametric statistics, tables, figures and graphs. Data from both qualitative and quantitative sources were compared and interpreted as a whole; juxtaposed against underlying theory. This study contributes new knowledge to occupational safety and health promotion by examining endorser facial graphics in creative artwork and gauging messages effectiveness in light of the facial representation. The research has utility for academics, advertising, marketing, health promotion, and occupational safety and health practitioners involved in the development of promotional materials through evidence-based practices, endorser selection, image enhancement, and advertising awareness. An original and significant contribution will be made to the occupational safety and health literature

Reading the face of a leader: women with low facial masculinity are perceived as competitive

In competitive settings, people prefer leaders with masculine faces. But is facial masculinity a trait that is similarly desired in men and women leaders? Across three studies, we discovered that people indeed prefer men and women leaders who have faces with masculine traits. But surprisingly, we find that people also prefer women with low facial masculinity as leaders in competitive contexts (Study 1). Our findings indicate that low facial masculinity in women, but not in men is perceived to indicate competitiveness (Study 2). Thus, in contrast to men, women leaders who rate high in facial masculinity as well as those low in facial masculinity are both selected as leaders in competitive contexts. Indeed, among CEOs of S&P 500 companies, we find a greater range of facial masculinity amongwomen CEOs than among men CEOs (Study 3). Our results suggest that traits of facial masculinity in men and women are interpreted differently. Low facial masculinity in women is linked to competitiveness and not only to cooperativeness as suggested by prior research

African American and Caucasian males\u27 evaluation of racialized female facial averages

The answer to what makes a face attractive has been debated for generations and studied in different disciplines. The current study investigated African American and Caucasian males\u27 evaluation (attraction) to racialized female faces. Faces varied from 100% African American to 100% Caucasian (and included variations that were 25% of either group, or 50% of both groups). Twenty African American and 30 Caucasian men each viewed ten faces, and evaluated them in terms of their appearance and the likelihood that the men would interact with (befriend, date, or marry) the person pictured. Findings revealed that African American men found the 100% African American face attractive (and more positive in other respects), with decreasing evaluations for the 75%, 50% and 25% African American faces. African American men evaluated the 100% Caucasian face more positively than the mixed race faces. White men, in contrast, viewed the 100% African American face as least attractive (and least favorable in other respects), and the Caucasian face most attractive (and favorable). Findings were discussed in terms of the significance for stereotyping, attractiveness, race relations, and future research