the evolutionary psychology of facial beauty
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THE EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY OF FACIAL BEAUTY. by Gillian Rhodes 14.05.2013 Referee: Laura Broemer. Pro: No gold standard for facial beauty Darwin: large cultural differences in beautification practices. Contra: High agreement across cultures and between men and women on what is attractive - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
THE EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY OFFACIAL BEAUTY
by Gillian Rhodes14.05.2013Referee: Laura Broemer
Pro:• No gold standard for
facial beauty• Darwin: large cultural
differences in beautification practices
Is beauty a arbitrary cultural convention?
Contra:• High agreement
across cultures and between men and women on what is attractive
• Early preferences for attractive faces in babies
Two questions:1. What makes a face beautiful?- pleasant expression- Good grooming- Averageness- Fondness/affection- Youthfulness- Symmetry- Sexual dimorphism- ...
2. How did these preferences evolve?
Two questions:1. What makes a face beautiful?- pleasant expression- Good grooming- Averageness- Fondness/affection- Youthfulness- Symmetry- Sexual dimorphism- ...
2. How did these preferences evolve?
What makes a face beautiful:Averageness
• average trait values for a population
• High averageness low distinctiveness
Why Averageness is good:
• Signals mate quality• Reflects developmental stability and
heterozygosity increased disease resistance
• Functionally optimal
What is average, is beautiful:Pros• Computer-generated averaged
composites more attractive
What is average, is beautiful:Pros• Computer-generated averaged
composites more attractive
Cons• Composites not really
averages
What is average, is beautiful:Pros• Computer-generated averaged
composites more attractive • When controlled for enlarged
features still more attractive
Cons• Composites not really
averages
What is average, is beautiful:Pros• Computer-generated averaged
composites more attractive • When controlled for enlarged
features still more attractive
Cons• Composites not really
averages• Confounded with symmetry
What is average, is beautiful:Pros• Computer-generated averaged
composites more attractive • When controlled for enlarged
features still more attractive• Average profiles still more
attractive
Cons• Composites not really
averages• Confounded with symmetry
What is average, is beautiful:Pros• Computer-generated averaged
composites more attractive • When controlled for enlarged
features still more attractive• Average profiles still more
attractive• Attractiveness of individual
increases by moving their configurations toward an average configuration
Cons• Composites not really
averages• Confounded with symmetry
What makes a face beautiful:Symmetry
Why Symmetry is good:
• Might signal mate quality• Body asymmetries increase with
premature birth, psychosis and mental retardation
• Similar relationships for facial asymmetries?
What is symmetric, is beautiful:
Con• Normal faces
preferred to perfectly symmetric faces
Pro• perfectly symmetric
faces more attractive than the original faces
Explanation for these conflicting results?
What makes a face beautiful:Sexual Dimorphism
What makes a face beautiful:Sexual Dimorphism
Testosterone jaw, cheekbones, brow ridges, center of the face (from brow to bottom of nose), and facial hair
Estrogen lip size, smaller chin, higher cheekbones
Femininity
• composites of very attractive female faces have more feminine features and are preferred to more average composites
• Exaggeration of feminine features increases attractiveness
• when people generate beautiful female faces on a computer, they produce faces with more feminine traits than average
Masculinity
Masculinity• composite faces: more feminine male faces are more
attractive
• Two possible explanations
• Normal faces: masculinity correlates with attractiveness
• possible curvilinear connection between masculinity and attractiveness
• Women prefer more masculine faces during the fertile phase
adaptive preference for „good genes“?
How did these preferences evolve?
• Preferences enhance productive success• „Good genes“ model: attractive traits
mate quality offspring viability• Fisherian runaway selection (peacock
example)• „by products“ model
Attractiveness and Health• Weak associations between (male) attractiveness
and mental health, possibly immunocempetence, longevity, physical fitness and sperm quality
• Weak associations between health and averageness• Weak to no associations between health and
symmetry• Weak associations between health and sexual
dimorphism, but only for males!• Associations mostly driven by the faces below the
median in attractiveness
Explanation?
Summary and future directions
• Averageness, symmetry and sexual bimorphism are perceived as attractive
• Weak associations between attractiveness and health
• Experimental testing of immunocompetence: challenging the immune system
• Interaction between facial and body attractiveness?
• Individual preferences? Self-similarity?
Thank you for your attention!