求偶动机的心理效应

演化心理学认为人类的心理机能受到演化压力的塑造,性选择作为重要的演化动力因素,在人类心理机能的形成过程中扮演着重要角色。与性选择密切相连的求偶动机可以影响包括注意、知觉、记忆、决策及社会行为在内的一系列心理现象和行为,但求偶动机操控方法的混乱及研究过程中对文化和层级选择的忽视制约了这一领域工作的开展。进一步深化相关研究,以行为数据为基础,从神经、激素和基因层面建构立体的研究框架对于揭示背后机制有着重要作用。     

男性对女性面孔吸引力的认知偏好: 来自ERP的证据

运用事件相关电位(ERPs)技术, 采用学习-再认实验任务, 探讨了男性对有、无吸引力女性面孔图片进行判断和再认时脑内时程的动态变化。行为数据结果表明, 男性对有吸引力女性面孔的反应时更长, 再认正确率更高。ERP结果发现, 有、无吸引力面孔诱发的ERP早成分和晚成分都存在显著差异, 最强效应出现在大脑皮层的中前部。在判断任务和再认任务中, 有吸引力的女性面孔都比无吸引力的女性面孔诱发出更大的ERP成分(分别为N300、P350~550ms和P160、N300~500ms、P500~700ms)。结果表明, 男性对有吸引力的女性面孔的判断和再认存在偏好。     

Attractive memory: High destination memory for attractive faces

Research has demonstrated that destination memory (i.e., the ability to remember to whom information was previously told) can be influenced by characteristics (e.g., emotional expressions and age) of the destination. Building on this literature, we investigated whether destination memory can be influenced by the attractiveness of the destination. We invited participants to give information on attractive faces, unattractive faces, or neither‐attractive‐nor‐unattractive faces. On a recognition test, they were invited to decide to whom each piece of information had been previously told. Results demonstrated higher destination memory (1) for attractive faces than for neither‐attractive‐nor‐unattractive faces, and (2) for unattractive faces than for neither‐attractive‐nor‐unattractive faces. We attribute the higher destination memory for attractive and unattractive destinations to their distinctiveness compared with neutrally attractive destinations. We also provide some attentional explanations for the high memory for attractive and unattractive destinations.     

The effect of red on male perceptions of female attractiveness: Moderation by baseline attractiveness of female faces

Past research has demonstrated the importance of color in a variety of social contexts, including human mating. For example, red increases heterosexual men's feelings of attraction toward women. In the current work, this basic red‐attraction link is qualified by the initial attractiveness of female faces. In two experiments, red enhanced men's ratings of female attractiveness, but only for faces pre‐rated as attractive; red had no influence on perceptions of initially unattractive faces. Additionally, Experiment 1 manipulated how long participants viewed attractive and unattractive faces as an exploratory test of when color and face features are integrated. The findings show that initial female attractiveness moderates the influence of red on judgments of attractiveness even when the faces are viewed for extremely short exposures. The present findings identify an important boundary condition of the red‐attractiveness effect and provide an initial indication of where in the processing stream color impacts social judgments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beauty is in the ease of the beholding: A neurophysiological test of the averageness theory of facial attractiveness

Hundreds of studies have shown that people prefer attractive over unattractive faces. But what is an attractive face, and why is it preferred? Averageness theory claims that faces are perceived as being attractive when their facial configuration approximates the mathematical average facial configuration of the population. Conversely, faces that deviate from this average configuration are perceived as being unattractive. The theory predicts that both attractive and mathematically averaged faces should be processed more fluently than unattractive faces, whereas the averaged faces should be processed marginally more fluently than the attractive faces. We compared neurocognitive and behavioral responses to attractive, unattractive, and averaged human faces to test these predictions. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) and reaction times (RTs) from 48 adults while they discriminated between human and chimpanzee faces. The participants categorized averaged and high-attractive faces as being “human” faster than low-attractive faces. The posterior N170 (150–225 ms) face-evoked ERP component was smaller in response to high-attractive and averaged faces than to low-attractive faces. Single-trial electroencephalographic analysis indicated that this reduced ERP response arose from the engagement of fewer neural resources, and not from a change in the temporal consistency of how those resources were engaged. These findings provide novel evidence that faces are perceived as being attractive when they approximate a facial configuration close to the population average, and they suggest that processing fluency underlies preferences for attractive faces.     

Perception and Expressing Habits of Smiling and Angry Expressions Modulated by Facial Physical Attractiveness in Asian Female Persons

In this study, we investigated the effects of facial physical attractiveness on perception and expressing habit of smiling and angry expressions. In experiment 1, 20 participants rated 60 photo subjects’ smiling and angry expressions of uncontrolled physical expression configuration. The results showed that for the angry faces, the perceived expression intensity and the expression naturalness in the attractive group were significantly stronger than those in the unattractive group; for the smiling faces, this attractiveness bias was not observed. In experiment 2, using artificial expressions made by an identical expression template, interestingly, the perceived expression intensity and the expression naturalness of the smiling faces in the attractive group were stronger than those in the unattractive group, while the impression strength of anger between the two groups was approximately the same. A comparison of the two observations suggests that facial physical attractiveness can enhance the perceived intensity of a smiling expression but not an angry expression, and that the inconsistencies between the two experiments are due to the difference of expressing habits between unattractive and attractive persons. These results have implications as regards the effect of facial attractiveness on the expressing habits of expression senders and the person’s development of social skills.     

Adaptation reinforces preferences for correlates of attractive facial cues

It is generally thought that experience with faces recalibrates preferences to match the population average for recently encountered exemplars. Here, however, we demonstrate that viewing faces biases recalibration of preferences towards characteristics that are common to the more attractive faces that were encountered, rather than characteristics of the unbiased population average. Furthermore, this bias in recalibration of preferences was abolished when participants’ attention was directed away from the attractive faces, suggesting it is a consequence of the tendency to look longer and more often at attractive faces than at relatively unattractive faces. These findings suggest a perceptual mechanism that may reinforce directional selection for nonaverage attractive facial characteristics and their correlates, rather than driving stabilizing selection for average traits.     

Preference for attractive faces in human infants extends beyond conspecifics

Human infants, just a few days of age, are known to prefer attractive human faces. We examined whether this preference is human-specific. Three- to 4-month-olds preferred attractive over unattractive domestic and wild cat (tiger) faces (Experiments 1 and 3). The preference was not observed when the faces were inverted, suggesting that it did not arise from low-level image differences (Experiments 2 and 3). In addition, the spontaneous preference for attractive tiger faces influenced performance in a recognition memory task involving attractive versus unattractive tiger face pairings (Experiment 4). The findings suggest that infant preference for attractive faces reflects the activity of general processing mechanisms rather than a specific adaptation to mate choice.     

Origins of a stereotype: categorization of facial attractiveness by 6-month-old infants

Like adults, young infants prefer attractive to unattractive faces (e.g. Langlois, Roggman, Casey, Ritter, Rieser‐Danner & Jenkins, 1987 ; Slater, von der Schulenburg, Brown, Badenoch, Butterworth, Parsons & Samuels, 1998 ). Older children and adults stereotype based on facial attractiveness ( Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani & Longo, 1991 ; Langlois, Kalakanis, Rubenstein, Larson, Hallam & Smooth, 2000 ). How do preferences for attractive faces develop into stereotypes? Several theories of stereotyping posit that categorization of groups is necessary before positive and negative traits can become linked to the groups (e.g. Tajfel, Billig, Bundy & Flament, 1971 ; Zebrowitz‐McArthur, 1982 ). We investigated whether or not 6‐month‐old infants can categorize faces as attractive or unattractive. In Experiment 1, we familiarized infants to unattractive female faces; in Experiment 2, we familiarized infants to attractive female faces and tested both groups of infants on novel faces from the familiar or novel attractiveness category. Results showed that 6‐month‐olds categorized attractive and unattractive female faces into two different groups of faces. Experiments 3 and 4 confirmed that infants could discriminate among the faces used in Experiments 1 and 2, and therefore categorized the faces based on their similarities in attractiveness rather than because they could not differentiate among the faces. These findings suggest that categorization of facial attractiveness may underlie the development of the ‘beauty is good’ stereotype.     

Face likeability mediates the memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young but not older adults

Evidence of effects of face attractiveness on memory is mixed and little is known about the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Previous work suggests a possible mediating role of affective responding to faces (i.e., face likeability) on the relationship between face attractiveness and memory. Age-related change in social motivation may reduce the relevance of face attractiveness in older adults, with downstream effects on memory. In the present study, 50 young and 51 older participants were presented with face-trait pairs. Faces varied in attractiveness. Participants then completed a face-trait associative recognition memory task and provided likeability ratings for each face. There was a memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young (but not older) participants, which was partially mediated by face likeability. In addition, more attractive and less attractive (compared to moderately attractive) faces were more likely remembered by both young and older participants. This quadratic effect of face attractiveness on memory was not mediated by face likeability. Findings are discussed in the context of motivational influences on memory that vary with age.     

The effect of facial attractiveness on temporal perception

Previous research suggests that feelings of fear, dislike, shame and sadness affect our perception of duration (Droit-Volet et al., 2004; Gil et al., 2009). The current study sought to expand our understanding of the variables which moderate temporal perception by examining whether the attractiveness of a face influenced its perceived duration. Participants completed a verbal estimation task in which they judged the duration of attractive, unattractive and neutral faces. The results showed that participants underestimated the duration of unattractive faces relative to attractive and neutral faces. Estimates of unattractive faces were also less accurate than those of the attractive and neutral faces. The results are consistent with Gil et al.'s (2009) suggestion that the duration of disliked stimuli are underestimated relative to liked and neutral stimuli because they detract attention from temporal perception. Analysis of the slope and intercept of the estimation gradients supports Zakay and Block's (1997) suggestion that reduced attention to time results in a multiplicative underestimation of duration.     

Effects of physical attractiveness on evaluations of a male employee's allegation of sexual harassment by his female employer

College students (N = 324) served as mock jurors in a simulated civil case in which a male plaintiff accused a female defendant of sexual harassment. The authors experimentally manipulated the physical attractiveness of the litigants. The authors asked mock jurors to decide whether the defendant was guilty and to rate their certainty of belief in the defendant's guilt (or lack of guilt). Jurors were more certain of the guilt of the defendant when the plaintiff was attractive than when he was unattractive. Plaintiff attractiveness significantly affected female jurors' individual recommended verdicts when the defendant was unattractive but not when she was attractive. With male jurors, plaintiff attractiveness significantly affected their verdicts when the defendant was attractive but not when she was unattractive. Female jurors were more likely than male jurors to conclude that sexual harassment had taken place but only when the litigants were different in attractiveness.     

“Just another pretty face”: A multidimensional scaling approach to face attractiveness and variability

Findings on both attractiveness and memory for faces suggest that people should perceive more similarity among attractive than among unattractive faces. A multidimensional scaling approach was used to test this hypothesis in two studies. In Study 1, we derived a psychological face space from similarity ratings of attractive and unattractive Caucasian female faces. In Study 2, we derived a face space for attractive and unattractive male faces of Caucasians and non-Caucasians. Both studies confirm that attractive faces are indeed more tightly clustered than unattractive faces in people’s psychological face spaces. These studies provide direct and original support for theoretical assumptions previously made in the face space and face memory literatures.     

Seductive eyes: attractiveness and direct gaze increase desire for associated objects

Recent research in neuroscience shows that observing attractive faces with direct gaze is more rewarding than observing attractive faces with averted gaze. On the basis of this research, it was hypothesized that object evaluations can be enhanced by associating them with attractive faces displaying direct gaze. In a conditioning paradigm, novel objects were associated with either attractive or unattractive female faces, either displaying direct or averted gaze. An affective priming task showed more positive automatic evaluations of objects that were paired with attractive faces with direct gaze than attractive faces with averted gaze and unattractive faces, irrespective of gaze direction. Participants' self-reported desire for the objects matched the affective priming data. The results are discussed against the background of recent findings on affective consequences of gaze cueing.     

Age of face matters: Age-group differences in ratings of young and old faces

Young (n = 24) and old (n = 24) participants rated 160 faces of young and old individuals taken from the CAL/PAL Face Database (Minear & Park, 2004) with regard to attractiveness, likeability, distinctiveness, goal orientation, energy, mood, and age. Ratings are reported for each face separately. Further analyses showed that the age groups differed in their ratings of young and old faces. On average, old participants evaluated the faces as more positive (i.e., more attractive, more energetic) than did young participants. In line with research on a negative aging stereotype, old faces were judged as less positive than young faces. They were, for instance, seen as less attractive, less likeable, less distinctive, less growth-oriented, and less energetic. The findings of the present study can serve as a basis for the selection of appropriate facial stimuli in age-comparative studies of face perception, face processing, or memory for faces. All face-specific data are archived at www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

君子不夺人所好？择偶动机启动下的男性择偶复制

考察择偶动机启动下男女的择偶复制发生情况,及目标面孔吸引力对男性择偶复制的调节作用。结果：(1)女性易发生择偶复制;(2)男性的择偶复制会受择偶动机启动的影响,但这种影响仅限于目标面孔吸引力处于中、低水平时。结论：男性在特定情景中可发生择偶复制,这是更为复杂的、经多种信息评估的结果。     

Emotional Responses to Disfigured Faces: The Influences of Perceived Anonymity,Empathy, and Disgust Sensitivity

Two experiments investigated self-reported emotional reactions to photographs of people with attractive, unattractive, or structurally disfigured faces. In Experiment 1, participants viewing disfigured faces reported raised levels of sorrow and curiosity but not raised levels of negative emotions. In Experiment 2, there was more negative emotion and less positive emotion reported under conditions of relatively high anonymity, compared to low anonymity, specific to disfigured faces, suggesting that self-reports are influenced by social desirability. Trait empathy was associated with sorrow and negative emotions when viewing disfigured faces. Disgust sensitivity was associated with negative emotions and inversely associated with positive emotions.     

How facial attractiveness affects sustained attention

The present study investigated whether and how facial attractiveness affects sustained attention. We adopted a multiple‐identity tracking paradigm, using attractive and unattractive faces as stimuli. Participants were required to track moving target faces amid distractor faces and report the final location of each target. In Experiment 1, the attractive and unattractive faces differed in both the low‐level properties (i.e., luminance, contrast, and color saturation) and high‐level properties (i.e., physical beauty and age). The results showed that the attractiveness of both the target and distractor faces affected the tracking performance: The attractive target faces were tracked better than the unattractive target faces; when the targets and distractors were both unattractive male faces, the tracking performance was poorer than when they were of different attractiveness. In Experiment 2, the low‐level properties of the facial images were equalized. The results showed that the attractive target faces were still tracked better than unattractive targets while the effects related to distractor attractiveness ceased to exist. Taken together, the results indicate that during attentional tracking the high‐level properties related to the attractiveness of the target faces can be automatically processed, and then they can facilitate the sustained attention on the attractive targets, either with or without the supplement of low‐level properties. On the other hand, only low‐level properties of the distractor faces can be processed. When the distractors share similar low‐level properties with the targets, they can be grouped together, so that it would be more difficult to sustain attention on the individual targets.     

女性面孔吸引力的加工及其对男性诚实道德行为的影响:一项ERP研究

研究考察了不同女性面孔吸引力情境对男性被试诚实道德决策行为的影响,同时采用ERP技术对社会情境中面孔吸引力的信息加工方式特点进行探究。结果发现,高面孔吸引力记录员情境中被试倾向更加真实地报告自己的预测结果而表现出更多诚实的道德决策;ERP结果则发现高吸引力记录员面孔较之于低吸引力记录员面孔在反应提示界面在大脑中后部诱发更大的早期N200成分。结果提示,在与面孔审美评价无关的社会情境中个体面孔的吸引力信息能够被快速识别与自动化加工,同时也会直接促进他人自身的道德行为水平。