PS4029/30
Perspectives on social
attributions
Lecture 6
Lecture 6: Averageness &
attractiveness
1. Evidence that averageness influences
attractiveness
2. Evolutionary advantage view of
averageness preferences
3. Perceptual bias account
4. Evidence against averageness accounts
of attraction
Galton & Averagenesss
Sir Francis Galton (early 1800’s
left) made composite ‘criminal’
faces to try and identify the
‘criminal type’
His colleagues remarked these
composite images were
“singularly beautiful”
Averageness & attractiveness
The more faces that contribute to an average
face (i.e. the more average it becomes), the
more attractive it is judged
3 face
average
10 face
average
unattractive
attractive
Langlois & Roggman, 1990
Infants prefer average faces
That babies and adults prefer average
faces suggests that averageness
preferences have a biological basis
DeHaan et al.
Are average faces only attractive
because they are symmetric?
Average faces tend towards high symmetry - the
attractiveness of average faces may reflect preferences
for symmetry
Valentine et al. (2004) investigated if increasing
the averageness of profile face views
increased their attractiveness
(i.e. increased averageness independent of symmetry)
Increasing averageness of profiles DID increase
attractiveness (even though no change in symmetry)
2. Evolutionary advantage view
of averageness preferences
Thornhill & Gangestad (1993) noted that genetic
heterozygosity may cause an average appearance and
is conducive with good health
Average faces may be attractive because they
signal health
Consistent with this, Rhodes et al. (2001) found that
women with average faces had fewer past health
problems than those with distinctive faces
3. Perceptual bias view of
averageness preferences
Average faces may be preferred as a by-product of the
visual system
Average faces are (by definition) prototypical and will
therefore be very similar to mental representations
used to process faces
This similarity to mental prototypes will cause
unfamiliar average faces to be perceived as familiar
Neural Networks & Perceptual Bias
• Computer programs trained on
stimuli for recognition
• Show that recognition training
can create preference
(recognition) for average
Enquist & Arak, 1994, Nature
Johnstone, 1994, Nature
Training Set
=
3. Perceptual bias view of
averageness preferences
Halberstadt & Rhodes (2000) - Evidence for a perceptual bias
account of averageness preferences
For both faces and watches the correlation between
averageness and attractiveness disappeared when the
effects of familiarity were controlled
As familiarity mediated preferences for average faces and
watches, Halberstadt and Rhodes concluded that
averageness preferences do not have an evolutionary basis
3. Perceptual adaptation and face
preferences
Rhodes et al (2003) - recent visual experience causes the
mental representation of faces to shift, influencing preferences
Viewing faces with a certain
trait (e.g. wide-spaced features)
Increases subsequent preferences
for novel faces with that trait
This may allow rapid on-line recalibration of perceptions
of familiarity (and therefore preferences)
4. Evidence against averageness
accounts of attraction
Perrett et al (1994) showed that very attractive faces
are not average
Average of 60
Average of
Most attractive
Hyper-attractive
What dimension might cause this? MASC-FEM
Lecture 6: Key themes
Average faces are more attractive than non-average
faces (even to infants, implying a biological basis)
Although averageness preferences could be either
due to bias in the visual system or because
averageness signals health, more evidence for
perceptual bias account
Although average faces are more attractive than nonaverage faces, very attractive faces deviate
systematically from an average configuration
Next week (Lecture 7)
Although average faces are typically attractive, highly
attractive faces appear to deviate from an average shape.
Increasing feminine characteristics in both male and female
faces increases their attractiveness (but moves the face shape
away from average).
This lecture will discuss the effects of sexual dimorphism on
facial attractiveness and how these relate to the evolutionary
advantage and perceptual bias views of face preferences. The
role of personality attributions in femininity preferences will
also be discussed.