Effects of symmetry and familiarity on the attractiveness of human faces (original) (raw)
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Testing the effects of the familiarity and symmetry in facial attractiveness
2016
The effects of both symmetry (perceptual factor) and familiarity (cognitive factor) on facial attractiveness were investigated. From the photographs of original slightly asymmetric faces, symmetric left-left (LL) and right-right (RR) versions were generated. Familiarity was induced in the learning block using the repetitive presentation of original faces. In the test block participants rated the attractiveness of original, previously seen (familiar) faces, original, not previously seen faces, and both LL and RR versions of all faces. The analysis of variance showed main effects of symmetry. Post hoc tests revealed that asymmetric original faces were rated as more attractive than both LL and RR symmetric versions. Familiarity doesn't have a significant main effect, but the symmetry-familiarity interaction was obtained. Additional post hoc tests indicated that facial attractiveness is positively associated with natural slight asymmetry rather than with perfect symmetry. Also, unfamiliar LL symmetric versions were rated as more attractive than familiar LL versions, whereas familiar RR versions were rated as more attractive than RR unfamiliar faces. These results suggested that symmetry (perceptual factor) and familiarity (cognitive or memorial factor) play differential roles in facial attractiveness, and indicate a relatively stronger effect of the perceptual compared to the cognitive factor.
Symmetry and human facial attractiveness
Evolution and human …, 1999
Symmetry may act as a marker of phenotypic and genetic quality and is preferred during mate selection in a variety of species. Measures of human body symmetry correlate with attractiveness, but studies manipulating human face images report a preference for asymmetry. These results may reflect unnatural feature shapes and changes in skin textures introduced by image processing. When the shape of facial features is varied (with skin textures held constant), increasing symmetry of face shape increases ratings of attractiveness for both male and female faces. These findings imply facial symmetry may have a positive impact on mate selection in humans.
The influence of symmetry on children’s judgments of facial attractiveness
Perception, 2013
In experiment 1, we examined developmental changes in the influence of symmetry on judgments of attractiveness by showing adults and children pairs of individual faces in which one face was transformed 75% toward perfect symmetry, while the other face was transformed by exaggerating its asymmetries by 75%. Adults and 9-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, rated the more symmetric faces as more attractive than the less symmetric faces, although the effect was stronger in adults than 9-yearolds. The preference for symmetry was stronger for male than female faces, and stronger for adults' than children's faces. In experiment 2, comparisons of the symmetry of the original male and female faces revealed no measured differences but lower ratings by adults of symmetry in the male faces. Overall, the results suggest that the influence of symmetry on attractiveness judgments emerges after the age of 5 years, and matures after the age of 9 years. The stronger effects for adult viewers may reflect an increase in sensitivity to symmetry as experience with faces increases and/or as the visual system matures. As well, attractiveness may become more salient after puberty, so that honest signals of mate quality, such as symmetry, have a stronger effect for adult viewers, especially when judging adult faces.
Facial symmetry and the perception of beauty
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1998
Evolutionary, as well as cultural, pressures may contribute to our perceptions of facial attractiveness. Biologists predict that facial symmetry should be attractive, because it may signal mate quality. We tested the prediction that facial symmetry is attractive by manipulating the symmetry of individual faces and observing the effect on attractiveness, and by examining whether natural variations in symmetry (between faces) correlated with perceived attractiveness. Attractiveness increased when we increased symmetry, and decreased when we reduced symmetry, in individual faces (Experiment 1), and natural variations in symmetry correlated significantly with attractiveness (Experiments 1 and lA). Perfectly symmetric versions, made by blending the normal and mirror images of each face, were preferred to less symmetric versions of the same faces (even when those versions were also blends) (Experiments 1 and 2). Similar results were found when subjects judged the faces on appeal as a potential life partner, suggesting that facial symmetry may affect human mate choice. We conclude that facial symmetry is attractive and discuss the possibility that this preference for symmetry may be biologically based. The question of what makes a face attractive, and whether our preferences come from culture or biology, has fascinated scholars for centuries. Variation in the ideals of beauty across societies and historical periods suggests that standards of beauty are set by cultural convention. Recent evidence challenges this view, however, with infants as young as 2 months of age preferring to look at faces that adults find attractive (Langlois et aI., 1987), and people from different cultures showing considerable agreement about which faces are attractive (Cunningham, Roberts, Wu, Barbee, & Omen, 1995; Jones & Hill, 1993; see Langlois & Roggman, 1990, for a review). These findings raise the possibility that some standards of beauty may be set by nature rather than culture. Consistent with this view, specific preferences have been identified that appear to be part of our biological rather than our social heritage (
Annals of Plastic Surgery, 2007
Symmetry is thought to be a major prerequisite for an attractive face. Many faces are not symmetric, yet are still regarded as beautiful. What role, then, does asymmetry play in the perception of beauty? We studied the assessment of computer-manipulated images by independent judges (n ϭ 200 -250): part A: nevi located at different positions; part B: standardized changes of the orbital region. The results showed that slight lateral orbital and facial asymmetry does not impair attractiveness at all and that asymmetries close to the midline are significantly less attractive than those affecting the lateral aspect of the face (P Ͻ 0.001). A single nevus which is located laterally on the face is significantly more attractive than a nevus close to the midline (P Ͻ 0.001). Faces with a completely symmetric bilateral pair of nevi in the same lateral positions (perceived as attractive when alone), received the worst ratings (P Ͻ 0.001). Symmetry is a characteristic of the attractive face, but there are exceptions to the rule. Under certain conditions symmetry can be completely unattractive. The visual impact of symmetry on the perception of beauty increases significantly when approaching the midline.
The role of symmetry in attraction to average faces
Perception & Psychophysics, 2007
Although many studies have demonstrated that average faces tend to be attractive, few studies have examined the extent to which symmetry contributes to the attractiveness of average faces. Such studies are potentially important, however, because average faces are highly symmetric and increasing the symmetry of face images increases their attractiveness. Here we demonstrate that increasing averageness of 2-D face shape independently of symmetry is sufficient to increase attractiveness, indicating that preferences for symmetry cannot solely explain the attractiveness of average faces. Additionally, we show that averageness preferences are significantly weaker when the effects of symmetry are controlled for using computer graphic methods than when the effects of symmetry are not controlled for, suggesting that symmetry contributes to the attractiveness of average faces. Importantly, this latter finding was not explained by the greater perceived similarity between versions of faces that varied in averageness, but not symmetry, than between versions of faces that varied in both averageness and symmetry.
2016
iii There is strong agreement among adults both within and across cultures as to which faces are attractive (Langlois et al., 2000), and these perceptions can affect social interactions via the ‘beauty is good ’ stereotype (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). Adults perceive faces that are symmetrical to be more attractive than faces that are less symmetrical (Perrett et al., 1999), and faces that approximate the population average to be more attractive than most other faces (Langlois & Roggman, 1990). I examined the development of the influence of symmetry and averageness on children’s judgments of facial attractiveness in the faces of children and adults. In the work presented in chapters 2 and 3, I presented children and adults with pairs of faces that had been transformed to be more symmetrical and less symmetrical (chapter 2) or closer and farther from their group average (chapter 3). On each trial, participants selected which face was more attractive from the pair. I found that...
Appearance of symmetry, beauty, and health in human faces
Brain and Cognition, 2005
Symmetry is an important concept in biology, being related to mate selection strategies, health, and survival of species. In human faces, the relevance of left-right symmetry to attractiveness and health is not well understood. We compared the appearance of facial attractiveness, health, and symmetry in three separate experiments. Participants inspected front views of faces on the computer screen and judged them on a 5-point scale according to their attractiveness in Experiment 1, health in Experiment 2, and symmetry in Experiment 3. We found that symmetry and attractiveness were not strongly related in faces of women or men while health and symmetry were related. There was a significant difference between attractiveness and symmetry judgments but not between health and symmetry judgments. Moreover, there was a significant difference between attractiveness and health. Facial symmetry may be critical for the appearance of health but it does not seem to be critical for the appearance of attractiveness, not surprisingly perhaps because human faces together with the human brain have been shaped by adaptive evolution to be naturally asymmetrical.
Computer graphic studies of the role of facial similarity in judgements of attractiveness
Current Psychology, 1999
Anecdotally, spouses are often said to resemble one another. This study investigates the effects of similarity between participants and stimuli on judgements of facial attractiveness: does "like prefer like"? Using computer graphic techniques, opposite sex facial stimuli were generated from subjects' photographs. Experiment 1 showed a correlation between attractiveness and similarity but the effect can be explained by the attractiveness of average faces. Beyond this, there was a trend for individual subjects to rate opposite sex images with a similar face shape to their own face as more attractive than other subjects. Experiment 2 allowed subjects to interactively manipulate an opposite sex facial image along a continuum from a self-similar shape, through an average face shape, to a face with opposite characteristics. No significant preferences for self-similar or opposite characteristics were found. Preferences for average faces are stronger than preferences for self-similar faces. Cross-population studies indicate that facial attractiveness reflects features that indicate good genetic quality, reproductive potential, and the likelihood of pro-social parenting behaviours, not arbitrary cultural values (Perrett et al., 1994; Jones 1995; Perrett et al., 1998). Selection pressures operate against extreme genotypes, leading to the hypothesis that facial attractiveness is "averageness" (Symons, 1979). Composite faces with average features are judged as more attractive than the individual faces from which they are constructed (Langlois and Roggman, 1990; Grammer and Thornhill, 1994). These average faces, although attractive, can be improved upon (Perrett et al., 1994). "Good genes" theories predict that symmetrical, exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics will be found attractive in faces as they indicate developmental stability and immunocompetence in males and youth and fertility in females (Thornhill and Gangestad, 1996). Whilst symmetry is attractive (Grammer and Thornhill, 1994), exaggerated facial secondary sexual characteristics are not always preferred. Recent studies have shown that, although female faces that are artificially feminised are considered more attractive than average faces, masculinised male faces are not (Perrett et al., 1998). In fact, feminised male faces are preferred, possibly due to negative personality characteristics attributed to very masculine faces. Despite cross-subject and cross-population agreement in judgements of attractiveness, individual differences exist in such preferences. One factor that may lead to such
Are average facial configurations attractive only because of their symmetry?
Psychological Science, 1999
Several commentators have suggested that the attractiveness of average facial configurations could be due solely to associated changes in symmetry. If this symmetry hypothesis is correct, then averageness should not account for significant variance in attractiveness ratings when the effect of symmetry is partialed out. Furthermore, changes in attractiveness produced by manipulating the averageness of individual faces should disappear when all the images are made perfectly symmetric. The experiments reported support neither prediction. Symmetry and averageness (or distinctiveness, the converse of averageness) made independent contributions to attractiveness (Experiments 1 and 2), and changes in attractiveness resulting from changes in averageness remained when the images were made perfectly symmetric (Experiment 2). These results allow us to reject the symmetry hypothesis, and strengthen the evidence that facial averageness is attractive.