Rhodes Gillian, Jeffery Linda, Watson Tamara L, Clifford Colin W G, Nakayama Ken
University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
Psychol Sci. 2003 Nov;14(6):558-66. doi: 10.1046/j.0956-7976.2003.psci_1465.x.
Average faces are attractive, but what is average depends on experience. We examined the effect of brief exposure to consistent facial distortions on what looks normal (average) and what looks attractive. Adaptation to a consistent distortion shifted what looked most normal, and what looked most attractive, toward that distortion. These normality and attractiveness aftereffects occurred when the adapting and test faces differed in orientation by 90 degrees (+45 degrees vs. -45 degrees ), suggesting adaptation of high-level neurons whose coding is not strictly retino- topic. Our results suggest that perceptual adaptation can rapidly recalibrate people's preferences to fit the faces they see. The results also suggest that average faces are attractive because of their central location in a distribution of faces (i.e., prototypicality), rather than because of any intrinsic appeal of particular physical characteristics. Recalibration of preferences may have important consequences, given the powerful effects of perceived attractiveness on person perception, mate choice, social interactions, and social outcomes for individuals.
普通面孔具有吸引力，但何为普通取决于个人经验。我们研究了短暂接触一致的面部变形对正常（普通）面孔和有吸引力面孔认知的影响。对一致变形的适应会使看起来最正常和最有吸引力的面孔向该变形方向偏移。当适应面孔和测试面孔的朝向相差90度（+45度与-45度）时，会出现这些正常性和吸引力后效，这表明高级神经元的适应，其编码并非严格的视网膜拓扑编码。我们的研究结果表明，感知适应可以迅速重新校准人们的偏好，以使其与所见面孔相匹配。研究结果还表明，普通面孔具有吸引力是因为它们在面孔分布中处于中心位置（即原型性），而非因为特定身体特征具有任何内在吸引力。鉴于感知吸引力对个人的人物认知、配偶选择、社交互动和社会结果具有强大影响，偏好的重新校准可能会产生重要后果。
