Department of Psychology, University of York, , York YO10 5DD, UK.
Biol Lett. 2013 Dec 4;9(6):20130633. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0633. Print 2013.
Recently, the importance of skin colour for facial attractiveness has been recognized. In particular, dietary carotenoid-induced skin colour has been proposed as a signal of health and therefore attractiveness. While perceptual results are highly consistent, it is currently not clear whether carotenoid skin colour is preferred because it poses a cue to current health condition in humans or whether it is simply seen as a more aesthetically pleasing colour, independently of skin-specific signalling properties. Here, we tested this question by comparing attractiveness ratings of faces to corresponding ratings of meaningless scrambled face images matching the colours and contrasts found in the face. We produced sets of face and non-face stimuli with either healthy (high-carotenoid coloration) or unhealthy (low-carotenoid coloration) colour and asked participants for attractiveness ratings. Results showed that, while for faces increased carotenoid coloration significantly improved attractiveness, there was no equivalent effect on perception of scrambled images. These findings are consistent with a specific signalling system of current condition through skin coloration in humans and indicate that preferences are not caused by sensory biases in observers.
最近，人们已经认识到肤色对面部吸引力的重要性。特别是，饮食中类胡萝卜素引起的肤色被认为是健康和吸引力的信号。虽然感知结果高度一致，但目前尚不清楚类胡萝卜素肤色是否因其在人类中暗示当前健康状况而受到青睐，还是仅仅被视为一种更具美感的颜色，而与皮肤特定的信号特性无关。在这里，我们通过比较面孔的吸引力评分和相应的无意义的面部图像评分来测试这个问题，这些图像匹配了面部的颜色和对比度。我们制作了具有健康（高类胡萝卜素着色）或不健康（低类胡萝卜素着色）颜色的面孔和非面孔刺激集，并要求参与者进行吸引力评分。结果表明，虽然增加类胡萝卜素着色对面孔的吸引力有显著的提高，但对面部图像的感知却没有等效的影响。这些发现与人类通过肤色传递当前状况的特定信号系统一致，并表明偏好不是由观察者的感官偏差引起的。
