Pei Guanxiong, Meng Liang
School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.
Int J Psychol. 2018 Dec;53(6):411-416. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12393. Epub 2016 Sep 23.
Facial attractiveness plays a significant role in social interactions and the effect of beauty premium is frequently observed. Previous studies showed that observing attractive counterparts would alleviate one's sense of unfairness. However, the mechanism underlying this phenomenon remained to be clarified. In this study, male participants were engaged in a modified Dictator game as recipients and their electroencephalograms were recorded. They were convinced that anonymous females who vary in facial attractiveness played as dictators. An outcome anticipation stage was implemented before proposed offers were presented and we focused on the cognitive process of subjective anticipation. A less negative Stimulus-preceding negativity was observed in the attractive face condition, suggesting that subjects paid less anticipatory attention toward proposed offers, and subjective expectation toward fair ones was weakened when beauties played as dictators. Thus, this study provides additional neural evidences for the beauty premium effect and suggests a reasonable explanation for this commonly reported phenomenon.
面部吸引力在社交互动中起着重要作用，美貌溢价效应屡见不鲜。以往研究表明，观察有吸引力的人会减轻一个人的不公平感。然而，这一现象背后的机制仍有待阐明。在本研究中，男性参与者作为接受者参与了一个经过修改的独裁者游戏，并记录了他们的脑电图。他们确信，面部吸引力各异的匿名女性扮演独裁者。在提出提议之前设置了一个结果预期阶段，我们关注的是主观预期的认知过程。在有吸引力的面孔条件下观察到较低的负性刺激前负波，这表明受试者对提议的关注较少，当美女扮演独裁者时，对公平提议的主观期望减弱。因此，本研究为美貌溢价效应提供了额外的神经证据，并为这一普遍报道的现象提出了合理的解释。
