Leder Helmut, Goller Juergen, Forster Michael, Schlageter Lena, Paul Matthew A
Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, Austria.
Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, Austria.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2017 Jul;178:25-31. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.05.005. Epub 2017 May 27.
Assessing facial attractiveness is a ubiquitous, inherent, and hard-wired phenomenon in everyday interactions. As such, it has highly adapted to the default way that faces are typically processed: viewing faces in upright orientation. By inverting faces, we can disrupt this default mode, and study how facial attractiveness is assessed. Faces, rotated at 90 (tilting to either side) and 180°, were rated on attractiveness and distinctiveness scales. For both orientations, we found that faces were rated more attractive and less distinctive than upright faces. Importantly, these effects were more pronounced for faces rated low in upright orientation, and smaller for highly attractive faces. In other words, the less attractive a face was, the more it gained in attractiveness by inversion or rotation. Based on these findings, we argue that facial attractiveness assessments might not rely on the presence of attractive facial characteristics, but on the absence of distinctive, unattractive characteristics. These unattractive characteristics are potentially weighed against an individual, attractive prototype in assessing facial attractiveness.
在日常交往中，评估面部吸引力是一种普遍存在、与生俱来且根深蒂固的现象。因此，它已高度适应了面部通常被处理的默认方式：以直立方向观察面部。通过颠倒面部，我们可以打乱这种默认模式，并研究面部吸引力是如何被评估的。对旋转90度（向任一侧倾斜）和180度的面部进行吸引力和独特性评分。对于这两种方向，我们发现面部的吸引力评分比直立面部更高，而独特性评分更低。重要的是，这些效应在直立方向评分较低的面部上更为明显，而在极具吸引力的面部上则较小。换句话说，一张脸越不吸引人，通过颠倒或旋转获得的吸引力就越大。基于这些发现，我们认为面部吸引力评估可能并不依赖于有吸引力的面部特征的存在，而是依赖于没有独特的、不吸引人的特征。在评估面部吸引力时，这些不吸引人的特征可能会与一个个体的、有吸引力的原型进行权衡。
