Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Neuropsychologia. 2021 May 14;155:107824. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107824. Epub 2021 Mar 10.
The physical attractiveness stereotype (PAS) is characterized by the belief that beauty is good and ugliness is bad. Although the belief is not encouraged, people still express "beauty is good" explicitly. However, expressing that ugliness is bad is considered impolite in public. In this study, the neural underpinnings of PAS were investigated, particularly the comparison of the neural processing of ugliness is bad and beauty is good. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, participants were asked to create trait-conformity judgments based on the facial attractiveness of the images. Our results showed that brain areas, including the fusiform, thalamus, anterior insula (AI), precuneus, inferior temporal gyrus, dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) were involved in the processing of PAS. The left AI, left dlPFC, and right dmPFC showed stronger activation for ugliness is bad than for the converse. Moreover, we found a stronger connectivity between the left dlPFC and AI in terms of ugliness is bad than in the converse. Our study suggests that participants were unwilling to express the stereotype of ugliness is bad, and more mental resources were needed to control its expression than the expression of beauty is good.
体貌吸引力刻板印象（PAS）的特征是认为美是好的，丑是坏的。尽管这种信念不受鼓励，但人们仍然会明确地表达“美是好的”。然而，在公共场合表达“丑是坏的”被认为是不礼貌的。在这项研究中，我们研究了 PAS 的神经基础，特别是对丑是坏和美的神经处理的比较。在功能磁共振成像扫描期间，要求参与者根据图像的面部吸引力做出符合特征的判断。我们的结果表明，包括梭状回、丘脑、前岛叶（AI）、楔前叶、下颞叶、背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC）和背内侧前额叶皮层（dmPFC）在内的大脑区域参与了 PAS 的处理。左 AI、左 dlPFC 和右 dmPFC 在处理丑是坏时的激活强度大于相反情况。此外，我们发现丑是坏时左 dlPFC 和 AI 之间的连接强度大于相反情况。我们的研究表明，参与者不愿意表达丑是坏的刻板印象，并且需要更多的心理资源来控制其表达，而不是表达美是好的。
