Rhodes, Yoshikawa, Clark, Lee, McKay + Akamatsu ATTRACTIVENESS, AVG, SYMMETRY, NON-western Flashcards
What was the aim of the experiment?
if symmetry and averageness affects non-western countries the same way it effects western countries
What evidence is there suggesting the idea that standards of beauty are cultural artefacts?
- Langlois et al 2000
High agreement in facial attractiveness ratings among people form different + same cultures - Rubenstein et al, 2001
Young infants prefer to look at faces that adults find attractive - biological based preferences?
- symmetric OR avg preferences?
What are averageness and symmetry morphology known to reflect?
mate quality
- development stability
What is development stability and how does it support averageness and symmetry morphology reflecting mate quality?
- Moller + Swaddle, 1997
ability to maintain a stable course of development despite environmental + genetic stressors
- So those who have preferences for these features = have an reproductive advantage
○ The info-processing mechanism that generated them could have evolved by sexual selection
What alternative explanation vs evolutionary is there for the preference for symmetrical + average faces?
Endler + Basolo 1998
- By-product of general perceptual or cognitive mechanisms that evolves by natural selection to process info from the environment
- Which respond selectively to average and/or symmetric stimuli
What does research into the relationship between attractiveness + averageness suggest?
Most findings = the closer to the average the face is the more attractive it is rated
What does research into the relationship between attractiveness + Symmetry suggest?
Perrett et al, 1999; Rhodes et al 1998
- When symmetry is increased experimentally, attractiveness generally increases
- As long as manipulation doesn’t = structural abnormalities
What did Jones + Hill 1993 do and what possible explanation is there for their findings?
- looked at non-western countries relationship between attractiveness w/ symmetry + averageness
= different findings in each country but age = confounding
- youthful faces = attractive
*methodology issue?
- since no correlation found between measured symmetry + attractiveness for the non-western raters AND western raters
What did Knower 1996 find when he examined symmetry with Japanese subjects?
preferred the normal, slightly asymmetric versions
- Except for elderly faces - where symmetry was preferred
What is a potential explanation for Knower’s 1996 findings about symmetry and Japanese subjects?
Rhodes et al, 1999
Method used to create symmetry image = structural abnormalities which make the images unattractive despite their symmetry, even to Western raters
Whos averaged composites did Chinese + Japanese prefer?
Own-race faces vs most individual faces
- similar findings for western raters
What were the aim of E1?
- examined whether attractiveness correlates negatively with rated distinctiveness, a subjective converse measure of averageness
- examined whether individual faces could be made more (or less) attractive, by increasing (or decreasing) their averageness
What part of Langlois et al’s 1994 conclusion was E1 trying to challenge?
suggested avg composites should be more attractive because of their familiarity - so asking rating of attractiveness to own race = higher ratings?
- So different composites, of their own race, other race etc were given
What were the findings of E1?
- attractiveness also increased when the other-race Caucasian norm was used to manipulate averageness
- greater lifetime exposure to Chinese faces did not, therefore, generate a stronger preference for Chinese than Caucasian averages - low distinctiveness (high averageness) is attractive for Chinese faces and raters, just as it is for Western faces and raters (Rhodes et al 1999b)
- averaged composites more attractive than their individual component faces
- component faces w/ 50% above normal lvls = more attractive
What did they conclude from E1?
- attractiveness of avg facial configurations doesn’t not require a high lvl of familiarity with the population from which the component faces are drawn
- attractiveness and distinctiveness were significantly negatively correlated
What were the aims of E2?
○ whether averageness is attractive for Japanese faces and raters
○ whether symmetry is attractive for Japanese faces and raters
What was the difference between E1 + E2?
E1 = Chinese who grew up in the west = may have been influenced by western standards of beauty
SO E2 = Japanese ppt who lived in Japan
What were the findings of E2?
- attractiveness increased with averageness for both sexes
- averageness remains attractive when symmetry is controlled
- attractiveness and distinctiveness are negatively correlated for Japanese faces and raters, just as they are for Western and Chinese faces and raters
- like Chinese and Western composites, Japanese composites were more attractive than any of their component faces and also more attractive than the high-average versions of those face
In E2, they concluded averageness remains attractive when symmetry is controlled, what does this mean?
although symmetry is attractive, it does not fully account for the attractiveness of average faces.
What were some problems with this cross-cultural study?
Cannot be sure there was no influence from wester standards of beauty as they has some exposure to wester culture on symmetry
What did Walton + Bower 1993 find about infants and their preferences for faces?
- preference for avg faces may emerge early in development
- Newborns (8-78hrs) prefer to look at avg composites of faces they had seen VS composites of faces they had not seen
- Rubenstein et al (1999)
- Six-month-old infants preferred to look at avg composite of female faces VS unattractive faces
What explanation is there for the preferences an infant develops?
- Experience
- But preference for averageness = biologically based
○ Since it relies on info-processing mechanism that evolved by either natural or sexual selection
What did Halberstadt + Rhodes 2000 report, suggesting our preference for avg faces is part of a general info-processing mechanism?
- reported that average exemplars are attractive for dogs, birds, and wristwatches
- suggests that humans may have a generic preference for averageness
Samuels et al 1994 found no preferences for symmetry in little children, but what could be an explanation for this?
methodological limitations where structural abnormalities were produced
BUT
Little in known about the development of the preferences for symmetry even in developmental studies
What evidence is there of preferences being adaptations for identifying high-quality mates?
- Rhodes et al 2001
- Facial averageness is a reliable indicator of health
- Facial distinctiveness (a converse measure of averageness) of 17 year-olds was associated with poor childhood health in males + poor current + adolescent health in females
* Inconsistent findings between health and facial symmetry
What is a possible explanation for why avg faces are attractive?
- They capture the central tendency of a population of faces
○ Which means that preferences would vary depending on exposure to the relevant population
How does the findings of this study challenge the explanation of familiarity for the preference for avg faces?
E1: no advantage for high-avg images or blends made with own-race over other-race avg + composites
ALT exp for finding:
- avg face not reflecting what is normally seen in population
- need to consider if avg comes from traits of youthfulness + healthiness VS displaying characteristics of a familiar population
