Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is a common phrase; however, it does not capture how physical and perceived beauty interact to influence our judgments of attractiveness. This experiment is a replication of a study conducted to determine the role of average or prototypical facial appearance in our perception of beauty.
14.2Experiment Setup
14.3Instructions
Instructions
You will need to press the space bar to start the experiment. A series of faces will be presented in the middle of the screen, one at a time. Your task is to rate each of the faces for attractiveness on a scale from 1 to 5.
Keyboard Responses
Key
What Response Means
1
Very unattractive
2
Unattractive
3
Neither unattractive nor attractive
4
Attractive
5
Very attractive
14.4Experiment
Begin Experiment
Start Experiment
14.5Results
Results
This figure presents the results for you and your class. On the x-axis is the number of faces used to make up the facial composites. On the y-axis is the level of attractiveness rating. If the results here are consistent with what we know about the averageness effect, higher facial composite levels produced higher mean attractiveness ratings.
14.6Debriefing
Debriefing
What makes a beautiful face is a question that has been difficult for the scientific community to answer. To be attractive is actually to have quite average facial features. Langlois and Roggman (1990) studied attraction by using computer-imaging software that superimposed images of faces on top of each other, creating composite faces that represented the digital average of the individual faces. Results of their original study, and the one you just took, demonstrate a linear trend that indicates the more average the face, the higher its attractiveness rating. This is known as the averageness effect (see pages 524-526). Averaging features smooths out irregularities, leading to greater symmetry and consistency (Rhodes, 2006).
From an evolutionary perspective, these features (symmetry and consistency) convey health to a potential mate. From this perspective, health is equated with attractiveness. Another explanation is that more average-appearing and symmetrical faces simply seem more familiar. Composite features sum across the wide range of natural variability to create one face that captures aspects from each of the images contributing to the composite. It may be that the preference for averageness may be a byproduct of liking for familiarity and stimuli that are easily processed rather than the legacy of an evolved mechanism to read these cues as signals of health.
References:
Langlois, J. H. and Roggman, L. A. (1990) Attractive faces are only average. Psychological Science, 1(2), 115-121.
Rhodes, G. (2006). The evolutionary psychology of facial beauty. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 199–226.
14.7Quiz
Quiz
Question
14.1
Which of the following is the best summary of the results of this experiment?
A.
B.
C.
D.
1
Correct.
Incorrect.
Langlois and Roggman (1990) demonstrated that averageness and attractiveness are directly related, and faces made from averaging a large number of faces are rated higher in attractiveness than those made from a smaller number of faces.
Question
14.2
What was the independent variable in this study?
A.
B.
C.
D.
2
Correct.
Incorrect.
The experimenters varied the number of faces used in the composites, and compared the attractiveness ratings of composite faces that were made from 8, 16, or 32 individual faces.
Question
14.3
What was the dependent variable in this study?
A.
B.
C.
D.
1
Correct.
Incorrect.
Attractiveness rating for the composite face made from differing numbers of individual faces was the dependent variable in this experiment.
Question
14.4
Which of the following is a proper conclusion to reach regarding the nature of this study?
A.
B.
C.
D.
1
Correct.
Incorrect.
Facial attractiveness is closely aligned with the evolutionary fitness of the traits, and that means that being average is beneficial as far as natural selection is concerned. Therefore, all of the answers are correct.
Question
14.5
Which is NOT an explanation for the results of this study?
A.
B.
C.
D.
1
Correct.
Incorrect.
From an evolutionary perspective, the features of symmetry and consistency convey health to a potential mate. Additionally, the more average-appearing and symmetrical faces are more familiar to us.
