Chapter 1. Prototype Recognition

1.1 Introduction

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.

1.2 Experiment Setup

1.3 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

1.4 Experiment

1.5 Results

1.6 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.

1.7 Quiz