An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness
Attractiveness and distinctiveness constitute facial features with high biological and social relevance. Bringing a developmental perspective to research on social-cognitive face perception, we used a large set of faces taken from the FACES Lifespan Database to examine effects of face and perceiver...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00561/full |
| _version_ | 1818671549416210432 |
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| author | Natalie C. Ebner Natalie C. Ebner Natalie C. Ebner Joerg Luedicke Manuel C. Voelkle Manuel C. Voelkle Michaela Riediger Michaela Riediger Tian Lin Ulman Lindenberger Ulman Lindenberger |
| author_facet | Natalie C. Ebner Natalie C. Ebner Natalie C. Ebner Joerg Luedicke Manuel C. Voelkle Manuel C. Voelkle Michaela Riediger Michaela Riediger Tian Lin Ulman Lindenberger Ulman Lindenberger |
| author_sort | Natalie C. Ebner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Attractiveness and distinctiveness constitute facial features with high biological and social relevance. Bringing a developmental perspective to research on social-cognitive face perception, we used a large set of faces taken from the FACES Lifespan Database to examine effects of face and perceiver characteristics on subjective evaluations of attractiveness and distinctiveness in young (20–31 years), middle-aged (44–55 years), and older (70–81 years) men and women. We report novel findings supporting variations by face and perceiver age, in interaction with gender and emotion: although older and middle-aged compared to young perceivers generally rated faces of all ages as more attractive, young perceivers gave relatively higher attractiveness ratings to young compared to middle-aged and older faces. Controlling for variations in attractiveness, older compared to young faces were viewed as more distinctive by young and middle-aged perceivers. Age affected attractiveness more negatively for female than male faces. Furthermore, happy faces were rated as most attractive, while disgusted faces were rated as least attractive, particularly so by middle-aged and older perceivers and for young and female faces. Perceivers largely agreed on distinctiveness ratings for neutral and happy emotions, but older and middle-aged compared to young perceivers rated faces displaying negative emotions as more distinctive. These findings underscore the importance of a lifespan perspective on perception of facial characteristics and suggest possible effects of age on goal-directed perception, social motivation, and in-group bias. This publication makes available picture-specific normative data for experimental stimulus selection. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T07:25:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ac27e6abb484e3597c7950f2cfc8adf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T07:25:46Z |
| publishDate | 2018-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ac27e6abb484e3597c7950f2cfc8adf2022-12-21T21:58:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782018-05-01910.3389/fpsyg.2018.00561333220An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and DistinctivenessNatalie C. Ebner0Natalie C. Ebner1Natalie C. Ebner2Joerg Luedicke3Manuel C. Voelkle4Manuel C. Voelkle5Michaela Riediger6Michaela Riediger7Tian Lin8Ulman Lindenberger9Ulman Lindenberger10Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United StatesDepartment of Aging and Geriatric Research, Institute on Aging, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United StatesDepartment of Clinical and Health Psychology, Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United StatesCenter for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, GermanyCenter for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Jena, Jena, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United StatesCenter for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Fiesole, ItalyAttractiveness and distinctiveness constitute facial features with high biological and social relevance. Bringing a developmental perspective to research on social-cognitive face perception, we used a large set of faces taken from the FACES Lifespan Database to examine effects of face and perceiver characteristics on subjective evaluations of attractiveness and distinctiveness in young (20–31 years), middle-aged (44–55 years), and older (70–81 years) men and women. We report novel findings supporting variations by face and perceiver age, in interaction with gender and emotion: although older and middle-aged compared to young perceivers generally rated faces of all ages as more attractive, young perceivers gave relatively higher attractiveness ratings to young compared to middle-aged and older faces. Controlling for variations in attractiveness, older compared to young faces were viewed as more distinctive by young and middle-aged perceivers. Age affected attractiveness more negatively for female than male faces. Furthermore, happy faces were rated as most attractive, while disgusted faces were rated as least attractive, particularly so by middle-aged and older perceivers and for young and female faces. Perceivers largely agreed on distinctiveness ratings for neutral and happy emotions, but older and middle-aged compared to young perceivers rated faces displaying negative emotions as more distinctive. These findings underscore the importance of a lifespan perspective on perception of facial characteristics and suggest possible effects of age on goal-directed perception, social motivation, and in-group bias. This publication makes available picture-specific normative data for experimental stimulus selection.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00561/fullageemotionfacesattractivenessdistinctivenesscross-classified random effects analysis |
| spellingShingle | Natalie C. Ebner Natalie C. Ebner Natalie C. Ebner Joerg Luedicke Manuel C. Voelkle Manuel C. Voelkle Michaela Riediger Michaela Riediger Tian Lin Ulman Lindenberger Ulman Lindenberger An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness Frontiers in Psychology age emotion faces attractiveness distinctiveness cross-classified random effects analysis |
| title | An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness |
| title_full | An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness |
| title_fullStr | An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness |
| title_short | An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness |
| title_sort | adult developmental approach to perceived facial attractiveness and distinctiveness |
| topic | age emotion faces attractiveness distinctiveness cross-classified random effects analysis |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00561/full |
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