PS4029/30
Perspectives on social attributions
Lecture 1
Feb 2005
Why do we ‘read’ faces the way that we do?
Why are we attracted to some faces and not others?
Why do we sometimes agree with others and sometimes disagree about what faces that are
attractive and unattractive?
Perspectives on social attributions?
OUTLINE
a. using the course website
b. why take this course?
c. assessment
d. why study attractiveness?
e. attractiveness halo effects
f. examples of attractive facial
characteristics
CONTACTING BCJ
Lecturer: Ben C. Jones
Office hour: TBC
Email: [email protected]
Office: S5 (William Guild)
When is a good time for office hour?
A. USING THE COURSE WEBSITE
Course website address is:http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~psy411/dept/Teaching/perspectives.php
Username & password are ‘faces’
Course outlineRecommended reading (the minimum)
Suggested readingLecture summaries
Lecture .ppt files & handouts
ALL READING CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE COURSE WEBSITE
A. USING THE COURSE WEBSITE
The more of the recommended reading you have completed before the relevant lectures, the more
you’ll get out of them
Study questions for each lecture are given along with lecture summaries - these are designed to
direct your thinking, reading and revision
15 sample exam questions are also given
B. WHY TAKE THIS COURSE?
Facial attractiveness is a topic with widespread appeal
Attractiveness research is carried out within a multi-disciplinary framework
This means you learn to critically evaluate diverse approaches to research
B. WHY TAKE THIS COURSE?
Approaches applied to attractiveness research include:
DevelopmentalBiological
ComparativeCross-cultural
SocialNeuroimaging
Developmental
Babies and adults prefer the same types of faces
Comparative
In many ways our face preferences are similar to preferences in other species - e.g. symmetry preferences and condition dependent preferences
Neuroimaging
medial orbito-frontal cortex
attractive faces activate brain regions associated with reward
Other modalities
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Olfaction (pheromones)Audition (vocal traits)
Pheromones and vocal characteristics also influence attraction in predictable ways
C. Assessment
90 minute exam at end of term
2 from 6 questions
15 sample exam questions on course website
D. Why study attractiveness?
Although people claim attractiveness is not important for their partner choices…..
…..facial attractiveness is the best predictor of satisfaction with a blind date
[reading: Chapter 1 BCJ thesis]
D. Why study attractiveness?
People also prefer to:
mate withemployvote for
associate with
attractive people
[reading: Chapter 1 BCJ thesis]
D. Why study attractiveness?
Nurses provide more care for premature infants that they consider attractive
Mothers bond more quickly and closely with attractive babies
[reading: Chapter 1 BCJ thesis]
D. Why study attractiveness?
In summary:
It is important to study attractiveness because it contributes to important
social outcomes (e.g. hiring decisions, partner choices, associate choice,
maternal bonding)
D. Why facial attractiveness?
Processing of faces develops earlier than processing of bodies
Facial attractiveness more important for attractiveness of whole person than body attractiveness
Areas of the brain (in visual cortex) that respond more to faces than bodies
[reading: Chapter 1 BCJ thesis]
E. Attractiveness halo effects
This is also known as the ‘beauty is good’ stereotype
Attractive people are automatically ascribed positive social traits such as trustworthiness,
wealth, intelligenceand positive personality traits (e.g. extraversion)
Langlois et al. 2000
F. ATTRACTIVE FACES
Some facial traits that are generally preferred
Symmetry
Averageness
Femininity
SYMMETRYSymmetric Asymmetric
Symmetric faces are more attractive than asymmetric faces(Little & Jones, 2003)
FEMININITY
For both male and female faces, increasing feminine aspects of the face shape (left) makes the face more
attractive
By contrast, increasing masculinity (right) decreases
attractiveness
[Perrett et al., 1998]
feminine masculine
NEXT WEEK
Evidence for universal preferences
Cross-cultural studies&
Developmental studies
of face preferences