Different processes in attractiveness assessments for unattractive and highly attractive faces-The role of presentation duration and rotation.
Assessing facial attractiveness is a central aspect of the human ability to process the visual properties of faces. Recent studies have demonstrated that disrupting the upright orientation of faces by rotation can lead to enhanced attractiveness ratings, especially for unattractive faces, which might indicate that attractiveness assessments are mainly based on the absence of unattractive facial characteristics. Other studies have shown that shorter exposure times can result in greater facial attractiveness ratings. In the present experiment, we tested the influence of both rotation (0°, ±90°, 180°) and presentation duration (40ms, 100ms, 250ms, 2000ms) on attractiveness ratings for faces, while also controlling for their pre-rated attractiveness (which was assessed in upright orientation during a pre-test). We found that unattractive faces were rated as most attractive when observed for 40ms, but presentation duration had no effect on ratings for highly attractive faces. Unattractive faces rotated by ±90° or inverted (rotated by 180°) were rated as more attractive than in the upright orientation and these effects were found under various presentation durations (40ms, 250ms, 2000ms). Importantly, a contrary relationship was found for highly attractive faces, which were rated as less attractive when inverted, but only under intermediate presentation durations (100ms or 250ms). Our results support the notion that facial attractiveness can be assessed on the basis of both the absence of unattractive characteristics and the presence of attractive features, depending on the initial attractiveness of the face and its exposure time.
['Stróżak|Paweł|P|', 'Zielińska|Marta|M|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001504:Beauty D005145:Face D005149:Facial Expression D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D000072458:Orientation, Spatial D010775:Photic Stimulation D012399:Rotation D055815:Young Adult
Presentation duration Rotation Facial attractiveness Face inversion