PS4029/30

Perspectives on social attributions

Lecture 1

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: ben.jones@abdn.ac.uk

Office: S5 (William Guild)

When is a good time for office hour?

A. USING THE COURSE WEBSITE

Course website address is:http://www.facelab.org/bcjones/Teaching/perspectives

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

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