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Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?

Opposing forces influence assortative mating so that one seeks a similar mate while at the same time avoiding inbreeding with close relatives. Thus, mate choice may be a balancing of phenotypic similarity and dissimilarity between partners. In the present study, we assessed the role of resemblance t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Laeng, Bruno, Vermeer, Oddrun, Sulutvedt, Unni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3707967/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23874608
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068395
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author Laeng, Bruno
Vermeer, Oddrun
Sulutvedt, Unni
author_facet Laeng, Bruno
Vermeer, Oddrun
Sulutvedt, Unni
author_sort Laeng, Bruno
collection PubMed
description Opposing forces influence assortative mating so that one seeks a similar mate while at the same time avoiding inbreeding with close relatives. Thus, mate choice may be a balancing of phenotypic similarity and dissimilarity between partners. In the present study, we assessed the role of resemblance to Self’s facial traits in judgments of physical attractiveness. Participants chose the most attractive face image of their romantic partner among several variants, where the faces were morphed so as to include only 22% of another face. Participants distinctly preferred a “Self-based morph” (i.e., their partner’s face with a small amount of Self’s face blended into it) to other morphed images. The Self-based morph was also preferred to the morph of their partner’s face blended with the partner’s same-sex “prototype”, although the latter face was (“objectively”) judged more attractive by other individuals. When ranking morphs differing in level of amalgamation (i.e., 11% vs. 22% vs. 33%) of another face, the 22% was chosen consistently as the preferred morph and, in particular, when Self was blended in the partner’s face. A forced-choice signal-detection paradigm showed that the effect of self-resemblance operated at an unconscious level, since the same participants were unable to detect the presence of their own faces in the above morphs. We concluded that individuals, if given the opportunity, seek to promote “positive assortment” for Self’s phenotype, especially when the level of similarity approaches an optimal point that is similar to Self without causing a conscious acknowledgment of the similarity.
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spelling pubmed-37079672013-07-19 Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder? Laeng, Bruno Vermeer, Oddrun Sulutvedt, Unni PLoS One Research Article Opposing forces influence assortative mating so that one seeks a similar mate while at the same time avoiding inbreeding with close relatives. Thus, mate choice may be a balancing of phenotypic similarity and dissimilarity between partners. In the present study, we assessed the role of resemblance to Self’s facial traits in judgments of physical attractiveness. Participants chose the most attractive face image of their romantic partner among several variants, where the faces were morphed so as to include only 22% of another face. Participants distinctly preferred a “Self-based morph” (i.e., their partner’s face with a small amount of Self’s face blended into it) to other morphed images. The Self-based morph was also preferred to the morph of their partner’s face blended with the partner’s same-sex “prototype”, although the latter face was (“objectively”) judged more attractive by other individuals. When ranking morphs differing in level of amalgamation (i.e., 11% vs. 22% vs. 33%) of another face, the 22% was chosen consistently as the preferred morph and, in particular, when Self was blended in the partner’s face. A forced-choice signal-detection paradigm showed that the effect of self-resemblance operated at an unconscious level, since the same participants were unable to detect the presence of their own faces in the above morphs. We concluded that individuals, if given the opportunity, seek to promote “positive assortment” for Self’s phenotype, especially when the level of similarity approaches an optimal point that is similar to Self without causing a conscious acknowledgment of the similarity. Public Library of Science 2013-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3707967/ /pubmed/23874608 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068395 Text en © 2013 Laeng et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Laeng, Bruno
Vermeer, Oddrun
Sulutvedt, Unni
Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?
title Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?
title_full Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?
title_fullStr Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?
title_full_unstemmed Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?
title_short Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?
title_sort is beauty in the face of the beholder?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3707967/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23874608
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068395
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