Contrast Effect of Facial Attractiveness in Groups

Research on facial attractiveness is an important part of aesthetics. Most relevant studies in the area have focused on the influence of individual perspectives on facial attractiveness, but it is necessary to consider the effect of contextual information on facial attractiveness. In this study, we examine the influence on attractiveness of special faces in a given group. We define a “special face” as one that is significantly different from other members of the same group in terms of facial attractiveness. We conducted three experiments to explore the influence of different modes of presentation and central positions in a group on the judgment of attractiveness of the special face. The results show the following: (1) When the special face was part of a given group, the subjects made more extreme judgments than without it: that is, they judged the most attractive face as more attractive and the least as less attractive than when faces were presented alone. (2) The subjects rated the most attractive faces lower and the least attractive faces higher when the target faces in the middle of the group than in other positions. The results favored the contrast effect: when the subjects judged the attractiveness of target stimulus, they always compared it with the environment, which then became a reference in this regard. Moreover, the greater the amount of contextual information perceived, the higher the likelihood that assimilation would occur.