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Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures

Facial attractiveness confers considerable advantages in social interactions,(1)(,)(2) with preferences likely reflecting psychobiological mechanisms shaped by natural selection. Theories of universal beauty propose that attractive faces comprise features that are closer to the population average(3)...

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Autores principales: Zhan, Jiayu, Liu, Meng, Garrod, Oliver G.B., Daube, Christoph, Ince, Robin A.A., Jack, Rachael E., Schyns, Philippe G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cell Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8162177/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33798430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.013
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author Zhan, Jiayu
Liu, Meng
Garrod, Oliver G.B.
Daube, Christoph
Ince, Robin A.A.
Jack, Rachael E.
Schyns, Philippe G.
author_facet Zhan, Jiayu
Liu, Meng
Garrod, Oliver G.B.
Daube, Christoph
Ince, Robin A.A.
Jack, Rachael E.
Schyns, Philippe G.
author_sort Zhan, Jiayu
collection PubMed
description Facial attractiveness confers considerable advantages in social interactions,(1)(,)(2) with preferences likely reflecting psychobiological mechanisms shaped by natural selection. Theories of universal beauty propose that attractive faces comprise features that are closer to the population average(3) while optimizing sexual dimorphism.(4) However, emerging evidence questions this model as an accurate representation of facial attractiveness,5, 6, 7 including representing the diversity of beauty preferences within and across cultures.8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Here, we demonstrate that Western Europeans (WEs) and East Asians (EAs) evaluate facial beauty using culture-specific features, contradicting theories of universality. With a data-driven method, we modeled, at both the individual and group levels, the attractive face features of young females (25 years old) in two matched groups each of 40 young male WE and EA participants. Specifically, we generated a broad range of same- and other-ethnicity female faces with naturally varying shapes and complexions. Participants rated each on attractiveness. We then reverse correlated the face features that drive perception of attractiveness in each participant. From these individual face models, we reconstructed a facial attractiveness representation space that explains preference variations. We show that facial attractiveness is distinct both from averageness and from sexual dimorphism in both cultures. Finally, we disentangled attractive face features into those shared across cultures, culture specific, and specific to individual participants, thereby revealing their diversity. Our results have direct theoretical and methodological impact for representing diversity in social perception and for the design of culturally and ethnically sensitive socially interactive digital agents.
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spelling pubmed-81621772021-06-02 Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures Zhan, Jiayu Liu, Meng Garrod, Oliver G.B. Daube, Christoph Ince, Robin A.A. Jack, Rachael E. Schyns, Philippe G. Curr Biol Report Facial attractiveness confers considerable advantages in social interactions,(1)(,)(2) with preferences likely reflecting psychobiological mechanisms shaped by natural selection. Theories of universal beauty propose that attractive faces comprise features that are closer to the population average(3) while optimizing sexual dimorphism.(4) However, emerging evidence questions this model as an accurate representation of facial attractiveness,5, 6, 7 including representing the diversity of beauty preferences within and across cultures.8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Here, we demonstrate that Western Europeans (WEs) and East Asians (EAs) evaluate facial beauty using culture-specific features, contradicting theories of universality. With a data-driven method, we modeled, at both the individual and group levels, the attractive face features of young females (25 years old) in two matched groups each of 40 young male WE and EA participants. Specifically, we generated a broad range of same- and other-ethnicity female faces with naturally varying shapes and complexions. Participants rated each on attractiveness. We then reverse correlated the face features that drive perception of attractiveness in each participant. From these individual face models, we reconstructed a facial attractiveness representation space that explains preference variations. We show that facial attractiveness is distinct both from averageness and from sexual dimorphism in both cultures. Finally, we disentangled attractive face features into those shared across cultures, culture specific, and specific to individual participants, thereby revealing their diversity. Our results have direct theoretical and methodological impact for representing diversity in social perception and for the design of culturally and ethnically sensitive socially interactive digital agents. Cell Press 2021-05-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8162177/ /pubmed/33798430 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.013 Text en Crown Copyright © 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Report
Zhan, Jiayu
Liu, Meng
Garrod, Oliver G.B.
Daube, Christoph
Ince, Robin A.A.
Jack, Rachael E.
Schyns, Philippe G.
Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures
title Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures
title_full Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures
title_fullStr Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures
title_full_unstemmed Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures
title_short Modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures
title_sort modeling individual preferences reveals that face beauty is not universally perceived across cultures
topic Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8162177/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33798430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.013
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