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Facial attractiveness is appraised in a glance
Ingrid R Olson1, Christy Marshuetz
1University of Pennsylvania, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. iolson@psych.upenn.edu
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
|December 22, 2005
Summary
Physical attractiveness offers advantages, but how we process beauty remains unclear. This study reveals that perceiving beauty requires minimal attention and influences cognitive processes, explaining its social importance.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Physical attractiveness is linked to significant social advantages, including higher wages and mate selection.
- While the impact of beauty on explicit judgments is studied, the underlying perceptual and cognitive mechanisms are less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the perceptual and cognitive processing of facial beauty.
- To understand why aesthetic judgments of faces influence behavior.
Main Methods:
- Employing techniques like information masking and rapid stimulus presentation.
- Assessing the attentional requirements for beauty perception.
- Examining the influence of beauty perception on subsequent cognitive tasks.
Main Results:
- Beauty is perceived even when visual information is minimized (e.g., through masking or rapid presentation).
- Perceiving and processing beauty appear to demand minimal attentional resources.
- Beauty perception biases subsequent cognitive processes.
Conclusions:
- The effortless perception and processing of beauty, coupled with its cognitive biasing effects, may explain its significant role in social evaluations.
- Beauty's impact on behavior is likely rooted in its efficient perceptual and cognitive processing.