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Related Experiment Video

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Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
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Faces differing in attractiveness elicit corresponding affective responses.

Connor P Principe1, Judith H Langlois

  • 1The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A8000, Austin, TX 78712, USA. principec@mail.utexas.edu

Cognition & Emotion
|March 25, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Less attractive faces elicit negative emotional responses in both children and adults, indicated by facial muscle activity. This suggests that negative affect plays a role in how we perceive attractiveness.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Affective Science
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Facial attractiveness influences social perception and judgment.
  • Understanding affective responses to facial features is crucial for developmental and social psychology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate affective responses to varying facial attractiveness in children and adults.
  • To explore age-related differences in emotional reactions to facial attractiveness.

Main Methods:

  • Facial electromyography (fEMG) was used to measure affective responses.
  • Participants included 7- to 10-year-old children (N=66) and adults (N=73).
  • Analysis focused on levator labii superioris and corrugator supercilii muscle activity.

Main Results:

  • Less attractive faces significantly increased levator labii superioris activity in both children and adults, indicating negative affect.
  • A negative correlation between attractiveness and corrugator supercilii activity was found in adults, but not children.
  • Facial attractiveness significantly impacts affective responses across age groups.

Conclusions:

  • Less attractive faces appear to evoke greater disgust and negative affect compared to more attractive faces.
  • Affective reactions to facial attractiveness may influence attractiveness preferences and stereotypes.
  • Developmental differences exist in the neural processing of facial attractiveness cues.