Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 6, 2025

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome
Published on: July 31, 2016
When he smiles: Attractiveness preferences for male faces expressing emotions
Mariana L Carrito1, Francisca Bismarck1, Pedro Bem-Haja2
1Centro de Psicologia da Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
Abstract:
The impact of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness has been controversial owing to contradictory results, particularly in studies on female preferences. Given that sexually dimorphic facial features, especially more masculine ones, have been previously related to the perception of anger, we investigated the bi-directional influence of emotional expressions and facial masculinity and explored their impact on women's preferences for facial masculinity. We confirmed the effect of facial sexual dimorphism on the perception of emotional cues (happiness and anger) and explored whether smiling or angry expressions influence women's perception of masculinity in male faces. Additionally, we examined women's preferences for emotionally expressive male faces altered along a continuum of masculinity. The results showed that masculinised faces are perceived as angrier, while feminised faces are perceived as happier (Experiment 1), and that angry faces are perceived as more masculine when compared with happy faces (Experiment 2). It is noteworthy that our Experiment 3 uncovered a pivotal finding: women prefer reduced feminisation in happy faces compared with neutral/angry faces. This suggests that the avoidance response observed towards masculinity is attenuated by a smiling expression. The current study introduces a new perspective to be considered when exploring the role of facial masculinity in women's attractiveness preferences.
More Related Videos
04:27Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans
Published on: March 15, 2019
07:12Protocol for Data Collection and Analysis Applied to Automated Facial Expression Analysis Technology and Temporal Analysis for Sensory Evaluation
Published on: August 26, 2016
Related Concept Videos
Relationship Formation
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Emotional Expression
Universal Facial Expressions
Psychologist Paul Ekman identified seven basic...
Muscles for Facial Expressions
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Therapeutic Communication
Verbal communication depends on language or a prescribed way of using words so that people can share information effectively. The critical aspects of verbal...