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Visual attention to faces during attractiveness and dominance judgements
Žaneta Pátková1, Vít Třebický1,2, Martin Kocourek1,3
1Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Evolutionary Human Sciences
|May 8, 2025
Summary
This study reveals how people visually scan faces during mate selection and social status assessments. Key facial features like eyes and nose attract the most attention, with variations based on sex and context.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Social Cognition
- Human Perception
Background:
- Perception studies highlight discrete facial features' importance in social judgments.
- Limited understanding exists on how visual attention is directed to these features.
- Context and sex likely influence attention allocation during face perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate visual attention to facial features.
- To examine attention in intersexual (attractiveness) and intrasexual (dominance) selection contexts.
- To determine how sex influences attention patterns.
Main Methods:
- Eye-tracking technology recorded gaze patterns of 93 women and 33 men.
- Participants rated 80 high-resolution facial photographs.
- Visual attention was measured using fixation counts, duration, and visit duration.
Main Results:
- Women showed more visual attention to potential partners than rivals.
- Men exhibited longer fixation durations when assessing partners versus rivals.
- Eyes, nose, and mouth received the most visual attention across sexes and contexts.
Conclusions:
- Visual attention to faces is context-dependent and sex-specific.
- While core features (eyes, nose, mouth) are consistently viewed, subtle variations exist.
- Findings contribute to understanding facial feature importance in social selection.
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