bims-chumac 2022-11-27 papers

bims-chumac

Biomed News

on Context effects on human mate choice

Issue of 2022–11–27
eight papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

Your face looks the same as before, only prettier: The facial skin homogeneity effects on face change detection and facial attractiveness perception.
Facial expression modifies female body perception.
Preference for ugly faces? -A cognitive study of attentional and memorial biases toward facial information among young females with facial dissatisfaction.
Perceptions of persons who wear face coverings are modulated by the perceivers' attitude.
Union and Family Formation During Young Adulthood: Insights From the Add Health.
Makeup applied to facial features increases perceived skin evenness.
Associations among relationship status, gender, and sexual attraction in Australian adolescents' eating pathology.
Less Is More? Repartnering and Completed Cohort Fertility in Finland.

Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 935347

Your face looks the same as before, only prettier: The facial skin homogeneity effects on face change detection and facial attractiveness perception.

Yu-Hao P Sun, Xiaohui Zhang, Ningyan Lu, Jing Li, Zhe Wang.

  Previous studies suggested that (1) facial attractiveness perception can be increased with facial skin homogeneity improving; and (2) human's facial change detection increases along with facial skin homogeneity increases. However, it's unknown whether a face can be perceived prettier than it did before while still being considered as physically the same. It is possible that these two kinds of cognitive-aesthetic processing may have separate mathematical functions in psychophysical studies. In other words, human's facial attractiveness differentiation may be more sensitive than facial change detection. In this current study, we explored the above questions. Using three types of psychophysical techniques to manipulate facial skin homogeneity, we measured how participants' sensitivity to facial skin homogeneity and attractiveness change. Results showed a linear function curve for facial physical change detection and a logarithmic function curve was drawn in the forced-choice technique, which was the most sensitive one, indicating that participants can judge a face prettier than before without being aware of it has physically changed. Besides, two linear function curves were shown in the same/different technique and a rating technique. Taken together, this current study revealed that facial attractiveness can be enhanced and discriminated by improving facial skin homogeneity, without being realized by people with conscious awareness that the face has been changed.

Keywords:  face change detection; face perception; facial attractiveness; facial skin homogeneity effect; psychophysical tasks

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.935347
Perception. 2022 Nov 22. 3010066221140254

Facial expression modifies female body perception.

Farahnaz Noori, Heather Schofield, Lorna Summerscales, Kun Guo.

  The judgment of female body appearance has been reported to be affected by a range of internal (e.g., viewers' sexual cognition) and external factors (e.g., viewed clothing type and colour). This eye-tracking study aimed to complement previous research by examining the effect of facial expression on female body perception and associated body-viewing gaze behaviour. We presented female body images of Caucasian avatars in a continuum of common dress sizes posing seven basic facial expressions (neutral, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust), and asked both male and female participants to rate the perceived body attractiveness and body size. The analysis revealed an evident modulatory role of avatar facial expressions on body attractiveness and body size ratings, but not on the amount of viewing time directed at individual body features. Specifically, happy and angry avatars attracted the highest and lowest body attractiveness ratings, respectively, and fearful and surprised avatars tended to be rated slimmer. Interestingly, the impact of facial expression on female body assessment was not further influenced by viewers' gender, suggesting a 'universal' role of common facial expressions in modifying the perception of female body appearance.

Keywords:  body attractiveness; body size; facial expression; gaze behaviour; women

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/03010066221140254
Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 1024197

Preference for ugly faces? -A cognitive study of attentional and memorial biases toward facial information among young females with facial dissatisfaction.

Lan Zhu, Huan Zhou, Xiaogang Wang, Xiao Ma, Qiaolan Liu.

  Dissatisfaction with facial appearance is one of the strongest contributors to body image disturbance among young Chinese females and leads to a series of psychological and behavioral disorders. By conducting behavioral and ERP experiments, this study illustrates how young females in China with facial dissatisfaction process different levels of facial attractiveness. Experiments 1 and 2 are behavioral experiments in which the dot-probe paradigm was used to explore the participant's attentional bias to facial attractiveness. The results showed that regardless of whether the face image was presented above or below the threshold, young females with facial dissatisfaction exhibited attentional orientation toward lowly attractive faces and attentional avoidance to both lowly and highly attractive faces, while the control group showed difficulty in attentional disengagement from highly attractive faces. In experiment 3, the learning-recognition task was used to examine mnemonic bias toward facial attractiveness among females with facial dissatisfaction, and EEG data were also recorded during the encoding and retrieval phases. The study found that young females with facial dissatisfaction exhibited a mnemonic preference for lowly attractive images at both the encoding and retrieving stages, with higher P1, N170, P2, and N300 induced by lowly attractive faces, while the control group preferred highly attractive faces. In conclusion, young females with facial dissatisfaction tend to exhibit attentional orientation and mnemonic bias toward lowly attractive faces.

Keywords:  behavioral experiments & ERP experiments; cognitive bias; facial attractiveness; facial dissatisfaction; young females

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1024197
Front Neurosci. 2022 ;16 988546

Perceptions of persons who wear face coverings are modulated by the perceivers' attitude.

Johannes Leder, Lisa Koßmann, Claus-Christian Carbon.

  We examined if the effect of facial coverings on person perception is influenced by the perceiver's attitudes. We used two online experiments in which participants saw the same human target persons repeatedly appearing with and without a specific piece of clothing and had to judge the target persons' character. In Experiment 1 (N = 101), we investigated how the wearing of a facial mask influences a person's perception depending on the perceiver's attitude toward measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. In Experiment 2 (N = 114), we examined the effect of wearing a head cover associated with Arabic culture on a person's perception depending on the perceiver's attitude toward Islam. Both studies were preregistered; both found evidence that a person's perception is a process shaped by the personal attitudes of the perceiver as well as merely the target person's outward appearance. Integrating previous findings, we demonstrate that facial covers, as well as head covers, operate as cues which are used by the perceivers to infer the target persons' underlying attitudes. The judgment of the target person is shaped by the perceived attitude toward what the facial covering stereotypically symbolizes.

Keywords:  COVID-19; attractiveness; facial mask; head cover; hijab; prosociality; social attitude; theory of mind

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.988546
J Adolesc Health. 2022 Dec;pii: S1054-139X(22)00516-X. [Epub ahead of print]71(6S): S32-S39

Union and Family Formation During Young Adulthood: Insights From the Add Health.

Susan L Brown.

  Family formation patterns among US young adults are shifting, reflecting an accelerating retreat from marriage coupled with significant increases in cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing. Drawing on a selection of published longitudinal studies, this article reviews key contributions to the literature on these trends in union and family formation that have stemmed from research conducted using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, or Add Health. Add Health is integral to deciphering the adolescent precursors to young adult union formation and childbearing, allowing researchers to gauge the roles of multiple social contexts such as family, schools, peers, and adolescent romance, with attention to variation across racial-ethnic groups and by socioeconomic status. In turn, researchers use Add Health to assess how young adult family formation behaviors are related to numerous indicators of health and well-being, ranging from mental and physical health to relationship quality and stability, interpersonal violence, and crime. With its sibling and couples samples, genetic data, and detailed partnership histories for both different- and same-sex relationships, Add Health is an invaluable data source for tracking the familial experiences (formation and dissolution) of a large cohort from adolescence into middle age.

Keywords:  Adolescence; Childbearing; Cohabitation; Divorce; Marriage; Well-being

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.06.020
Vision Res. 2022 Nov 18. pii: S0042-6989(22)00150-X. [Epub ahead of print]202 108144

Makeup applied to facial features increases perceived skin evenness.

Carlota Batres, Richard Russell, Maya Workowski.

  Facial cosmetics have powerful effects on person perception, such as increasing perceived attractiveness and competence. One specific aspect of facial appearance affected by makeup is apparent skin evenness. Here, we tested the notion that makeup makes facial skin look more homogeneous in part because of changes made not to the skin, but to the facial features. In two studies, participants made ratings of perceived skin evenness. Ratings were made on two versions of the same faces. In one version, no makeup of any kind was worn, while in the other version, the faces had makeup applied only on the features (digitally in Study 1 and by a professional makeup artist in Study 2). Critically, no makeup was worn on the skin in either condition, such that the physical skin homogeneity was identical. Across both studies, skin was rated as appearing more even in the condition with makeup applied to the facial features. This indicates that cosmetics make facial skin appear more even partly due to products applied only to the facial features. These findings are consistent with recent work demonstrating that skin appearance is affected by contrast with adjacent surfaces, possibly via contrast gain control.

Keywords:  Contrast gain control; Cosmetics; Faces; Homogeneity; Skin

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2022.108144
Int J Eat Disord. 2022 Nov 24.

Associations among relationship status, gender, and sexual attraction in Australian adolescents' eating pathology.

Savannah R Roberts, Phillipa Hay, Kay Bussey, Nora Trompeter, Alexandra Lonergan, Deborah Mitchison.

   OBJECTIVE: Engaging in romantic relationships in adolescence may inadvertently increase participation in appearance culture and the risk for eating pathology. Little research has considered this effect, particularly as it relates to adolescents' gender identity and sexual attraction. Therefore, this study examined the associations among relationship status, gender, and sexual attraction in adolescents' eating pathology.
METHODS: Data from the first wave of the EveryBODY study, a large sample of Australian adolescents aged 11-19 years (n = 3262, Mage = 15.00, 53.80% girls), were used. Participants reported their relationship status and eating pathology (fasting, purging, binge eating, driven exercise, steroid use, and shape/weight concerns) using an online survey.
RESULTS: Logistic regressions adjusting for age and BMI percentile revealed that romantic relationships were associated with higher adjusted odds (AORs) for reporting clinical frequency/severity threshold of fasting, purging, steroid use, and shape and weight concerns (AORs: 1.34-3.68). Relative to boys, girls had higher adjusted odds of reporting clinical frequency/severity threshold of all eating disorder features (AORs: 1.47-7.40), except for steroid use for muscle gain. Adolescents who reported same-sex attraction, were unsure of their sexual attraction, or did not endorse any sexual attraction had greater adjusted odds of reporting clinical frequency/severity threshold of fasting, purging, and shape and weight concerns (AORs: 1.35-1.83) than those with only other-sex sexual attraction. Interactions among relationship status, gender, and sexual attraction were nonsignificant.
CONCLUSIONS: Romantic experience emerged as a novel correlate for adolescents' eating pathology. Future research should uncover the contextual factors within relationships that may contribute to this association.
PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: The initiation of romantic relationships is normative during adolescence. However, adolescents' romantic desirability is often determined by their physical appearance, increasing the risk for eating pathology. Among a large sample of Australian adolescents, romantic involvement was associated with greater likelihood of clinical threshold eating pathology for adolescent boys and girls, regardless of sexual attraction. It is urgent to identify the factors within romantic relationships that are associated with eating pathology.

Keywords:  adolescents; disordered eating; gender; romantic relationships; sexual minorities

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23861
Demography. 2022 Nov 22. pii: 10351787. [Epub ahead of print]

Less Is More? Repartnering and Completed Cohort Fertility in Finland.

Linus Andersson, Marika Jalovaara, Caroline Uggla, Jan Saarela.

  An extensive literature theorizes the role of repartnering for cohort fertility and whether union dissolution can be an engine for fertility. A large share of higher order unions are nonmarital cohabitations, but most previous studies on completed cohort fertility have analyzed only marital unions, and none have incorporated nonmarital cohabitations using population-level data. To analyze the relationship between the number of unions and cohort fertility for men and women, we use Poisson regression with Finnish register data to enumerate every birth, marriage, and cohabitation among the 1969-1972 birth cohorts at ages 18-46. We show that dissolutions of first cohabitations are the main pathway to repartnering and that most higher order unions are cohabitations. Nonmarital repartnering is a strong predictor of low fertility. In contrast, remarriage is positively associated with cohort fertility. Because the bulk of first-union dissolutions and higher order unions are nonmarital, repartnering is not an efficient engine for fertility at the aggregate level. Marriage and cohabitation are far from indistinguishable in a country often described as a second demographic transition forerunner.

Keywords:  Fertility; Finland; Remarriage; Repartnering; Union dissolution

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-10351787