Kramer, Robin S. S., Mulgrew, Jerrica, Anderson, Nicola C. , Vasilyev, Daniil, Kingstone, Alan, Reynolds, Michael G. and Ward, Robert (2020) Physically attractive faces attract us physically. Cognition, 198 . p. 104193. ISSN 0010-0277
Full content URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104193
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Item Type: | Article |
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Item Status: | Live Archive |
Abstract
When interacting with other humans, facial expressions provide valuable information for approach or avoid decisions. Here, we consider facial attractiveness as another important dimension upon which approach-avoidance behaviours may be based. In Experiments 1–3, we measured participants' responses to attractive and unattractive women's faces in an approach-avoidance paradigm in which there was no explicit instruction to evaluate facial attractiveness or any other stimulus attribute. Attractive faces were selected more often, a bias that may be sensitive to response outcomes and was reduced when the faces were inverted. Experiment 4 explored an entirely implicit measure of approach, with participants passively viewing single faces while standing on a force platform. We found greater lean towards attractive faces, with this pattern being most obvious in male participants. Taken together, these results demonstrate that attractiveness activates approach-avoidance tendencies, even in the absence of any task demand.
Keywords: | Facial attractiveness, Approach-avoidance, Touchscreen, Force platform, Postural lean |
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Subjects: | C Biological Sciences > C800 Psychology C Biological Sciences > C850 Cognitive Psychology C Biological Sciences > C830 Experimental Psychology |
Divisions: | College of Social Science > School of Psychology |
ID Code: | 40045 |
Deposited On: | 03 Feb 2020 11:10 |
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