Page 75 - Demo

Attractiveness modulates attention734Ma et al. (2015, 2019) paired face stimuli with pictures of objects. Therefore, instead of two faces competing for attention (e.g., attractive and intermediately attractive), there was one face and one household object. Thus, the saliency of the neutral stimuli differed very strongly from the faces they were paired with. Second, Ma and colleagues and Maner et al. (2007) only compared attractive faces with intermediately attractive faces. Given that both attractive and unattractive faces may possess features that distinguish them from an average face (Lin et al., 2020; Said & Todorov, 2011), including the comparison between intermediately attractive and unattractive faces is necessary to conclude that specifically attractive faces modulate attention. Third, Ma and colleagues presented stimuli for 500 ms, which is not an ideal presentation duration to study initial engagement, because individuals can shift attention within this time period (Petrova et al., 2013). As a consequence, it remains unclear whether the attractiveness of a face influences immediate attentional capture.Apart from a general preference for attractiveness, humans also have an aesthetic preference for symmetry (Bertamini et al., 2019; Che et al., 2018; Little, 2014). Importantly, this preference seems widespread in nature: Bilateral symmetry is associated with increased mating success in multiple animal species (Møller & Thornhill, 1998). In humans, attractive faces tend to be more symmetrical than unattractive faces (Perrett et al., 1999; Rhodes et al., 1999). People perceive them as healthy looking (Jones et al., 2001; Rhodes et al., 2007), and indeed, symmetry has been linked to genetic health and developmental stability, which would explain why a preference for symmetrical partners could be beneficial (Little, Jones, et al., 2011). Because of the saliency of symmetry, Wagemans (1995) suggested that it should be detected rapidly. While it has been shown that women can correctly identify symmetrized versions of a male face in a forcedchoice paradigm (Oinonen & Mazmanian, 2007), it has not yet been established whether such symmetrical faces rapidly modulate the attention of viewers. The evolutionary significance of symmetry might translate into an attentional bias toward symmetrical partners. Thus far, no study has directly investigated whether that is indeed the case by comparing modulation of attention by symmetrized, original, and asymmetrized stimuli.Because humans have such a strong preference for attractive people, they might pick up other variant and invariant facial characteristics more readily in attractive faces. For example, people identify facial expressions more quickly in attractive faces than in unattractive faces (Taylor & Bryant, 2016) and classify Tom Roth.indd 73 08-01-2024 10:41