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Attractiveness modulates attention914Figure 7. By-Subject Mean-Centered RTs per Condition and per Probe Location. Dots indicate the median reaction times (RT), while error bars represent the 89% credible interval. On both congruent and incongruent trials, we found no evidence for attractiveness resulting in a stronger gaze cuing effect.DiscussionAttractiveness is a salient social signal that not only affects our judgment but also biases our attention and perception of other social information. In the current study, we investigated how facial attractiveness and symmetry modulated attention. Moreover, we investigated whether facial attractiveness modulated gaze cuing. The results show, first, that participants had an attentional bias toward attractive faces but not toward unattractive faces. Second, attention was not differentially modulated by facial symmetry. Third, gaze cuing was not affected by the attractiveness of the face. Fourth, we found no evidence for differences in attractiveness bias between men and women or between younger and older participants. These results will be discussed in more detail in the sections below.Our first key result, that people had an attentional bias toward attractive faces, is in line with previous research (Ma et al., 2019; Ma, Zhao, et al., 2015; Maner, Gailliot, Rouby, et al., 2007). Using a similar dot-probe task as in the current study, Ma and colleagues showed that Chinese undergraduate students (n = 108 females: Y. Ma et al., 2015; n = 109 males: Y. Ma et al., 2019) had difficulties disengaging from attractive faces. While they found no overall attentional bias toward attractiveness faces, only participants who were single and primed with romantic Tom Roth.indd 91 08-01-2024 10:41