When he smiles

Attractiveness preferences for male faces expressing emotions

Bibliographic Data

ID6146014
AuthorsMariana L Carrito (0000-0001-8414-5319, Universidade do Porto), Francisca Bismarck (0000-0001-7820-8395, Universidade do Porto), Pedro Bem-Haja (0000-0002-7547-5743, Centre for Health Technology and Services Research), David I Perrett (0000-0002-6025-0939, University of St Andrews, corresponding author), Isabel M Santos (0000-0003-2404-4035, University of Aveiro)
Year2023
Volume5
Pagese31-e31
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEvolutionary Human Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2513-843X • E-ISSN: 2513-843X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/ehs.2023.28
PMID38155757
OpenAlexW4388661081
LanguageEN
References cited56

The impact of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness has been controversial owing to contradictory results, particularly in studies on female preferences. Given that sexually dimorphic facial features, especially more masculine ones, have been previously related to the perception of anger, we investigated the bi-directional influence of emotional expressions and facial masculinity and explored their impact on women's preferences for facial masculinity. We confirmed the effect of facial sexual dimorphism on the perception of emotional cues (happiness and anger) and explored whether smiling or angry expressions influence women's perception of masculinity in male faces. Additionally, we examined women's preferences for emotionally expressive male faces altered along a continuum of masculinity. The results showed that masculinised faces are perceived as angrier, while feminised faces are perceived as happier (Experiment 1), and that angry faces are perceived as more masculine when compared with happy faces (Experiment 2). It is noteworthy that our Experiment 3 uncovered a pivotal finding: women prefer reduced feminisation in happy faces compared with neutral/angry faces. This suggests that the avoidance response observed towards masculinity is attenuated by a smiling expression. The current study introduces a new perspective to be considered when exploring the role of facial masculinity in women's attractiveness preferences

Anger · Attractiveness · Developmental psychology · Disgust · Emotional expression · Facial attractiveness · Facial expression · Happiness · Masculinity · Perception · Perspective (graphical · Physical attractiveness · Sexual dimorphism · Communication · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Psychology · Social Psychology