Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.14695/KJSOS.2016.19.1.21

Effects of Gender, Age and Affective Dimensions on Facial Attractiveness  

Cho, Kyung Ja (Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University)
Jung, Woo Hyun (Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University)
Lee, Seung Bok (Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University)
Ku, Yea Shil (Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University)
Publication Information
Science of Emotion and Sensibility / v.19, no.1, 2016 , pp. 21-30 More about this Journal
Abstract
The aim of this study was to find whether the perception of facial attractiveness is influenced by gender, age and kinds of affective dimensions(sharp/soft, babyish/mature). In the study the participants (48 elementary school students, 44 middle school students, 39 university students comprised of 60 males and 71 females) were shown the photos of sixty female faces and asked to grade each face on a nine point scale in three different dimensions (sharp/soft, babyish/mature, attractive/unattractive). Results using Multi-level analysis, faces that were babyish and soft were perceived as more attractive regardless of gender and age. But differences were found in the strength of facial attractiveness by gender and age. Two groups (elementary school students and middle school students) perceived the same photos of female faces to be less attractive than the university students. Also, male participants perceived the faces to be less attractive than female participants. Moreover the study showed a significant difference between university students and elementary school students in relation to the sharp/soft dimension and this dimension was more influential on elementary school students than university students. These results further suggest that if a face looks babyish and soft, then the face will be perceived as attractive regardless of gender or age. However, the degree of facial attractiveness perceived depends on the participant's gender and age.
Keywords
Affective Dimensions; Facial Attractiveness; Gender; Age; Multi Level Analysis;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Alley, T. R. (1988). The effects of growth and aging on facial aesthetics. In T. R. Alley (Ed.), Social and Applied Aspects of Perceiving Faces (pp.51-62), Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2 Berry, D. S. & Brownlow, S. (1989). Were the physiognomists right? Personality correlates of facial babyishness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15(2), 266-279.   DOI
3 Bruce, V. & Young, A. (1998). In the Eye of the Beholder, New York: Oxford University Press.
4 Dehon, H. & Bredart, S. (2001). An “other-race” effect in age estimation from faces. Perception, 30(9), 1107-1113.   DOI
5 Budge, H. S. (1981). Dimensions of Physical Attract-Iveness: How Others See Us. Unpublished Doctorial Dissertation, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
6 Carey, S. (1992). Becoming a face expert. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, 335(1273), 95-102.   DOI
7 Cunningham, M. R. (1986). Measuring the physical attractiveness: Quisi-Experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(5), 925-935.   DOI
8 Ellis, H. D. (1990). Developmental trends in face recognition. The Psychologist: Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 3, 114-119.
9 Feingold, A. (1990). Gender difference effects of physical attractiveness on romantic attraction: A comparison across five research paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(5), 981-993.   DOI
10 Feingold, A. (1992). Gender differences in mate selection preferences: A test of the parental investment model. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 125-139.   DOI
11 Fink, B. & Neave, N. (2005). The biology of facial beauty. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 27(6), 317-325.   DOI
12 Green, S. K., Buchanan, D. R., & Heuer, S. K. (2000). Winners, losers, and choosers: A field investigation of dating initiation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10(4), 502-511   DOI
13 Kim, B. J. & Cho, M. H. (2008). The study on perception of physical attractiveness: gender, comparison between self and others(신체지각에 관한 연구: 성차, 자신과 타인의 비교). Proceedings of the Korean Society for Social and Personal Psychology, 110-119.
14 Jones, D. (1995). Sexual selection, physical attractiveness, and facial neoteny. Current Anthropology, 36(5), 723-748.   DOI
15 Keating, C. F. (1985). Gender and physiognomy of dominance and attractiveness. Social Psychology Quarterly, 48(1), 61-70.   DOI
16 Kim, B. J. (2009). Effects of pupil size on the perception of attraction: Gender difference(눈동자 크기가 매력 지각에 미치는 효과에 있어서 남녀차이). The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology, 14(2), 199-218.   DOI
17 Kim, H. K., Park, S. J., & Chung, C. (2004). The affective components of facial beauty(아름다운 얼굴의 감성적 특징). Korean Journal of the Science of Emotion & Sensibility, 7(1), 23-28.
18 Langlois, J. H., Roggman, L. A., Casey, R. J., Ritter-Danner, L. A., & Jenkins, V. Y. (1987). Infant's preferences for attractive faces: rudiments of a stereotype? Developmental Psychology, 23(3), 363-369.   DOI
19 Kissler, J. & Bauml, K. H. (2000). Effects of the beholder's age on the perception of facial attractiveness. Journal of Acta Psychologica, 104(2), 145-166.   DOI
20 Kwon, H. S. (1996). Effect of facial shape on the judgment of female Physical Attractiveness(얼굴형이 여성의 신체적 매력측정에 미치는 영향). The Journal of Design, 4, 55-68.
21 Lee, H. S. (2010). Study on the shape of eye brows affecting the visual image of face(눈썹형태가 얼굴에 미치는 이미지에 관한 연구). Master's Thesis of Sungshin University, Seoul.
22 Lee, K. S. & Han, D. U. (2003). Which facial attributes of women attract young men?(젊은 남성들은 어떤 얼굴 모습의 여성에게 매력을 느끼는가?). Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 17(2), 73-83.
23 McArthur, L. Z. & Apatow, K. (1983). Impressions of baby-faced adults. Social Cognition, 2(4), 315-342.   DOI
24 Mclellan, B. & Mckelvie. S. J. (1993). Effects of age and gender on perceived facial attractiveness. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 25(1), 135-142.   DOI
25 Monahan, J. L., Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (2000). Subliminal mere exposure: Specific, general, and diffuse effects. Psychological Science, 11(6), 462-466.   DOI
26 Noor, F. & Evans, D. C. (2003) The effect of facial symmetry on perceptions of personality and attractiveness. Jouranl of Research in Personality, 37(4), 339-347.   DOI
27 Sung, Y. S., Park, E. A., Lee, J. W., & Kim, W. S. (2009). Psychological Power of Beauty: Focused on gender difference and life-domain difference(아름다움의 심리적 권력: 성별, 영역별 미(美)권력 차이를 중심으로). Korean Journal of Consumer and Advertising Psychology, 10(3), 461-488.
28 Park, S. J., Han, J. H., & Chung, C. (2002). The analysis of physical features and affective words on facial types of Korean females in twenties(얼굴의 물리적 특징 분석 및 얼굴 관련 감성 어휘 분석-20대 한국인 여성 얼굴을 대상으로-). Korean Journal of Cognitive Science, 13(3), 1-10.
29 Pedelty, L., Levine, S. C., & Shevell, S. K. (1985). Developmental changes in face processing: Results from multidimensional scaling, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 39(3), 421-436.   DOI
30 Saxton, T. K., Kohoutova, D., Craig Roberts, S., Jones, B. C., DeBruine L. M., & Havlicek, J. (2010). Age, puberty and attractiveness judgments in adolescents. Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, 49(8), 857-862.   DOI
31 Wagatsma, E. & Kleinke, C. L. (1979). Ratings of facial beauty of Asian-American and Caucasian females. The Journal of Social Psychology, 109(2), 299-300.   DOI