Background: Several studies showed that facial attractiveness, as a highly salient social cue, influences behavioral responses. It has also been found that attractive faces evoke distinctive neural activation compared to unattractive or neutral faces.Lähde - Lähde
Objectives: Our aim was to design a face recognition task where individual preferences for facial cues are controlled for, and to create conditions that are more similar to natural circumstances in terms of decision making. Design: In an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, subjects were shown attractive and unattractive faces, categorized on the basis of their own individual ratings.
Results: Statistical analysis of all subjects showed elevated brain activation for attractive opposite-sex faces in contrast to less attractive ones in regions that previously have been reported to show enhanced activation with increasing attractiveness level (e.g. the medial and superior occipital gyri, fusiform gyrus, precentral gyrus, and anterior cingular cortex). Besides these, females showed additional brain activation in areas thought to be involved in basic emotions and desires (insula), detection of facial emotions (superior temporal gyrus), and memory retrieval (hippocampus).
Conclusions: From these data, we speculate that because of the risks involving mate choice faced by women during evolutionary times, selection might have preferred the development of an elaborated neural system in females to assess the attractiveness and social value of male faces.
Olen kertonut afroamerikkalaisen naistutkijan mielenkiintoisesta tutkimuksesta, jossa valkoiset miehet toivat enimmäkseen esille kielteisiä näkemyksiä mustien naisten ulkonäöstä vaikka joukosta myös löytyi vähän myönteisesti suhtautuvia, joka on tietysti myös tilastollinen tosi asia. Naistutkija toi muistaakseni esille kuinka kyselytutkimukseen liittyy vääristäviä tekijöitä kuinka ihmiset ovat poliittisesti korrekteja tai eivät kerro todellista näkemystään varsinkin, kun kyseessä oli afroamerikkalainen tutkija, jota ei välttämättä moni mielellään halua loukata, kun kaiken lisäksi nykyisin moni pelkää liialti rasistisyytöksiä. Jotta tutkija vähensi näitä vääristäviä tekijöitä tehtiin muistaakseni kysely nimettömästi ja valkoiset miehet eivät myöskään olleet tietoisia kyseessä olevan afroamerikkalainen tutkija.
Tällaiset vääristävät tekijät ovat kyllä jonkinlainen ongelma, mutta sen takia tarvitaan paljon samanlaisia tutkimuksia, jotta voidaan verrata tuloksia ja niihin mielellään sadoilta tai tuhansilta ihmisiltä näkemyksiä. Nähtävästi yksi tapa tutkia kauneutta on aivotutkimus, että mitä tapahtuu aivoissa, kun esim. mokuttajalle tai antirasistille näyttää kuvia erinäköisistä naisista. Näiden ihmisten osalta varsinkin voisi olettaa heidän olevan hyvin poliittisesti korrekteja, mutta toisaalta voi myös ajatella, että mokuttaja näkee eri tavalla tai laajemmin kauneuden, kun taas muut ihmiset ovat usein änkyröitä naiskauneudessa kuinka naisen pitäisi olla kasvoiltaan kuin barbie. Alla on tutkimus, jossa tuodaan esille kuinka ihmisillä aktivoituu aivoissa mielihyvä tai palkinto piiri, kun näkevät kuvan kauniista ihmisestä.
Utilitarian theory posits that we are driven by an inherent desire to maximize reward. Not to be superficial - but given this logic when one views an attractive face the face should be desired and processed as a reward whereas when one views an unattractive face it should be processed as a punishment. Indeed, research using functional magnetic resonance imaging supports this hypothesis – in a seminal study Aharon and colleagues (2001) showed that the viewing of attractive faces activated neural reward circuitry relative to the viewing of unattractive faces. Here, we sought to provide electroencephalographic (EEG) support for this hypothesis. Specifically, we recorded electroencephalographic data while participants viewed and rated faces on a Likert scale for attractiveness. Following data collection we used the participants' ratings to code faces as either being attractive or unattractive. Based on these codings, an analysis of our electroencephalographic data revealed that a contrast of "attractive" and "unattractive" faces revealed an event-related brain potential component with a timing and scalp topography consistent with the feedback error-related negativity (fERN) – a component previously shown to be sensitive to reward feedback. Further, localization of the fERN we observed revealed a source within the anterior cingulate cortex – a result also consistent with previous accounts of the fERN. Importantly, our results provide further support for the hypothesis that perceived attractiveness activates reward-processing circuitry within the medial-frontal cortex.Lähde
Poimimalla yllä olevasta lainauksesta hakusanoja Googleen voi löytää lisää tutkimuksia, jonka takia löytyi tutkimus viime vuoden loppupuolelta, johon en ole tainnut vielä linkata. Tässäkin tutkimuksessa käy ilmi kuinka sukupuolilla aivot käyttäytyvät eri tavalla, että miehille on naisen kauneus huomattavan tärkeää, kun taas naiselle on myös muut tekijät tärkeitä miehissä, kuten sosioekonominen asema. Siitä on muistaakseni ollut jossain uudessa tutkimuksessa juttua kuinka nykyisin naiset käyttäytyisivät enemmän kuin miehet, että ulkonäkö on heillekin tärkeää. Tämän voisi tulkita sillä tavalla, että kun naisilla ei ole nykyisin samalla tavalla rahallisia huolia varsinkin lasten osalta, kun valtio on osaltaan ottanut elättäjän aseman ja täten aiheuttaa yhteiskunnissa mahdollisesti dysgeniaa, niin silloin nainenkin voi käyttäytyä lähes kuin mies.
Naiset alkavat olla länsimaissa myös hyvin korkeakoulutettuja verrattuna miehiin, joka tietääkseni näkyy varsinkin afroamerikkalaisissa naisissa ja tämä aiheuttaa jonkinlaisen ongelman, kun naisilla on ollut perinteisesti tapana pariutua itseään paremmin menestyneen miehen kanssa, mutta nykyisin naisten on pakko valita mies myös vähemmän koulutettujen tai palkkaa saavien joukosta. Tilastojen perusteella korkeakoulutus vaikuttaa myös kielteisesti naisten hedelmällisyyteen, että varsinkin Yhdysvalloissa korkeakoulutetut mustat naiset saavat hyvin vähän lapsia, kun eivät löydä edes mustaa miestä, joka on hyvin dysgeenistä, mutta se on myös huonoa, koska korkeakoulutettu musta nainen voisi olla hyvä esikuva mustalle lapselle.
Alla olevassa lainauksessa mainitaan raha ja naisen kauneus, niin siihen liittyen tulee mieleen MyFreeCams sivusto, joka erinomaisesti osoittaa, millä tavalla sukupuolet käyttäytyvät kuinka miehet selvästi enimmäkseen lappaavat rahaa kauniin näköisille naisille. Kuinka moni nainen olisi valmis maksamaan miehelle rahaa makkaran tai vartalon näyttämisestä ja kuinka paljon rahaa, kun taas vastaavasti miehet ovat selvästi innoissaan naisen vartalon suloista ja ovat valmiita maksamaan paljonkin sen näkemisestä, jonka hinta riippuu tuolla sivustolla paljonkin naisen suosiosta, että puhutaan sadoista ellei tuhansista dollareista.
From the standpoint of evolutionary social psychology, facial attractiveness is generally believed to indicate the genetic fitness and reproductive capacities of encountered individuals (Fink and Penton-Voak, 2002; Rhodes, 2006). However, when selecting mates, men place greater importance on attractiveness than do women, whereas women favor status and resources more so than men (Buss, 1989; Buss and Schmitt, 1993; Sprecher et al., 1994; Li et al., 2002). Although the reasons behind these differences can be explained from both evolutionary and socio-cultural perspectives (Howard et al., 1987), the mechanisms underlying these sex differences are still not fully understood (Buss, 1989). One possibility is that attractive faces of the opposite sex simply have different reward value for males and females. This notion is supported by a recent study showing that males are willing to wait longer, will exchange more money, and will expend more effort than females for the opportunity to look at attractive opposite-sex faces (Hayden et al., 2007). Furthermore, it has been shown that males, but not females, are motivated by the presence of an attractive face of the opposite sex to discount higher future monetary rewards in favor of smaller immediate monetary rewards (Wilson and Daly, 2004).Lähde
Convicted criminal offenders had more children than individuals never convicted of a criminal offense. Criminal offenders also had more reproductive partners, were less often married, more likely to get remarried if ever married, and had more often contracted a sexually transmitted disease than non-offenders. Importantly, the increased reproductive success of criminals was explained by a fertility increase from having children with several different partners. (Yao et al., 2014)Lähde
The physical attractiveness of faces is positively correlated with both behavioral and neural measures of their motivational salience. Although previous work suggests that hormone levels modulate women's perceptions of others’ facial attractiveness, studies have not yet investigated whether hormone levels also modulate the motivational salience of facial characteristics. To address this issue, we investigated the relationships between within-subject changes in women's salivary hormone levels (estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, and estradiol-to-progesterone ratio) and within-subject changes in the motivational salience of attractiveness and sexual dimorphism in male and female faces. The motivational salience of physically attractive faces in general and feminine female faces, but not masculine male faces, was greater in test sessions where women had high testosterone levels. Additionally, the reward value of sexually dimorphic faces in general and attractive female faces, but not attractive male faces, was greater in test sessions where women had high estradiol-to-progesterone ratios. These results provide the first evidence that the motivational salience of facial attractiveness and sexual dimorphism is modulated by within-woman changes in hormone levels.Lähde
Facial attractiveness provides a very powerful motivation for sexual and parental behavior. We therefore review the importance of faces to the study of neurobiological control of human reproductive motivations. For heterosexual individuals there is a common brain circuit involving the nucleus accumbens, the medial prefrontal, dorsal anterior cingulate and the orbitofrontal cortices that is activated more by attractive than unattractive faces, particularly for faces of the opposite sex. Behavioral studies indicate parallel effects of attractiveness on incentive salience or willingness to work to see faces. Both work/effort and brain activation to the sight of opposite sex attractiveness is more pronounced in men than women, perhaps reflecting the greater importance assigned to physical attractiveness by men when evaluating a potential mate. Studies comparing heterosexual and homosexual observers indicate the orbitofrontal cortex and mediodorsal thalamus are more activated by faces of the desired sex than faces of the less preferred sex, independent of observer gender or sexual orientation. Infant faces activate brain regions that partially overlap with those responsive to adult faces. Infant faces provide a powerful stimulus, which also elicits sex differences in behavior and brain responses that appear dependent on sex hormones.Lähde
Hundreds of studies have shown that people prefer attractive over unattractive faces. But what is an attractive face, and why is it preferred? Averageness theory claims that faces are perceived as being attractive when their facial configuration approximates the mathematical average facial configuration of the population. Conversely, faces that deviate from this average configuration are perceived as being unattractive. The theory predicts that both attractive and mathematically averaged faces should be processed more fluently than unattractive faces, whereas the averaged faces should be processed marginally more fluently than the attractive faces. We compared neurocognitive and behavioral responses to attractive, unattractive, and averaged human faces to test these predictions. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) and reaction times (RTs) from 48 adults while they discriminated between human and chimpanzee faces. The participants categorized averaged and high-attractive faces as being “human” faster than low-attractive faces. The posterior N170 (150–225 ms) face-evoked ERP component was smaller in response to high-attractive and averaged faces than to low-attractive faces. Single-trial electroencephalographic analysis indicated that this reduced ERP response arose from the engagement of fewer neural resources, and not from a change in the temporal consistency of how those resources were engaged. These findings provide novel evidence that faces are perceived as being attractive when they approximate a facial configuration close to the population average, and they suggest that processing fluency underlies preferences for attractive faces.Lähde
“If all babies care about is fairness, then they would always pick the fair distributor, but we’re also seeing that they’re interested in consequences for their own group members,” Sommerville concluded. This means that the toddlers were able to weigh on aesthetic racial characteristics as well as history of social behavior in deciding who they prefer to interact with.Lähde
Other psychological studies have found evidence of racial consideration early on in toddlers’ cognitive development. One such study, at the University of Massachusetts, found that in infants as young as 9 months, recognition of faces and facial expression is significantly more accurate for those belonging to the same ethnic group as them.
“These results suggest that biases in face recognition and perception begin in preverbal infants, well before concepts about race are formed. It is important for us to understand the nature of these biases in order to reduce or eliminate [the biases],” University of Massachusetts psychologist Lisa Scott explained.
Yet another study at the University of Virginia found that a “racial empathy gap” exists already by the age 10, sometimes as early as age 5.
One thing is for sure, the more research conducted surrounding the development of racial consciousness in children, the better we will understand it.
