Facial attractiveness, social status, and face recognition

Research on facial attractiveness and face recognition has produced contradictory results that we believe are rooted in methodological limitations. Three experiments evaluated the hypothesis that facial attractiveness and face recognition are positively and linearly related. We also expected that so...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Visual cognition 2021-03, Vol.29 (3), p.158-179
Main Authors: Malloy, Thomas E., DiPietro, Carissa, DeSimone, Brandon, Curley, Christine, Chau, Sathiarith, Silva, Casey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attraction
face recognition
Facial attractiveness
facial distinctiveness
Pattern recognition
Social interactions
social status
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Summary:Research on facial attractiveness and face recognition has produced contradictory results that we believe are rooted in methodological limitations. Three experiments evaluated the hypothesis that facial attractiveness and face recognition are positively and linearly related. We also expected that social status would moderate the attractiveness effect. Attractive faces were recognized with very high accuracy compared to less attractive faces. We specified two estimates of facial distinctiveness (generalized and idiosyncratic) and demonstrated that the attractiveness effect on face recognition was not due to distinctiveness. This solves the long-standing problem that because facial attractiveness and distinctiveness are naturally confounded, construct validity is compromised. There was no support for the prediction, based on meta-analysis, that females would outperform males in face recognition. The attractiveness effect was so strong that gender effects were precluded. Methodological prescriptions to enhance internal, construct, and statistical conclusion validity in face recognition paradigms are presented.
ISSN:1350-6285
1464-0716
DOI:10.1080/13506285.2021.1884630