Beauty judged in a fraction of a second
20 January 2006
by Carina
Lee
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An experiment that tested people's ability to judge attractiveness in a fraction of a second showed they are most likely to associate pretty faces with positive traits. This is according to a recent study conducted by a team of expert psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor in Penn's Department of Psychology, Ingrid Olson, explains, "We're able to judge attractiveness with surprising speed and on the basis of very little information. It seems that pretty faces 'prime' our minds to make us more likely to associate the pretty face with a positive emotion." Cognitive processes were examined by these scientists while looking at the real phenomenon the 'physically attractive people have advantages that unattractive people do not.' In the report published in the journal Emotion, the scientists looked at three different aspects. The first method used tested a person's response to observing the physical attractiveness of random people. Secondly, a face popped up onto the screen quickly along with a word. Asked to ignore the face on the screen, the person was then asked to categorise the word into either 'good' or 'bad'. Results showed that the more attractive face produced a faster response time to the good words. Thirdly and finally, a similar experiment was undertaken. However instead of viewing faces, the objects were houses. By doing this, researches were able to tell if there is bias between the objects viewed. The results showed that there were. The response time to good words proved no difference after having viewed an attractive house. |
 It seems that pretty faces 'prime' our minds to make us more likely to associate the pretty face with a positive emotion."
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Related Links
Original press release from University of Pennsylvania
Nature
& Science News
ClearlyExplained.com