Iris J Holzleitner

Perception of health from facial cues.

Impressions of health are integral to social interactions, yet poorly understood. A review of the literature reveals multiple facial characteristics that potentially act as cues to health judgements. The cues vary in their stability across time: structural shape cues including symmetry and sexual dimorphism alter slowly across the lifespan and have been found to have weak links to actual health, but show inconsistent effects on perceived health. Facial adiposity changes over a medium time course and is associated with both perceived and actual health. Skin colour alters over a short time and has strong effects on perceived health, yet links to health outcomes have barely been evaluated. Reviewing suggested an additional influence of demeanour as a perceptual cue to health. We, therefore, investigated the association of health judgements with multiple facial cues measured objectively from two-dimensional and three-dimensional facial images. We found evidence for independent contributions of face shape and skin colour cues to perceived health. Our empirical findings: (i) reinforce the role of skin yellowness; (ii) demonstrate the utility of global face shape measures of adiposity; and (iii) emphasize the role of affect in facial images with nominally neutral expression in impressions of health.

Apparent height and body mass index influence perceived leadership ability in three-dimensional faces

Facial appearance has a well-documented effect on perceived leadership ability. Face judgments of leadership ability predict political election outcomes across the world, and similar judgments of business CEOs predict company profits. Body height is also associated with leadership ability, with taller people attaining positions of leadership more than their shorter counterparts in both politics and in the corporate world. Previous studies have found some face characteristics that are associated with leadership judgments, however there have been no studies with three-dimensional faces. We assessed which facial characteristics drive leadership judgments in three-dimensional faces. We found a perceptual relationship between height and leadership ability. We also found that facial maturity correlated with leadership judgments, and that faces of people with an unhealthily high body mass index received lower leadership ratings. We conclude that face attributes associated with body size and maturity alter leadership perception, and may influence real-world democratic leadership selection.

Women's Preferences For Facial Masculinity Are Not Related To Their Hormonal Status

Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial attractiveness judgments, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in men9s faces are related to women9s hormonal status is equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest ever longitudinal study of women9s preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women9s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subject and between-subject comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men9s faces, particularly when assessing men9s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women9s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial attractiveness judgments, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s faces are related to women’s hormonal status is equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women’s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subject and between-subject comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men’s faces, particularly when assessing men’s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

No Compelling Evidence that Preferences for Facial Masculinity Track Changes in Women’s Hormonal Status:

Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial-attractiveness judgments, findings suggesting that women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s faces are related to women’s hormonal status are equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest-ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N = 584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women’s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subjects and between-subjects comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men’s faces, particularly when assessing men’s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

Men's facial masculinity : when (body) size matters

Recent studies suggest that judgments of facial masculinity reflect more than sexually dimorphic shape. Here, we investigated whether the perception of masculinity is influenced by facial cues to body height and weight. We used the average differences in three-dimensional face shape of forty men and forty women to compute a morphological masculinity score, and derived analogous measures for facial correlates of height and weight based on the average face shape of short and tall, and light and heavy men. We found that facial cues to body height and weight had substantial and independent effects on the perception of masculinity. Our findings suggest that men are perceived as more masculine if they appear taller and heavier, independent of how much their face shape differs from womens. We describe a simple method to quantify how body traits are reflected in the face and to define the physical basis of psychological attributions.

Interrelationships Among Men’s Threat Potential, Facial Dominance, and Vocal Dominance

The benefits of minimizing the costs of engaging in violent conflict are thought to have shaped adaptations for the rapid assessment of others’ capacity to inflict physical harm. Although studies have suggested that men’s faces and voices both contain information about their threat potential, one recent study suggested that men’s faces are a more valid cue of their threat potential than their voices are. Consequently, the current study investigated the interrelationships among a composite measure of men’s actual threat potential (derived from the measures of their upper-body strength, height, and weight) and composite measures of these men’s perceived facial and vocal threat potential (derived from dominance, strength, and weight ratings of their faces and voices, respectively). Although men’s perceived facial and vocal threat potential were positively correlated, men’s actual threat potential was related to their perceived facial, but not vocal, threat potential. These results present new evidence that men’s faces may be a more valid cue of these aspects of threat potential than their voices are.

No compelling evidence that more physically attractive young adult women have higher estradiol or progesterone

Putative associations between sex hormones and attractive physical characteristics in women are central to many theories of human physical attractiveness and mate choice. Although such theories have become very influential, evidence that physically attractive and unattractive women have different hormonal profiles is equivocal. Consequently, we investigated hypothesized relationships between salivary estradiol and progesterone and two aspects of womens physical attractiveness that are commonly assumed to be correlated with levels of these hormones: facial attractiveness (N = 249) and waist-to-hip ratio (N = 247). Our analyses revealed no compelling evidence that women with more attractive faces or lower (i.e., more attractive) waist-to-hip ratios had higher levels of estradiol or progesterone. One analysis did suggest that women with more attractive waist-to-hip ratios had significantly higher progesterone, but the relationship was weak and the relationship not significant in other analyses. These results do not support the influential hypothesis that between-women differences in physical attractiveness are related to estradiol and/or progesterone.

No evidence for correlations between handgrip strength and sexually dimorphic acoustic properties of voices

Recent research on the signal value of masculine physical characteristics in men has focused on the possibility that such characteristics are valid cues of physical strength. However, evidence that sexually dimorphic vocal characteristics are correlated with physical strength is equivocal. Consequently, we undertook a further test for possible relationships between physical strength and masculine vocal characteristics.

Does the strength of women’s attraction to male vocal masculinity track changes in steroid hormones?

Recent studies that either used luteinizing hormone tests to confirm the timing of ovulation or measured steroid hormones from saliva have found little evidence that women’s preferences for facial or body masculinity track within-subject changes in women’s fertility or hormonal status. Fewer studies using these methods have examined women’s preferences for vocal masculinity, however, and those that did report mixed results. Consequently, we used a longitudinal design and measured steroid hormones from saliva to test for evidence of hormonal regulation of women’s (N=351) preferences for two aspects of male vocal masculinity (low pitch and low formants). Analyses suggested that preferences for masculine pitch, but not masculine formants, may track within-woman changes in estradiol. Although these results present some evidence for the hypothesis that within-subject hormones regulate women’s attraction to masculine men, we do not discount the possibility that the effect of estradiol on pitch preferences in the current study is a false positive.

No evidence that more physically attractive women have higher estradiol or progesterone

Putative associations between sex hormones and attractive physical characteristics in women are central to many theories of human physical attractiveness and mate choice. Although such theories have become very influential, evidence that physically attractive and unattractive women have different hormonal profiles is equivocal. Consequently, we investigated hypothesized relationships between salivary estradiol and progesterone and two aspects of women’s physical attractiveness that are commonly assumed to be correlated with levels of these hormones: facial attractiveness (N=249) and waist-to-hip ratio (N=247). Our analyses revealed no evidence that women with more attractive faces or lower (i.e., more attractive) waist-to-hip ratios had higher levels of estradiol or progesterone. These results do not support the influential hypothesis that between-women differences in physical attractiveness are related to estradiol and/or progesterone.Havlicek et al. (Behavioral Ecology, 26, 1249-1260, 2015) proposed that increased attractiveness of women in hormonal states associated with high fertility is a byproduct (or “perceptual spandrel”) of adaptations related to between-women differences in sex hormones. A critical piece of their argument was the claim that between-women hormone-attractiveness correlations are stronger than corresponding within-woman correlations. We directly tested this claim by collecting multiple face images and saliva samples from 249 women. Within-woman facial attractiveness was highest when current estradiol was high and current progesterone was simultaneously low, as is the case during the high-fertility phase of the menstrual cycle. By contrast, between-women hormone-attractiveness correlations were not significant. Our results do not support Havlicek et al9s “perceptual spandrels” hypothesis of hormone-linked attractiveness in women. Rather, they present new evidence that women9s attractiveness subtly changes with fluctuations in sex hormones.