Facial Attractiveness

by Rhodes, Gillian; Zebrowitz, Leslie A.

• ISBN13: 9781567506365
• ISBN10: 1567506364
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Praeger Pub Text

Summary

Using evolutionary, cognitive, and social psychology, this volume examines the issues raised by the question, "What makes some faces more attractive than others?" The authors challenge the views that beauty is simply in the "eye of the beholder," that it is idiosyncratic, and that it is nothing more than an artifact of culture. They argue instead that there are a variety of biological, social, motivational, and developmental issues involved in facial attractiveness. By exploring attractiveness and preference from these various perspectives, this collection offers profound and unique insight on how and why we are attracted to certain facial types, and how that attraction can influence our social interaction. Some of the ideas presented in Facial Attractiveness are surprising, others controversial, and others even paradoxical. Combined, however, they offer a new perspective on age-old questions of attraction, beauty and preference. Each author challenges standard assumptions about beauty, and encourages the reader to explore new trends in evolutionary, social, and cognitive psychology in search of a more coherent answer to the questions of what makes a face attractive and why.

Author Biography

GILLIAN RHODES is Professor of Psychology at the University of Western Australia and the author of Superportraits: Caricatures and Recognition.LESLIE A. ZEBROWITZ is Manuel Yellen Professor of Social Relations and Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
What Makes a Face Attractive and Why: The Role of Averageness in Defining Facial Beauty	1	(34)
Adam J. Rubenstein
Judith H. Langlois
Lori A. Roggman
The Attractiveness of Average Faces: Cross-Cultural Evidence and Possible Biological Basis	35	(24)
Gillian Rhodes
Kate Harwood
Sakiko Yoshikawa
Miwa Nishitani
Ian McLean
Evolution and Individual Differences in the Perception of Attractiveness: How Cyclic Hormonal Changes and Self-Perceived Attractiveness Influence Female Preferences for Male Faces	59	(32)
Anthony C. Little
Ian S. Penton-Voak
D. Michael Burt
David I. Perrett
Female Faces and Bodies: N-Dimensional Feature Space and Attractiveness	91	(36)
Karl Grammer
Bernhard Fink
Astrid Juette
Gudrun Ronzal
Randy Thornhill
An Ethological Theory of Attractiveness	127	(26)
Magnus Enquist
Stefano Ghirlanda
Daniel Lundqvist
Carl-Adam Wachtmeister
Charismatic Faces: Social Status Cues Put Face Appeal in Context	153	(40)
Caroline F. Keating
Dimensions of Facial Physical Attractiveness: The Intersection of Biology and Culture	193	(46)
Michael R. Cunningham
Anita P. Barbee
Correna L. Philhower
Cultural Perspectives on Facial Attractiveness	239	(22)
Karen K. Dion
Nature Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom: The Multiple Ways and Wherefores of Attractiveness	261	(34)
Leslie A. Zebrowitz
Gillian Rhodes
Index	295	(12)
About the Editors and Contributors	307