Introduction
Modern cognitive neuroscience theory divides attractive and unattractive faces into regular, symmetrical, and pronounced sexual features. The averageness of the face indicates how heterozygous the organism is. It illustrates how the organism is adapted and susceptible to the fight against the surrounding danger. Facial symmetry is associated with how successfully the organism has undergone ontogeny. In addition, symmetry shows how the organism coped with prenatal and postnatal development. Suppose a person has an asymmetrical face (meaning pathological asymmetry). In that case, this means that the body during the prenatal or postnatal period, the body could experience difficulties and obstacles, for example, diseases. Pronounced sex traits reflect human immunity and hormonal levels; usually, faces with well-defined sex features are considered attractive. However, social assessments of the geometric characteristics of the face argue that the excessive emphasis on some sexual features negatively affects the association. The perception of faces is subject to evolutionary and cultural distortion, leading to poor decision-making and misperceptions of particular individuals.
In understanding the effect attractive faces have on the cognitive process, it is vital to establish whether facial beauty causes bias in a person’s cognitive ability. According to Olson & Marshuetz (2005), facial attractiveness imposes bias on the people forced to make the decisions. The authors conducted an experiment where upright and inverted attractive and unattractive faces matched positive or negative words. Attractive upright faces were identified with positive comments, while unattractive faces with negative expressions. Most of the inverted faces, whether attractive or not, were identified with negative words. It meant that facial attractiveness created some bias in the people’s cognitive process, recognizing the faces as good or bad, though how the attractive faces are presented also mattered (Olson & Marshuetz, 2005). It was mainly because of how investigators showed them, and if scientists introduced them more decently, they would be associated with positive words.
The nature of the human brain is such that it seeks to form an impression of another person as quickly as possible. It is also essential for the brain to rationally explain the origin of certain things, occurrences, or properties. Some people hire specialists based on attractiveness, associations with facial features, and memories. It is believed that attractive people find it easier to get a good job, as people will automatically associate them with diligent and intellectually developed employees. As a rule, associating with excellent facial features has nothing to do with the actual intellectual data of a person. Also, generally recognized beauty and attractiveness do not affect diligence and other components involved in study and work. The employer will also not be able, if desired, to identify accurately referring to facial features, the level of human health, and the tendency to diseases in the future.
Factors Identifying Attractiveness
Factors that make people identify as attractive or unattractive include fitness, being baby-faced, and finance. Assessment of attractiveness is evolutionally crucial: “Physical attractiveness is a desirable trait in a potential mate in that it signals underlying quality, thus providing direct and indirect benefits to the individual” (Hahn, & Perrett, 2017, p. 6). Giving preference to attractive people, a person thinks, first of all, what he does more conveniently and better for himself. Modern science will allow using technology to analyze human faces from different criteria. Edler (2020) argues, “A discussion on the background to facial attractiveness must obviously acknowledge the enormous impact that cephalometry has had and the manner in which it has been used to provide a vast array of data useful for the representation of ideal proportions” (p. 165). Fitness levels, most times, are used to classify people as either attractive or unattractive. In Little’s (2015) cognitive neuroscience research, obese members were identified as unattractive, with little reference to their looks. Fitness levels are affected by several factors, including age and level of exercise.
It would be appropriate to mention the cultural aspect since fullness, including the fullness of the face, is considered a sign of financial wealth in some cultures. People who see a full face (so-called ‘chubby face’), although they are not inclined to evaluate it as attractive, associate positive emotions with such a face caused by emotions from wealth. Financial wealth and attractiveness in society are very often mixed since beauty and wealth are central values of people.
Finances significantly affect a person’s social status and general attractiveness for people. Finance is associated with the strength, power, stability, and reliability of a person. Rich people in society are always perceived as more attractive than less fortunate (Zebrowitz, 2018). Social status is not only crucial for mature or older people: “Adolescents will also be more sensitive to social status cues” (Koski et al., 2019, p 15). Evaluation of the attractiveness of a person for his financial status accompanies him throughout his life.
It is especially true for women, but many people are considered attractive if they have baby faces. The culture of childhood is associated with freshness, strength, and kindness, so such faces are considered beautiful. Research conducted by a university to determine the factors that determine beauty identified having a baby face as among the elements that make one more attractive (Hahn & Perrett, 2017). However, some other cognitive neuroscience research disqualified this reasoning, claiming that having a baby face only qualifies you as attractive within some age limit (Zebrowitz, 2018). Following Hahn & Perrett (2017), “Physical attractiveness may also influence neural and behavioral responses to infant faces” (p. 8). People with baby faces are considered more attractive and get advantages compared to those with other shape configurations.
Attractiveness in the Mind
The brain can very quickly identify a face as attractive or not. Attractive faces are associated with culturally and socially acceptable norms: “It appears that socially valued traits such as honesty, warmth, cooperation, and skill as a parent are associated with feminized versions of male faces, while traits such as dominance are associated with masculinized face shapes” (Little, 2014, p. 627). Thus, enhanced masculine features can negatively affect the perception of the face. Due to the high connection with society, morality, and emotions, people build associations with faces much faster than with other objects, like art, architecture, or interior.
Beauty and facial attractiveness are described to exist in the mind. Facial attractiveness causes bias because of responses elicited by the reason. The brain needs to identify specific traits that will stimulate a positive response in the amygdala to show that a face is attractive, making them identify such faces as beautiful (Trujillo et al., 2019). Many people have a definition of what faces are attractive to them. It is defined using some traits encoded in the amygdala. However, cultural differences sometimes influence these traits and do not entirely affect a person’s mind.
Some communities can use skin color to define attractive faces, meaning that a light-skinned person can be identified as attractive or unattractive. For instance, “Carotenoids are red and yellow pigments that influence our skin color when consumed through fruits and vegetables” (Foo et al., 2017, p. 2). So, the most attractive face colors are red, yellow, and white shades. Redness on the face can have other indications besides the high content of carotene. Perhaps this is why it is socially acceptable for women to put makeup on their cheeks to emphasize their health. A red face or redness on the face can be considered a sign of high hemoglobin levels. In turn, a white face, beautiful to women, is considered evolutionarily by humans to signify high estrogen levels. Modern Asian culture still highly values white skin in women, which makes them refuse to tan. Cultural habits and ideals of beauty are deeply and firmly embedded in the context people live and form persistent ideas about attractiveness and an attractive face.
So many aspects of assessing a person’s beauty in general, and the attractiveness of facial features, notably, relate to cultural differences. It is widely believed that it is not the features of the face that make a face attractive but the person who looks and evaluates it. It was established in an experiment to determine whether people have a different definitions of beauty (Edler, 2020). Edler (2020) used photographs of models and students in the experiment and asked people about their level of attractiveness. In support of this judgment and investigation, one can remind that people consider familiar faces (with whom an association has already been established) to be the most attractive. Little (2014) explains it this way: “Here are obvious benefits to avoiding unfamiliar people because such individuals are unpredictable and could prove dangerous” (p. 628). Familiar and understandable faces make people feel safe and comfortable.
Neural Explanation of Perception of Attractiveness
One perception of beauty seems to be influenced by neural mechanisms in the amygdala. The amygdala is part of the limbic system and part of the brain that mainly identifies with social issues such as sexuality, relationships, and reasoning with the aspect of our social life (Koski et al., 2019). The amygdala associates attractive faces with outstanding traits while associating ordinary or unattractive faces with undesirable characteristics. When one sees an attractive face, the stimuli will elicit more responses to the part of the brain associated with positive traits. When the eye sees a person with an unattractive face, the information is sent to the brain, producing fewer responses, making the stimuli transmitted to the brain area identified with inappropriate activities. It can explain why many believe that attractive people can achieve more than unattractive people.
Usually, the fact of being impressed by the attractiveness of a face remains beyond a person’s awareness. According to Talamas et al. (2016), “We are ‘blinded by beauty’ in a way in which we would be more accurate in our perceptions of academic performance from faces if we were not influenced by the ‘attractiveness halo’ effect” (p. 11). Investigators can explain it in more scientific terms based on an experiment by Talamas et al. According to cognitive neuroscience research, when one sees an attractive face, and stimuli are sent to the brain’s cortex, increasing the supply of blood in several body parts, including the face (Talamas et al., 2016). The release of hormones and dopamine when liking a particular person affects the perception of the face and the body.
In a study, investigators observed three brain components to respond to beauty. The process involved in the brain when it records an attractive face includes processing of the object, emotional response, and judgment of the thing (Chatterjee et al., 2009). The brain judges an attractive object concerning the emotions elicited: “The positively correlated insular activations and negatively correlated anterior and posterior cingulate activations are likely to represent emotional responses to attractiveness” (Chatterjee et al., 2009, p. 140). The areas of the brain involved include the nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala. The optic nerve takes visual information to the orbital frontal for translation. The data is identified as attractive or unattractive in the orbital frontal cortex. The attractive image translation is sent for response to the nucleus accumbens and lateral report to the amygdala. The nucleus accumbens react by making the body excited about the person or image in question. The amygdala judges the person about his ability concerning both the visual translation and the emotions elicited.
The amygdala contains information about the symmetry of objects and faces, so it has clear memories of attractive faces. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows that the human brain is actively working when contemplating beauty, trying to capture beautiful features and details (Chatterjee et al., 2009). When viewing unattractive images, brain activity rapidly decreases, and one can assume that the brain thus seeks to abstract from unpleasant effects.
The study also identified increased activities in the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. Not only the perception of attractive faces but also of beautiful objects is organized similarly: “Frontomedian activity is probably involved in the evaluative component of aesthetic judgments, and might turn out to be involved regardless of the domain in which these judgments are being made” (Chatterjee et al., 2009, p. 140). In accordance with cognitive neuroscience theory, the judgment of a face occurs in the brain, though insufficient information explains how it all happens. The amygdala is responsible for the perception and memory of beauty, which perhaps causes pleasant associations and memories in the brain. The amygdala establishes these pleasurable sensations, inducing relaxation and pleasure.
Impact of Facial Expression on the Perception of Attractiveness
Facial expression may affect attractiveness and influence the perception one has about the person. It explains why society always perceives those who smile most of the time with outstanding traits, while those who frown are associated with more negative traits. The people who display cheerful faces are related to high dominance and affiliation. They are assumed to have made it in life and control what is happening. In comparison, those who are always sad are associated with low dominance and affiliation. They are always associated with being controlled by environmental factors around them, which are assumed to make them sad rather than happy.
Of particular importance are not facial features in themselves but facial expressions, reflections of emotions. Display of emotions through facial expression may show the possibility of an attack, approach, and avoidance (Talamas et al., 2016). Analysis of facial emotions and recognition is an evolutionary trait that helps people cooperate to act for a common goal or interact. Relationship building at the preverbal level begins precisely with facial expressions and can either become the starting point for verbal communication or stop interaction early. It is customary to consider a cheerful facial expression the most acceptable and accessible for communication in society – people associate this facial expression with a willingness to help, kindness, and carelessness.
The Reward to Attractive Faces
In a world full of competition and survival is for the fittest, having an attractive face can play in handy in making one successful in most of his quests. People with attractive faces always have an advantage compared to the rest because people always view them as achievers and intelligent (Talamas et al., 2016). It means that when two people are looking for a job and have equal qualifications, the more attractive person may be considered for the position because they are always regarded as successful. Moreover, everyone wants an attractive person to be the face of their company.
Conclusion
In conclusion, assessing persons is subject to several difficulties and the influence of many factors, one of which is a biological or neurophysiological factor. In accordance with cognitive neuroscience theory, people are biased towards faces based on their associations and evolutionarily formed predilections (sympathy for a face based on skin color, for example). The amygdala plays a significant role in capturing an attractive face and remembering it. At this moment, a person creates associations that seem acceptable and appropriate. Thus, a person with only an attractive face on the outside can arouse positive feelings in another person at the neurophysiological level. These positive feelings and associations will eventually influence decisions about that person.
References
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