面孔参照或观察者参照:性别二态线索、面孔吸引力与表情对正视面孔偏好的影响

Face-referenced or Viewer-referenced: Effects of Sexual Dimorphism Cues,Emotional Expression and Physical Attractiveness on Preferences for Direct-gazing Faces

本研究探讨了性别二态线索、面孔吸引力和表情对正视面孔偏好的影响。实验1基于面孔参照,被试普遍偏好正视面孔;相对男性化/厌恶和生气/低吸引力的面孔,被试更偏好女性化/高兴和中性/高吸引力的正视面孔;实验2基于观察者参照,总体并未表现出正视偏好;对低吸引力/中性表情/男性化面孔更偏好斜视面孔。

Gaze direction is crucial for both human survival and interpersonal communication. Previous studies have shown that peoplepreferred faces with perceiver - directed rather than other - directed gaze, because gazing at the perceiver implies social interest. Otherphysical and social cues, such as sexual dimorphism, facial attractiveness and emotions, may moderate the preference for faces gazing atthe perceiver. However, gaze direction is confounded by the head orientation and this left undecided whether its effect is perceiver -referenced or face - referenced. Two experiments were conducted to test this issue. In Experiment 1, from the perspective of face - reference, the results revealed a general preference for faces with direct gaze; inaddition, a significant two - way interaction between facial attractiveness and emotion found that while the preference for direct gaze wasmore pronounced for happy/neutral/anger faces with high facial attractiveness than faces with low attractiveness, the preference was con-sistent across high or low attractiveness conditions in faces with disgusting emotion. And a significant two - way interaction between emo-tion and sexual dimorphism cues showed that for neutral or anger emotion, people preferred direct gaze of feminine faces over that ofmasculine ones. In Experiment 2, from the viewer - referenced perspective, the results found, most critically, that there was no general preferencefor perceiver - directed gaze ; a 2 x 4 x 2 repeated - measures ANOVA found a main effect of sexual dimorphism the preference for per-ceived - directed gaze was stronger in feminine faces than in masculine faces. This was qualified by a significant two - way interactionbetween facial attractiveness and sexual dimorphism, showing that people preferred feminine faces with perceiver - directed gaze onlywhen the faces were highly attractive, rather than when they were not attractive. Taken together, these findings present novel evidence that preferences for direct gaze on facial attractiveness are based on a face -referenced, rather than a viewer - referenced encoding of gaze direction. The results can be explained in terms of the uniqueness of Chi-nese culture, which highly emphasize the respect imparted by a direct rather than an averted gaze. Moreover, the preferences for the at-tractive, positive emotional expression and direct gaze face are in line with the past studies, and reflected the adaptation for efficient al-location of resources and chances in social interactions developed during evolution. The preferences for feminine face can be interpretedfrom the general preference of Chinese culture for feminine faces, long - term relationship and collective orientation.