基于儒家文化的“帝王相”之民间意象的首次探索

The First Survey to Folk Imagination of Emperor Face in Confucianism

本研究通过评价不同性别二态线索和吸引力的面孔图片来考察儒家文化下人们心中帝王面孔形象。采用FaceGen Modeller 3.1操作面孔性别二态线索,并通过PhotoShop CS5合成面孔材料。研究发现:被试认为女性化的男性面孔比男性化的男性面孔更具"帝王相";低吸引力的女性化男性面孔比高吸引力的女性化男性面孔更具"帝王相";不同性别被试之间的评价无显著差异。上述结果显示,在儒家文化影响下,人们偏好具有女性化面孔特点的帝王。

The face represents an important source of social information in humans, which provides cues to attention, emotion, age, and identity. Past research has shown that sexual dimorphism cues of applicants＇ faces and facial attractiveness affect leadership selection, i.e. a masculine facial appearance is congruent with masculine-typed leadership roles. Thus, it is extremely significant to examine facial traits and certain other characteristics. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the facial image of emperors from the perspective of Confucian culture. In the present study, we chosen a total of 90 participants of college students and adopted a 2 （Participant Gender： men vs. women） ~2 （Facial attractiveness： high vs. low） mixed experimental design to inspect the impact of facial attractiveness on the preferences for the face of emperors. Dependent variables were a forced-choice decision for the composite faces and the certainty of decision. These pairs of composite faces were produced by FaceGen Modeller 3.1 and by PhotoShop CS5. Each pair of composite faces was made of the two-gender typicality of faces which was produced by the same original facial picture. In the experiment, participants chose the faces that are coincident with the images of emperors in their minds. The black fixation was presented firstly on the screen and the time of presentation was 1000ms. Then, certain pairs of composite faces were presented on the screen until the participants made their decision. These faces were presented to the participants randomly. For each pair of faces, participants were asked to choose the face which looked more like an emperor. Participants were also instructed to indicate the strength of his/her decision by choosing from the options ＇slightly more coincidental＇, ＇somewhat more coincidental＇, ＇more coincidental＇ and ＇much more coincidental＇. If the participants recognized the left face as an emperor, they were required to choose ＂1-4＂. If the participants recognized the right face as an emperor, they were required to choose ＂5-8＂. The trial order and the side of the screen on which any particular image was shown were fully randomized. After e portraits were viewed and decided upon, the sequence was rerun to rate these faces for masculinity/femininity and warmth. In the experiment, the results revealed that the image of an emperor was feminine in one＇s mind. （1）When judging these composite faces, the result of one sample t-test comparing the strength of coincidence to the emperor＇s face in their minds with what would be expected by chance alone （i.e. 3.5） showed that participants judged feminine faces as being more coincidental than masculine faces. （2） A 2× 2 mixed model analysis of variance found a main effect of facial attractiveness： the preference for the emperor＇s face was more pronounced for those faces with low attractiveness. Taken together, the conclusions of the study are as follows： （1） The feminine-looking male face is coincidental with the emperor＇s image in people＇s mind; （2） Comparing the highly attractive feminine-looking male face, the less attractive feminine-looking male face is more coincidental with the emperor＇s image in people＇s mind.