Attractive and healthy-looking male faces do not show higher immunoreactivity

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that facial attractiveness may provide cues to the functioning of the immune system. Mating with individuals who have a more effective immune system could lead to a higher reproductive success. Our main aim was to test a possible association between immunoreactivity (stimulated by vaccination) and perceived facial attractiveness and healthiness. We experimentally activated the immune system of healthy men using vaccination against hepatitis A/B and meningococcus and measured levels of specific antibodies (markers of immune system reactivity) before and 30 days after the vaccination. Further, 1 day before the vaccination, we collected their facial photographs that were judged by females for attractiveness, healthiness, and facial skin patches for healthiness. In view of its proposed connection with the functioning of the immune system, we also measured skin colouration (both from the facial photographs and in vivo using a spectrophotometer) and we assessed its role in attractiveness and healthiness judgements. Moreover, we measured the levels of steroid hormones (testosterone and cortisol) and the percentage of adipose tissue, because both are known to have immunomodulatory properties and are related to perceived facial attractiveness and healthiness. We found no significant associations between antibody levels induced by vaccination and perceived facial attractiveness, facial healthiness, or skin healthiness. We also found no significant connections between steroid hormone levels, the amount of adipose tissue, rated characteristics, and antibody levels, except for a small negative effect of cortisol levels on perceived facial healthiness. Higher forehead redness was perceived as less attractive and less healthy and higher cheek patch redness was perceived as less healthy, but no significant association was found between antibody levels and facial colouration. Overall, our results suggest that perceived facial attractiveness, healthiness, and skin patch healthiness provide limited cues to immunoreactivity, and perceived characteristics seem to be related only to cortisol levels and facial colouration.

Immunoactivation Affects Perceived Body Odor and Facial but Not Vocal Attractiveness

“…Similarly, the adipose tissue level might have immunomodulatory properties and affect attractiveness ratings (Pawłowski et al, 2017). In our dataset, we did not find any significant association between body height and immune response or body mass index/adipose tissue and immune response to vaccination (Pátková et al, 2022;Schwambergová et al, 2021). However, Target ID: random components variance = 1.031, SD = 1.015, and ICC = 0.380; for rater ID: random components variance = 0.176, SD = 0.420, and ICC = 0.094.…”

“…Acquisition of Facial Photographs. Facial photographs and voice recordings together with measurements of body composition (for details, see Schwambergová et al, 2021) and skin color (for details, see Pátková et al, 2022) were acquired in the Human Ethology laboratory at the Faculty of Science, Charles University.…”

“…This study is part of a larger project aimed at testing the association between immunoreactivity (measured by increased specific antibodies after vaccination), body odor quality (see Schwambergová et al, 2021 ), and facial attractiveness (see Pátková et al, 2022 ). The project was conducted at the Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) from Q4 2017 to Q4 2019 in collaboration with the medical personnel of the Prevedig laboratory and a general practitioner.…”

A test of multimodal communication in humans using 881 judgements of men and women's physical, vocal, and olfactory attractiveness

“…In contrast, men's attractiveness in different modalities may convey distinct information, such as developmental stability, absence of harmful mutations, health status, and testosterone levels. For instance, though heavily debated, perceptions of men's facial attractiveness could reflect health and immunity [e.g., 50 , 51 , but see, 52 , 53 ], whereas their vocal attractiveness may relate to trait or context-dependent dominance [e.g., 54 , 55 ]. However, there is little research on the precise fitness correlates of attractiveness preferences.…”

Individual attractiveness preferences differentially modulate immediate and voluntary attention

“…From an evolutionary perspective, attractiveness has been proposed to be a cue of genetic quality in terms of health or fertility: by selecting an attractive partner, one can increase the likelihood of bearing offspring with high genetic quality 19,22 . Some studies indeed suggest that attractiveness is positively correlated with health 23,24 , although this has been heavily debated [25][26][27] . Accordingly, people rate attractive faces as healthier than unattractive faces 28 , although this could be the result of a general halo effect for attractive people 1,29 .…”