Attractiveness of Human Faces: Norms by Sex, Sexual Orientation, Age, Relationship Stability, and Own Attractiveness Judgements

Abstract

Facial attractiveness (FA) impacts various aspects of human life making it widely studied. This study presents attractiveness norms for a set of 223 neutral faces of young adults collected both online and in the laboratory. Furthermore, data are presented according to variables known to influence attractiveness judgments: sex, sexual orientation, age, and relationship status of the respondent. Finally, our data can be used to study FA across cultures and is possibly useful to researchers studying FA in other cultures. The potential impact of these norms is as large as the variety of domains in which attractiveness is relevant.

Judgements of Social Dominance From Faces and Related Variables

“…Importantly, our research team has collected ratings for the current set of faces on the dimensions of attractiveness (Pandeirada et al, 2020 ) and trustworthiness (Pandeirada et al, 2022 ). In both instances, we provide a brief overview of the impact that these inferences have on social interactions.…”

“…Using the same procedure used by Pandeirada et al ( 2020 ), two of the authors selected faces from the following databases: (1) Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF; Goeleven et al, 2008 ); (2) Warsaw Set of Emotional Facial Expression Pictures (WSEFEP; Olszanowski et al, 2014 ); (3) Radboud Facial Database (RaFD; Langner et al, 2010 ); (4) FACES Database (Ebner et al, 2010 ); and (5) Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES; van der Schalk et al, 2011 ). This selection resulted in a set of 231 frontal-view pictures of colored young adult facial photographs (105 females and 126 males) with similar characteristics to those of the Portuguese population, displaying direct eye gaze and a neutral facial expression, and that were obtained under controlled conditions.…”

“…This selection resulted in a set of 231 frontal-view pictures of colored young adult facial photographs (105 females and 126 males) with similar characteristics to those of the Portuguese population, displaying direct eye gaze and a neutral facial expression, and that were obtained under controlled conditions. Some of the photos were edited to obtain a homogeneous set of stimuli across all databases (as in Pandeirada et al, 2020 ). Required written consents were obtained from the respective authors and/or laboratories.…”

The impact of COVID‐19 concerns on perceiving others' faces

“…Face stimuli included 30 colour young adult Caucasian female faces displaying direct eye gaze and a neutral facial expression, selected from a previous norming study (Pandeirada et al, 2020). Considering the link between attractiveness and health, which suggests that less attractive faces are often perceived as less healthy or as signalling a higher risk of infection, face stimuli with higher attractiveness ratings were selected as a means to control for the potential confounding effect of attractiveness on health perceptions ( M attractiveness = 4.2; SD attractiveness = 0.4; scale 1–7).…”

Can I Trust This Person? Evaluations of Trustworthiness From Faces and Relevant Individual Variables

“…Proper permission was secured to use these databases and, when necessary, to edit the pictures. Edition of the pictures was as described in Pandeirada et al ( 2020 ) and aimed to obtain a more homogeneous set of stimuli 1 . The final distribution of stimuli by database and the specific faces used in the study are presented in the “Read me first” worksheets of the files available on OSF ( https://osf.io/ckmd4/?view_only=83c5fe29850847868cad3a09de8ace2d ).…”