Physical attraction to reliable, low variability nervous systems: Reaction time variability predicts attractiveness

Abstract

The human face cues a range of important fitness information, which guides mate selection towards desirable others. Given humans' high investment in the central nervous system (CNS), cues to CNS function should be especially important in social selection. We tested if facial attractiveness preferences are sensitive to the reliability of human nervous system function. Several decades of research suggest an operational measure for CNS reliability is reaction time variability, which is measured by standard deviation of reaction times across trials. Across two experiments, we show that low reaction time variability is associated with facial attractiveness. Moreover, variability in performance made a unique contribution to attractiveness judgements above and beyond both physical health and sex-typicality judgements, which have previously been associated with perceptions of attractiveness. In a third experiment, we empirically estimated the distribution of attractiveness preferences expected by chance and show that the size and direction of our results in Experiments 1 and 2 are statistically unlikely without reference to reaction time variability. We conclude that an operating characteristic of the human nervous system, reliability of information processing, is signalled to others through facial appearance.

Pre-print

“…Individuals with high or low sociosexuality also possess distinct facial appearances that observers are able to discriminate between (Boothroyd, Jones, Burt, DeBruine, & Perrett, 2008). The method of extremes has also been employed to uncover surprising relationships between appearances on measures such as reaction time variability, with individuals with faster and more consistent reaction times possessing more attractive faces on average (Butler, Saville, Ward, & Ramsey, 2017).…”

The effects of interpersonal attraction on service justice

“…Physical attraction has a positive effect on parent-child relationships (Lanoë, et al, 2017), teacher-student relationships (Määttä, et al, 2014), marriage relationships (McNulty et al, 2008;Poulsen et al, 2013), interviewer-applicant relationships (James, 2000;Aminoff and Tanskanen, 2013) and jurycriminal relationships (Walker and Panfil, 2017). In addition, physical attractiveness is positively associated with predicting status (Brumbaugh et al, 2014), position (Korobov and Bamberg, 2004), health (Butler et al, 2017) and social behavior (Pepping et al, 2017). Thus, when selecting employees, companies tend to prefer employees who look attractive (Hurley-Hanson and Giannantonio, 2006).…”