Sex Differences in Smiling and Other Photographed Traits: A Theoretical Assessment

Ellis, Lee M.; Das, Shyamal Kumar

doi:10.1017/s0021932010000659

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…Our findings also allow for speculation that young adult women are more influenced by their objective smile appearance when evaluating their own smile attractiveness. Although smiling kindles an equally favorable response in females and males during social encounters 6 , females are consistently found to smile more 38 . This might be an inherent sexual characteristic of females or they may pay more attention or even be more aware of the positive responses generated during smile, and thus, exert a more conscious effort to smile.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Smile dimensions affect self-perceived smile attractiveness

Horn

Matuszewska

Gkantidis

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Facial expressions play a leading role in human interactions because they provide signaling information of emotion and create social perceptions of an individuals’ physical and personality traits. Smiling increases socially perceived attractiveness and is considered a signal of trustworthiness and intelligence. Despite the ample information regarding the social importance of an attractive smile, little is known about the association between smile characteristics and self-assessed smile attractiveness. Here we investigate the effect of smile dimensions on ratings of self-perceived smile attractiveness, in a group of 613 young adults using 3D facial imaging. We show a significant effect of proportional smile width (ratio of smile width to facial width) on self-perceived smile attractiveness. In fact, for every 10% increase in proportional smile width, self-perceived attractiveness ratings increased by 10.26%. In the present sample, this association was primarily evident in females. Our results indicate that objective characteristics of the smile influence self-perception of smile attractiveness. The increased strength of the effect in females provides support to the notion that females are overall more aware of their smile and the impact it has on their public image.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Smile dimensions affect self-perceived smile attractiveness

Horn

Matuszewska

Gkantidis

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…mainly reflects neuropsychological differences affecting control of the vocal apparatus. In this regard, a highly varied F 0 may be analogous to smiling-both signal affiliation and deference [23], and both are expressed to a greater degree among women [55]. Perhaps reliably emerging neurodevelopmental processes, possibly influenced by sex hormones, underlie the apparent crosscultural ubiquity of both sex differences, but these processes are also modifiable by social learning [55,56].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculine voices signal men's threat potential in forager and industrial societies

2011

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Humans and many non-human primates exhibit large sexual dimorphisms in vocalizations and vocal anatomy. In humans, same-sex competitors and potential mates attend to acoustic features of male vocalizations, but vocal masculinity especially increases perceptions of physical prowess. Yet, the information content of male vocalizations remains obscure. We therefore examined relationships between sexually dimorphic acoustic properties and men's threat potential. We first introduce a new measure of the structure of vocal formant frequencies, 'formant position' (P f ), which we show is more sexually dimorphic and more strongly related to height than is the most widely used measure of formant structure, 'formant dispersion', in both a US sample and a sample of Hadza foragers from Tanzania. We also show large sexual dimorphisms in the mean fundamental frequency (F 0 ) and the within-utterance standard deviation in F 0 (F 0 2 s.d.) in both samples. We then explore relationships between these acoustic parameters and men's body size, strength, testosterone and physical aggressiveness. Each acoustic parameter was related to at least one measure of male threat potential. The most dimorphic parameters, F 0 and P f , were most strongly related to body size in both samples. In the US sample, F 0 predicted testosterone levels, P f predicted upper body strength and F 0 2 s.d. predicted physical aggressiveness.

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“…This may have led to a tendency for men to express anger which signals dominance and aggression. Relatedly, it was reported that men and women who showed happiness were perceived as less and more sexually attractive respectively ( Tracy and Beall, 2011 ), and the tendency to smile has been suggested to be mediated by testosterone levels ( Ellis, 2006 ; Ellis and Das, 2011 ).…”

Section: A Functional-evolutionary Perspective On Emotional Facesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The adaptive value associated with expressing and perceiving angry-male and happy-female faces

Tay

2015

Front. Psychol.

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Facial expressions are valuable for conveying and understanding the inner thoughts and feelings of the expressor. However, the adaptive value associated with a specific expression on a male face is different from a female face. The present review uses a functional-evolutionary analysis to elucidate the evolutionary advantage in the expression and perception of angry-male and happy-female faces over angry-female and happy-male faces. For the expressors, it is more advantageous for men to show angry facial expression as it signals dominance, averts aggression and deters mate poaching; it is more advantageous for women to display happy facial expression as it signals their willingness for childcare, tending and befriending. For the perceivers, those sensitive to angry men avoid being physically harmed while those sensitive to happy women gain social support. Extant evidence suggests that facial structure and cognitive mechanisms evolved to express and perceive angry-male and happy-female faces more efficiently compared to angry-female and happy-male faces.

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Sex Differences in Smiling and Other Photographed Traits: A Theoretical Assessment

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

Smile dimensions affect self-perceived smile attractiveness

Smile dimensions affect self-perceived smile attractiveness

Masculine voices signal men's threat potential in forager and industrial societies

The adaptive value associated with expressing and perceiving angry-male and happy-female faces

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