The importance of face-shape masculinity for perceptions of male dominance depends on study design

Abstract

Dominance perceptions play an important role in social interactions. Although many researchers have proposed that shape masculinity is an important facial cue for dominance perceptions, evidence for this claim has come almost exclusively from studies that assessed perceptions of experimentally manipulated faces using forced-choice paradigms. Consequently, we investigated the role of masculine shape characteristics in perceptions of men’s facial dominance (1) when shape-manipulated stimuli were presented in a forced-choice paradigm and (2) when unmanipulated face images were rated for dominance and shape masculinity was measured from face images. Although we observed large effects of masculinity on dominance perceptions when we used the forced-choice method (Cohen’s ds = 2.51 and 3.28), the effect of masculinity on dominance perceptions was considerably smaller when unmanipulated face images were rated and shape masculinity measured from face images (Cohen’s ds = 0.44 and 0.62). This pattern was observed when faces were rated separately for physical dominance, social dominance, and masculinity, and was seen for two different sets of stimuli. Collectively, these results suggest that shape masculinity may not be a particularly important cue for dominance perceptions when faces vary simultaneously on multiple dimensions, as is the case during everyday social interactions.

When he smiles: Attractiveness preferences for male faces expressing emotions

“…For instance, when comparing the two-alternative forced-choice method to subjective ratings of attractiveness and objective measurements of facial shape characteristics, differences in outcomes have been observed (Jones & Jaeger, 2019 ; Lee et al, 2021 ; Scott et al, 2010 ). In a more recent study by Dong et al ( 2023 ), questions were raised about the predictive value of masculine shape characteristics and their role in determining dominance, as different perceptions of dominance were obtained based on the methodological approach used to assess shape-manipulated images.…”

Assessing the roles of shape prototypicality and sexual dimorphism in ratings of the trustworthiness of faces

“…Sexual dimorphism of face shape was objectively measured for each of the 50 male and 50 female face images using the facefuns package 39 in R 25 . This method that has been used in many previous studies to assess sexual dimorphism of face shape [e.g., 9 , 15 , 22 – 24 ]. Shape components were first derived from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of 132 Procrustes-aligned landmark points (see Holzleitner et al 23 for a diagram showing these facial landmarks) on each of the 50 male and 50 female face images.…”

“…Shape components were first derived from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of 132 Procrustes-aligned landmark points (see Holzleitner et al 23 for a diagram showing these facial landmarks) on each of the 50 male and 50 female face images. Scores representing sexual dimorphism of face shape were then calculated from each photograph using a vector analysis method [e.g., 9 , 15 , 22 – 24 ]. This method uses the shape principal components to locate each face on a female-male continuum.…”

“…Distinctiveness scores were also calculated from each photograph using the facefuns package 39 in R 25 . This technique has been used to measure face-shape distinctiveness in many previous studies [e.g., 9 , 22 , 23 , 40 ]. This method uses the shape principal components described in the previous section of our methods to measure the distance each face lies from the mathematical average shape for the sample of faces of the same sex.…”

“…These patterns of results suggest that findings for perceptions of face stimuli manipulated on a single dimension do not necessarily generalise to ratings of natural face images 7 – 13 . Furthermore, although some studies have reported that trustworthiness ratings of face images are positively correlated with ratings of their femininity and negatively correlated with ratings of their masculinity [e.g., 14 ], other studies suggest that masculinity and femininity ratings of faces are influenced by characteristics that are not sexually dimorphic 9 , 10 , 15 . For these reasons, we suggest that the role that sexually dimorphic shape information plays in perceptions of the trustworthiness of face images is currently unclear.…”