Visuospatial asymmetries do not modulate the cheerleader effect

Abstract

The cheerleader effect occurs when the same individual appears to be more attractive when seen in a group, compared to alone. As observers over-attend to visual information presented in the left visual field, we investigated whether the spatial arrangement of the faces in a group would influence the magnitude of the cheerleader effect. In Experiment 1, target faces were presented twice in the centre of the display: once alone, and once in a group. Group images featured two distractor faces, which were presented in either the left or the right visual field, or on either side of the target. The location of the distractor faces did not modulate the size of the cheerleader effect, which was observed in each group configuration. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the location of the target faces, which were presented at the far left, far right, or centre of the group. Faces were again significantly more attractive in each group configuration, and the spatial location of the target face did not influence the size of the cheerleader effect. Together, our results show that the cheerleader effect is a robust phenomenon, which is not influenced by the spatial arrangement of the faces in the group.

Limited evidence of hierarchical encoding in the cheerleader effect

“…A positive change value indicates that a face has become more attractive in a group, whereas a negative value represents a decrease in attractiveness. A one sample t-test is then used to determine whether the change in attractiveness differs from zero and is statistically significant 13,16 . Using this analytic approach, we have previously shown that the cheerleader effect occurs with a medium effect size (d = .60) 13 .…”

“…A one sample t-test is then used to determine whether the change in attractiveness differs from zero and is statistically significant 13,16 . Using this analytic approach, we have previously shown that the cheerleader effect occurs with a medium effect size (d = .60) 13 . An a priori power analysis indicated that a sample of 27 participants was required to achieve 85% power to detect an effect of d = 0.60 in a two-tailed, one sample ttest with an alpha of .05 52 .…”

“…Walker and Vul 16 provided the first empirical support for the cheerleader effect, showing that the phenomenon occurs for both female and male faces, seen in groups of 3 to 16 faces. Carragher, et al 13 were the first to replicate the cheerleader effect, finding that target faces were consistently perceived to be approximately 1.5 -2% more attractive when presented in a group compared to alone, regardless of the spatial position of the target face within the group. Walker and Vul 16 hypothesised that the cheerleader effect was the result of a complex interaction between the way that visual scenes are summarised by the visual system 21,22 , the attractiveness of average faces 8,12 , and the hierarchical structure of visual working memory 23,24 .When presented with a complex visual scene, the human visual system rapidly creates a summary representation of the display, through a process known as ensemble coding 21,22,25,26 .…”

“…Traditionally, attractiveness is associated with physiological traits in the face, including symmetry [4][5][6] , sexually dimorphic appearance [7][8][9] , and averageness [10][11][12] . Yet, a growing number of recent studies have found that the perceived attractiveness of an individual face can fluctuate in response to cues that are external to the face itself, such as social context [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . One prominent example of the effect that social context has on judgments of facial attractiveness is known colloquially as "the cheerleader effect" 20 .…”

“…In summary, Walker and Vul's 16 hierarchical encoding mechanism posits that the cheerleader effect occurs because the observer incorrectly remembers an individual face from a group as being similar to the ensemble representation 23,46 , which, due to its average facial characteristics, is more attractive than each individual face in the group 12 . However, even though the cheerleader effect is potentially consistent with the suggested hierarchical encoding mechanism, the role of such a mechanism in the effect has not been directly tested 13 . Therefore, the overarching aim of the current study was to investigate whether the cheerleader effect is caused by hierarchical encoding 16 .…”