ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9714-8295
Current Organisations
Nottingham Trent University
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Macquarie University
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Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1068/P6730
Abstract: The luminance contrast between facial features and facial skin is greater in women than in men, and women's use of make-up enhances this contrast. In black-and-white photographs, increased luminance contrast enhances femininity and attractiveness in women's faces, but reduces masculinity and attractiveness in men's faces. In Caucasians, much of the contrast between the lips and facial skin is in redness. Red lips have been considered attractive in women in geographically and temporally erse cultures, possibly because they mimic vasodilation associated with sexual arousal. Here, we investigate the effects of lip luminance and colour contrast on the attractiveness and sex typicality (masculinity/femininity) of human faces. In a Caucasian s le, we allowed participants to manipulate the colour of the lips in colour-calibrated face photographs along CIELab L* (light–dark), a* (red–green), and b* (yellow–blue) axes to enhance apparent attractiveness and sex typicality. Participants increased redness contrast to enhance femininity and attractiveness of female faces, but reduced redness contrast to enhance masculinity of men's faces. Lip blueness was reduced more in female than male faces. Increased lightness contrast enhanced the attractiveness of both sexes, and had little effect on perceptions of sex typicality. The association between lip colour contrast and attractiveness in women's faces may be attributable to its association with oxygenated blood perfusion indicating oestrogen levels, sexual arousal, and cardiac and respiratory health.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2012
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-01-2021
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 22-08-2016
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 26-05-2020
Abstract: Estimating the size of bodies is crucial for interactions with physical and social environments. Body size perception is malleable and can be altered using visual adaptation paradigms. However, it is unclear whether such visual adaptation effects also transfer to other modalities and influence, for ex le, the perception of tactile distances. In this study we employed a visual adaptation paradigm. Participants were exposed to images of expanded or contracted versions of self- or other-identity bodies. Before and after this adaptation they were asked to manipulate the width of body images to appear as “normal” as possible. We replicated an effect of visual adaptation, such that the body size selected as most “normal” was larger after exposure to expanded and thinner after exposure to contracted adaptation stimuli. In contrast, we did not find evidence that this adaptation effect transfers to distance estimates for paired tactile stimuli delivered to the abdomen. A Bayesian analysis showed that our data provide moderate evidence that there is no effect of visual body size adaptation on the estimation of spatial parameters in a tactile task. This suggests that visual body size adaptation effects do not transfer to somatosensory body size representations.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2012
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X16001242
Abstract: We argue that the CLASH model makes a number of questionable assumptions about the harshness and unpredictability of low-latitude environments, calling into question the life history strategy approach used, and that it is inconsistent with more nuanced global patterns of violence. We suggest an alternative account for less violence at high latitudes, based on a greater need for cooperation.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 25-10-2021
Abstract: Attentional bias to low fat bodies is thought to be associated with body dissatisfaction—a symptom and risk factor of eating disorders. However, the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. In three preregistered experiments, we trained 370 women to attend towards either high or low fat body stimuli using an attention training dot probe task. For each experiment, we analysed the effect of the attention training on 1) attention to subsequently-presented high versus low fat body stimuli, 2) visual adaptation to body size, and 3) body dissatisfaction. The attention training had no effect on attention towards high or low fat bodies in an online setting (Experiment 1), but did increase attention to high fat bodies in a laboratory setting (Experiment 2). Neither perceptions of a “normal” body size nor levels of body dissatisfaction changed as a result of the attention training in either setting. The results in the online setting did not change when we reduced the stimulus onset-asynchrony (SOA) of the dot probe task from 500ms to 100ms (Experiment 3). Our results provide no evidence that the dot probe training task used here has robust effects on attention to body size, body image disturbance, or body dissatisfaction.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 07-12-2021
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 05-09-2019
Abstract: Prolonged exposure to wide (thin) bodies causes a perceptual aftereffect such that subsequently-viewed bodies appear thinner (wider) than they actually are. This phenomenon is known as visual adaptation. We used the adaptation paradigm to examine the gender selectivity of the neural mechanisms encoding body size and shape. Observers adjusted female and male test bodies to appear normal-sized both before and after adaptation to bodies digitally altered to appear heavier or lighter. In Experiment 1, observers adapted simultaneously to bodies of each gender distorted in opposite directions, e.g. thin females and wide males. The direction of resultant aftereffects was contingent on the gender of the test stimulus, such that in this ex le female test bodies appeared wider while male test bodies appeared thinner. This indicates at least some separation of the neural mechanisms processing body size and shape for the two genders. In Experiment 2, adaptation involved either wide females, thin females, wide males or thin males. Aftereffects were present in all conditions, but were stronger when test and adaptation genders were congruent, suggesting some overlap in the tuning of gender-selective neural mechanisms. Given that visual adaptation has been implicated in real-world ex les of body size and shape misperception (e.g. in anorexia nervosa or obesity), these results may have implications for the development of body image therapies based on the adaptation model.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 05-09-2019
Abstract: Visual adaptation has been proposed as a mechanism linking viewing images of thin women’s bodies with body size and shape misperception (BSSM). Non-Caucasian populations appear less susceptible to BSSM, possibly because adaptation to thin Caucasian bodies in Western media may not fully transfer to own-race bodies. Experiment 1 used a cross-adaptation paradigm to examine the transfer of body size aftereffects across races. Large aftereffects were found in the predicted directions for all conditions. The strength of aftereffects was statistically equivalent when the race of test stimuli was congruent vs incongruent with the race of adaptation stimuli, suggesting complete transfer of aftereffects across races. Experiment 2 used a contingent-adaptation paradigm, finding that simultaneous adaptation to wide Asian and narrow Caucasian women’s bodies (or vice versa) results in no significant aftereffects for either congruent or incongruent conditions, and statistically equivalent results for each. Equal and opposite adaptation effects may therefore transfer completely across races, cancelling each other out. This suggests that body size is encoded by a race-general neural mechanism. Unexpectedly, Asian observers showed reduced body size aftereffects compared to Caucasian observers, regardless of the race of stimulus bodies, perhaps helping to explain why Asian populations appear less susceptible to BSSM.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 25-02-2015
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.BODYIM.2013.11.007
Abstract: Perceived weight in the face and body size have been shown to be significant predictors of both attractiveness and health. Studies looking at the relationship between attractiveness, perceived health, and perceived weight in faces have found that in iduals prefer a lower weight for attractiveness than for apparent health. Here, a group of twenty-four Asian participants were allowed to manipulate the apparent body mass indices (BMIs) of full-length photographs of young Malaysian Chinese women to enhance their perceived healthiness and attractiveness. Results showed that both men and women differentiated between attractiveness and health by preferring a lower BMI for attractiveness than health, suggesting a consistency in the preferred ideal BMI for attractiveness and healthy appearance across both sexes. Results also suggested that BMI provides important cues to judgments of attractive and healthy appearance.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-10-2009
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 27-10-2010
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2018
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2017
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 02-07-2014
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 18-02-2021
Abstract: The dominant evolutionary theory of sexual attraction posits that attraction serves as a psychological mechanism for identifying healthy, fertile, and appropriate mates. According to this theory, humans and animals display cues that reflect their mate quality and are perceived as attractive by potential mates. There is evidence for such valid cues in human faces, bodies, and in non-bodily traits, which include adornments and items that signal provisioning ability, creativity, artistic skills, or conspicuous consumption. In this chapter, we discuss the evidence for the existence of these facial, bodily, and non-bodily cues, and for their role in communicating aspects of partner quality, including health, fertility, developmental stability, genetic quality, and potential for parental investment. We further discuss sex differences in the kinds of physical cues that men and women rely on in mate choice. We conclude by noting how central and evolutionarily important physical cues are even in contemporary sexual selection, and how the importance of physical cues of partner quality manifests in evolutionarily novel inventions such as physical self-enhancements, social media, and online dating.
Publisher: American Public Health Association
Date: 02-2012
Abstract: Fruit and vegetable consumption is inadequate among adults in the United States this contributes to preventable morbidity and mortality. More effective dietary intervention strategies are needed. Recently, interventions that advertise the consequences of behavior for appearance have been successful in modifying sun-exposure habits and tobacco use. Such an approach might also facilitate dietary improvement. Consumption of carotenoid-rich fruit and vegetables positively affects skin color, which influences perceptions of health and attractiveness, and promoting such an effect may motivate target audiences to increase consumption of this important food group. This approach represents a novel direction for the field and is potentially suitable for cost-effective, population-level dissemination through the visual media.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 30-10-2017
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.COGNITION.2016.11.003
Abstract: Past research tells us that in iduals can infer information about a target's emotional state and intentions from their facial expressions (Frith & Frith, 2012), a process known as mentalising. This extends to inferring the events that caused the facial reaction (e.g. Pillai, Sheppard, & Mitchell, 2012 Pillai et al., 2014), an ability known as retrodictive mindreading. Here, we enter new territory by investigating whether or not people (perceivers) can guess a target's social context by observing their response to stimuli. In Experiment 1, perceivers viewed targets' responses and were able to determine whether these targets were alone or observed by another person. In Experiment 2, another group of perceivers, without any knowledge of the social context or what the targets were watching, judged whether targets were hiding or exaggerating their facial expressions and their judgments discriminated between conditions in which targets were observed and alone. Experiment 3 established that another group of perceivers' judgments of social context were associated with estimations of target expressivity to some degree. In Experiments 1 and 2, the eye movements of perceivers also varied between conditions in which targets were observed and alone. Perceivers were thus able to infer a target's social context from their visible response. The results demonstrate an ability to use other minds as a window onto a social context that could not be seen directly.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 31-05-2023
Abstract: Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Participants then respond to an image of an object by indicating whether it was an object from the sentence or not. Previous studies have shown matching advantages for shape, but findings concerning object orientation have not been robust across languages. This registered report investigated the match advantage of object orientation across 18 languages in nearly 4,000 participants. The preregistered analysis revealed no compelling evidence for a match advantage across languages. Additionally, the match advantage was not predicted by mental rotation scores. Overall, the results did not support current mental simulation theories.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 15-07-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-01-2017
DOI: 10.1038/SREP40392
Abstract: Although research addressing body size misperception has focused on socio-cognitive processes, such as internalization of the “ideal” images of bodies in the media, the perceptual basis of this phenomenon remains largely unknown. Further, most studies focus on body size per se even though this depends on both fat and muscle mass – variables that have very different relationships with health. We tested visual adaptation as a mechanism for inducing body fat and muscle mass misperception, and assessed whether these two dimensions of body space are processed independently. Observers manipulated the apparent fat and muscle mass of bodies to make them appear “normal” before and after inspecting images from one of four adaptation conditions (increased fat/decreased fat/increased muscle/decreased muscle). Exposure resulted in a shift in the point of subjective normality in the direction of the adapting images along the relevant (fat or muscle) axis, suggesting that the neural mechanisms involved in body fat and muscle perception are independent. This supports the viability of adaptation as a model of real-world body size misperception, and extends its applicability to clinical manifestations of body image disturbance that entail not only preoccupation with thinness (e.g., anorexia nervosa) but also with muscularity (e.g., muscle dysmorphia).
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 11-01-2012
Publisher: American Public Health Association
Date: 10-2012
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 28-09-2015
Abstract: High performance level in face recognition studies does not seem to be replicable in real-life situations possibly because of the artificial nature of laboratory studies. Recognizing faces in natural social situations may be a more challenging task, as it involves constant examination of dynamic facial motions that may alter facial structure vital to the recognition of unfamiliar faces. Because of the incongruences of recognition performance, the current study developed stimuli that closely represent natural social situations to yield results that more accurately reflect observers’ performance in real-life settings. Naturalistic stimuli of African, East Asian, and Western Caucasian actors introducing themselves were presented to investigate Malaysian Chinese participants’ recognition sensitivity and looking strategies when performing a face recognition task. When perceiving dynamic facial stimuli, participants fixated most on the nose, followed by the mouth then the eyes. Focusing on the nose may have enabled participants to gain a more holistic view of actors’ facial and head movements, which proved to be beneficial in recognizing identities. Participants recognized all three races of faces equally well. The current results, which differed from a previous static face recognition study, may be a more accurate reflection of observers’ recognition abilities and looking strategies.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2022
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1068/P6560
Abstract: Body weight plays a crucial role in mate choice, as weight is related to both attractiveness and health. People are quite accurate at judging weight in faces, but the cues used to make these judgments have not been defined. This study consisted of two parts. First, we wanted to identify quantifiable facial cues that are related to body weight, as defined by body mass index (BMI). Second, we wanted to test whether people use these cues to judge weight. In study 1, we recruited two groups of Caucasian and two groups of African participants, determined their BMI and measured their 2-D facial images for: width-to-height ratio, perimeter-to-area ratio, and cheek-to-jaw-width ratio. All three measures were significantly related to BMI in males, while the width-to-height and cheek-to-jaw-width ratios were significantly related to BMI in females. In study 2, these images were rated for perceived weight by Caucasian observers. We showed that these observers use all three cues to judge weight in African and Caucasian faces of both sexes. These three facial cues, width-to-height ratio, perimeter-to-area ratio, and cheek-to-jaw-width ratio, are therefore not only related to actual weight but provide a basis for perceptual attributes as well.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 27-03-2023
Abstract: Visual exposure, known as ‘adaptation’ to thin (large) bodies has been shown to induce a perceptual bias where subsequently viewed bodies appear larger (thinner) than they are. This bias is called the body size aftereffect. The current study tested whether the body size aftereffect generalises across viewpoints, such that adaptation to a body seen from one viewpoint (frontal 0°) causes aftereffects for stimuli over a range of viewpoints (0°, 30°, 60°, 90°, 120°, 150°, 180°). Further, we tested whether the magnitude of the aftereffect was viewpoint dependent. Overall, body size aftereffect was successfully induced after exposure to both low-adiposity and high adiposity adaptors. While viewpoint dependence was shown, we did not observe the classic monotonic decline of aftereffect magnitude as the test viewpoint erges from the adaptation viewpoint. Instead, results were better described by a parabolic function, showing a decrease then an increase of aftereffect magnitude. The findings provide insight into the neural mechanisms underlying body perception, revealing that bodies are perceived by broadly tuned neural mechanisms, and suggesting that the size and shape of bodies may be evaluated at some level by their overall outline.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 28-11-2014
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 03-08-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-12-2018
DOI: 10.1002/EAT.22976
Abstract: Prolonged exposure to large/small bodies causes aftereffects in perceived body size. Outside the laboratory, in iduals repeatedly exposed to small (large) bodies tend to over- (under-) estimate their size and exhibit increased (decreased) body dissatisfaction. Why, among in iduals exposed to approximately equivalent distributions of body sizes, only some develop body size and shape misperception and/or body dissatisfaction is not yet fully understood. We exposed 61 women to high and low adiposity bodies simultaneously, instructing half to attend to high, and half to low adiposity bodies. Participants in the high adiposity attention condition's perception of "normal" body size significantly increased in adiposity, and vice versa. This suggests that visual attention moderates body size aftereffects. Interventions encouraging visual attention to more realistic ranges of bodies may therefore reduce body misperception. No change in body dissatisfaction was found, suggesting that changes in the perceptual component (misperception) may not necessarily affect the attitudinal component (dissatisfaction) of body image distortion.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 08-2011
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-07-2013
DOI: 10.1111/BJOP.12040
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 27-03-2023
Abstract: Objective: Sustained attention to high- or low-adiposity bodies has been shown to influence perceived body size and body dissatisfaction, but it is not known whether attention also affects the perception of muscularity. Determining the relationship between attention, muscularity perception and body dissatisfaction may to explain why only some in iduals develop muscularity-related body image disturbance, despite similar exposure to idealised bodies.Method: Eighty-one participants adjusted the muscularity of body stimuli to appear ‘normal’ and completed the Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS) – a measure of body dissatisfaction. Next, they were exposed to simultaneously presented images of high- and low-muscularity bodies. Separate groups of participants were instructed to attend either to the high- or the low-muscularity body. Finally, participants repeated the body stimulus adjustment task and DMS.Results: Participants who attended to the high-muscularity body perceived subsequently-presented bodies to be significantly less muscular, while those who attended to the low-muscularity body perceived them to be significantly more muscular. However, no significant change in body dissatisfaction was observed in either group.Discussion: These findings parallel those for attention to high or low-adiposity bodies and are consistent with the suggestion that visual attention may be important in the development of body size and shape misperception – a key feature of mental health issues such as eating disorders and muscle dysmorphia. This insight opens new avenues for the potential development of treatments for body size and shape misperception and its associated disorders, based on directing attention away from extreme muscular ideal bodies and towards more representative bodies.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 30-05-2021
Abstract: Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e. a controlling message) compared to no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly-internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared to the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly-internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing: Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 03-06-2016
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 18-10-2019
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-11-2019
Abstract: Many in iduals experience body-size and -shape misperception (BSSM). Body-size overestimation is associated with body dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression, and the development of eating disorders in in iduals who desire to be thinner. Similar symptoms have been noted for those who underestimate their muscularity. Conversely, in iduals with high body mass indices (BMI) who underestimate their adiposity may not recognize the risks of or seek help for obesity-related medical issues. Although social scientists have examined whether media representations of idealized bodies contribute to the overestimation of fat or underestimation of muscle, other scientists suggest that increases in the prevalence of obesity could explain body-fat underestimation as a form of renormalization. However, these disparate approaches have not advanced our understanding of the perceptual underpinnings of BSSM. Recently, a new unifying account of BSSM has emerged that is based on the long-established phenomenon of visual adaptation, employing psychophysical measurements of perceived size and shape following exposure to “extreme” body stimuli. By inducing BSSM in the laboratory as an aftereffect, this technique is rapidly advancing our understanding of the underlying mental representation of human bodies. This nascent approach provides insight into real-world BSSM and may inform the development of therapeutic and public-health interventions designed to address such perceptual errors.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 06-2018
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.172103
Abstract: Prolonged visual exposure, or ‘adaptation’, to thin (wide) bodies causes a perceptual aftereffect such that subsequently seen bodies appear wider (thinner) than they actually are. Here, we conducted two experiments investigating the effect of rotating the orientation of the test stimuli by 90° from that of the adaptor. Aftereffects were maximal when adapting and test bodies had the same orientation. When they differed, the axis of the perceived distortion changed with the orientation of the body. Experiment 1 demonstrated a 58% transfer of the aftereffect across orientations. Experiment 2 demonstrated an even greater degree of aftereffect transfer when the influence of low-level mechanisms was reduced further by using adaptation and test stimuli with different sizes. These results indicate that the body aftereffect is mediated primarily by high-level object-based processes, with low-level retinotopic mechanisms playing only a minor role. The influence of these low-level processes is further reduced when test stimuli differ in size from adaptation stimuli.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 19-06-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-04-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41562-022-01319-5
Abstract: The study of moral judgements often centres on moral dilemmas in which options consistent with deontological perspectives (that is, emphasizing rules, in idual rights and duties) are in conflict with options consistent with utilitarian judgements (that is, following the greater good based on consequences). Greene et al. (2009) showed that psychological and situational factors (for ex le, the intent of the agent or the presence of physical contact between the agent and the victim) can play an important role in moral dilemma judgements (for ex le, the trolley problem). Our knowledge is limited concerning both the universality of these effects outside the United States and the impact of culture on the situational and psychological factors affecting moral judgements. Thus, we empirically tested the universality of the effects of intent and personal force on moral dilemma judgements by replicating the experiments of Greene et al. in 45 countries from all inhabited continents. We found that personal force and its interaction with intention exert influence on moral judgements in the US and Western cultural clusters, replicating and expanding the original findings. Moreover, the personal force effect was present in all cultural clusters, suggesting it is culturally universal. The evidence for the cultural universality of the interaction effect was inconclusive in the Eastern and Southern cultural clusters (depending on exclusion criteria). We found no strong association between collectivism/in idualism and moral dilemma judgements.
Publisher: University of Bern
Date: 05-08-2019
DOI: 10.16910/JEMR.12.2.5
Abstract: Human behaviour is not only influenced by the physical presence of others, but also implied social presence. According to Risko and Kingstone (2011), an eye tracker can represent an implied social presence which could influence in iduals’ gaze behaviour. This study examines the impact of awareness of being eye-tracked on eye movement behaviour in a laboratory setting. During a classic yes/no face recognition task, participants were made to believe that their eye movements were recorded (or not recorded) by eye trackers. Their looking patterns with and without the awareness of being eye-tracked were compared while perceiving social (faces, faces-and-bodies) and non-social (inanimate objects) video stimuli. Area-of-interest (AOI) analysis revealed that misinformed participants (who were not aware that their eye movements were being recorded) looked more at the body (chest and waist) compared to informed participants (who believed they were being eye-tracked), whereas informed participants fixated longer on the mouth and shorter on the eyes of female models than misinformed participants did. These findings highlight the potential impact of an awareness of being eye tracked on one’s eye movement pattern when perceiving a social stimulus. We therefore suggest that even within laboratory settings an eye tracker may function as an implied social presence that leads in iduals to modify their eye movement behaviour according to socially-derived inhibitory norms.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-07-2012
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2016
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1068/P7499
Abstract: Human facial skin colour reflects in iduals' underlying health (Stephen et al 2011 Evolution & Human Behavior32 216–227) and enhanced facial skin CIELab b* (yellowness), a* (redness), and L* (lightness) are perceived as healthy (also Stephen et al 2009a International Journal of Primatology30 845–857). Here, we examine Malaysian Chinese participants' detection thresholds for CIELab L* (lightness), a* (redness), and b* (yellowness) colour changes in Asian, African, and Caucasian faces and skin coloured patches. Twelve face photos and three skin coloured patches were transformed to produce four pairs of images of each in idual face and colour patch with different amounts of red, yellow, or lightness, from very subtle (Δ E = 1.2) to quite large differences (Δ E = 9.6). Participants were asked to decide which of sequentially displayed, paired same-face images or colour patches were lighter, redder, or yellower. Changes in facial redness, followed by changes in yellowness, were more easily discriminated than changes in luminance. However, visual sensitivity was not greater for redness and yellowness in nonface stimuli, suggesting red facial skin colour special salience. Participants were also significantly better at recognizing colour differences in own-race (Asian) and Caucasian faces than in African faces, suggesting the existence of cross-race effect in discriminating facial colours. Humans' colour vision may have been selected for skin colour signalling (Changizi et al 2006 Biology Letters2 217–221), enabling in iduals to perceive subtle changes in skin colour, reflecting health and emotional status.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-04-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-021-87933-1
Abstract: It is widely accepted that holistic processing is important for face perception. However, it remains unclear whether the other-race effect (ORE) (i.e. superior recognition for own-race faces) arises from reduced holistic processing of other-race faces. To address this issue, we adopted a cross-cultural design where Malaysian Chinese, African, European Caucasian and Australian Caucasian participants performed four different tasks: (1) yes–no face recognition, (2) composite, (3) whole-part and (4) global–local tasks. Each face task was completed with unfamiliar own- and other-race faces. Results showed a pronounced ORE in the face recognition task. Both composite-face and whole-part effects were found however, these holistic effects did not appear to be stronger for other-race faces than for own-race faces. In the global–local task, Malaysian Chinese and African participants demonstrated a stronger global processing bias compared to both European- and Australian-Caucasian participants. Importantly, we found little or no cross-task correlation between any of the holistic processing measures and face recognition ability. Overall, our findings cast doubt on the prevailing account that the ORE in face recognition is due to reduced holistic processing in other-race faces. Further studies should adopt an interactionist approach taking into account cultural, motivational, and socio-cognitive factors.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 04-2009
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 27-03-2023
Abstract: While the neural mechanisms underpinning the perception of muscularity are poorly understood, recent progress has been made using the psychophysical technique of visual adaptation. Prolonged visual exposure to high (low) muscularity bodies causes subsequently viewed bodies to appear less (more) muscular, revealing a recalibration of the neural populations encoding this aspect of body composition. We used visual adaptation to further elucidate the tuning properties of the neural processes underpinning muscle perception for the upper and lower halves of the body. Participants manipulated the apparent muscularity of upper and lower bodies until they appeared ‘normal’, prior to and following exposure to a series of top/bottom halves of bodies that were either high or low in muscularity. In Experiment 1, participants were adapted to isolated body halves from one of four conditions increased (muscularity) upper (body half), increased lower, decreased upper, or decreased lower. Despite the presence of muscle aftereffects when the body halves the participants viewed and manipulated were congruent, there was no clear evidence of muscle aftereffect transfer between the top and bottom halves of the body. Aftereffects were significantly weaker when body halves were incongruent, implying that the neural mechanisms encoding muscularity are body-half selective. Experiment 2 examined the generalisability of Experiment 1’s findings in a more ecologically valid context using whole-body stimuli, producing the same pattern of results. As visual adaptation has been implicated in cases of body size and shape misperception, the present study furthers our current understanding of how these perceptual inaccuracies, particularly those involving muscularity, are developed, maintained, and may potentially be treated.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X16000650
Abstract: We adopt Tinbergen's (1963) “four questions” approach to strengthen the criticism by Maestripieri et al. of the non-evolutionary accounts of favouritism toward attractive in iduals, by showing which levels of explanation are lacking in these accounts. We also use this approach to propose ways in which the evolutionary account may be extended and strengthened.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 05-09-2019
Abstract: Body image disturbance – a cause of distress amongst the general population and those diagnosed with various disorders – is often attributed to the media’s unrealistic depiction of ideal bodies. These ideals are strongly gendered, leading to pronounced fat concern amongst females, and a male preoccupation with muscularity. Recent research suggests that visual aftereffects may be fundamental to the misperception of body fat and muscle mass – the perceptual component of body image disturbance. This study sought to establish the influence of gender on these body aftereffects. Male and female observers were randomly assigned to one of four adaptation conditions (low fat, high fat, low muscle, and high muscle bodies) and were asked to adjust the apparent fat and muscle levels of male and female bodies to make them appear as ‘normal’ as possible both before and after adaptation. While neither the gender of observers or of body stimuli had a direct effect, aftereffect magnitude was significantly larger when observers viewed own-gender (compared to other-gender) stimuli. This effect, which may be due to attentional factors, could have implications for the development of body image disturbance, given the preponderance of idealised own-gender bodies in media marketed to male and female consumers.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 18-05-2018
Abstract: Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods and correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2021
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 31-01-2018
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 09-2022
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.220594
Abstract: First impressions of a person, including social judgements, are often based on appearance. The widely accepted valence-dominance model of face perception (Oosterhof and Todorov 2008 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105 , 11 087–11 092 ( doi:10.1073 nas.0805664105 )) posits that social judgements of faces fall along two orthogonal dimensions: trustworthiness (valence) and dominance. The current study aimed to establish the principal components of social judgements based on the perception of bodies, hypothesizing that these would follow the same dimensions as face perception. Stimuli were black and white photographs showing bodies dressed in grey clothing, standing in their natural posture, in left profile. Raters ( N = 237) judged the stimuli on the 14 traits used in Oosterhof and Todorov's original study (Oosterhof and Todorov 2008 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105 , 11 087–11 092 ( doi:10.1073 nas.0805664105 )). Data were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA), as in the original study, with an additional exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using oblique rotation. While PCA produced a third dimension in line with several replications of the original study, results from the EFA produced two dimensions, representing trustworthiness and dominance, providing support for the hypothesis that social perceptions of bodies can be summarized using the valence-dominance model. These two factors could represent universal perceptions we have about people. Future research could explore social judgements of humans based on other stimuli, such as voices or body odour, to evaluate whether the trustworthiness and dominance dimensions are consistent across modalities.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.PHYSBEH.2019.04.006
Abstract: Despite evidence indicating body odor (BO) preference is an important driver in mate selection, previous studies have only investigated females' preferences for the BO of strangers. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to determine if partnered females prefer their partner's BO compared to that of others males' BO. Forty partnered and 42 single, heterosexual women aged 18-35 years, brought to the laboratory a shirt their partner or male friend/relative (respectively) sweated in while wearing. The results indicated that both partnered and single women (blindly) rated their known donor's BO as smelling significantly more similar, familiar and sexy compared to six unknown male's BO, but rated their known donor's BO as less intense smelling than unknown males' BO. While participants indicated they liked their known donor's BO more than that of unknown males' BO, the difference was not statistically significant. Moreover, participants were unlikely to rank their known donor's BO as their most preferred of seven BOs. Finally, partnered and single participants could reliably recognise their known donor's BO and that of unknown males' which was driven by their ability to indicate a stranger's BO was not that of known donor's. Overall, these preliminary findings suggest that partnered females may prefer their partners' BO but this preference may not be due to mate selection but instead a consequence of repeated exposure to their partner's BO.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-06-2018
Publisher: Peter Lang CH
Date: 26-03-2015
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 17-04-2020
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy which modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries/regions (N = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vs. both control conditions) had consistent effects in reducing negative emotions and increasing positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world to build resilience during the pandemic and beyond.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 06-06-2022
Abstract: Body dissatisfaction is defined as the negative subjective evaluation of one’s body and is considered a risk factor for, and symptom of, eating disorders. Some studies show women with high body dissatisfaction display an attentional bias towards low weight bodies however, this finding is not consistent, and results are yet to be systematically synthesised. We conducted a qualitative and quantitative synthesis of cross-sectional studies investigating the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies in non-clinical s les of women. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, ProQuest, and OpenGrey for studies up until September 2022. We identified 34 eligible studies involving a total of 2857 women. A meta-analysis of 26 studies (75 effects) found some evidence from gaze tracking studies for a positive association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies. We found no evidence for an association from studies measuring attention using the dot probe task, electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, or the modified spatial cueing task. The results together provide partial support for the positive association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies in women. These findings can be used to inform future attentional bias research.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 27-10-2017
Abstract: Although body size and shape misperception (BSSM) is a common feature of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and muscle dysmorphia, little is known about its underlying neural mechanisms. Recently, a new approach has emerged, based on the long-established non-invasive technique of perceptual adaptation, which allows for inferences about the structure of the neural apparatus responsible for alterations in visual appearance. Here, we describe several recent experimental ex les of BSSM, wherein exposure to “extreme” body stimuli causes visual aftereffects of biased perception. The implications of these studies for our understanding of the neural and cognitive representation of human bodies, along with their implications for clinical practice are discussed.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 15-10-2018
Abstract: According to the Justified True Belief account of knowledge (JTB), a person can only truly know something if they have a belief that is both justified and true (i.e., knowledge is justified true belief). This account was challenged by Gettier (1963), who argued that JTB does not explain knowledge attributions in certain situations, later called Gettier-type cases, wherein a protagonist is justified in believing something to be true but their belief was only correct due to luck. Lay people may not attribute knowledge to protagonists with justified but only luckily true beliefs. While some research has found evidence for these so-called Gettier intuitions (e.g., Machery et al., 2017a), Turri et al. (2015) found that participants attributed knowledge in Gettier-type cases at rates similar to cases of justified true belief. In a large-scale, cross-cultural conceptual replication of Turri and colleagues’ (2015) Experiment 1 (N = 4724), we failed to replicate this null result using a within-subjects design and three vignettes across 19 geopolitical regions. Instead, participants demonstrated Gettier intuitions they were 1.86 times more likely to attribute knowledge to protagonists in standard cases of justified true belief than to protagonists in Gettier-type cases. These results suggest that Gettier intuitions may be common across different scenarios and cultural contexts. When assessing the knowledge of others, lay people may rely on a shared set of epistemic intuitions (i.e., a core folk epistemology) that requires more than simply justification, belief, and truth. However, the size of the Gettier intuition effect did vary by vignette, and the Turri et al. (2015) vignette produced the smallest effect. Thus, epistemic intuitions may also depend on contextual factors unrelated to the criteria of knowledge, such as the characteristics of the protagonist being evaluated.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-12-2020
Abstract: In idual faces are rated as more attractive when presented in a group compared with when presented in idually a finding dubbed the “cheerleader effect.” As a relatively recent discovery, the conditions necessary to observe the effect are not clearly understood. We sought to better define these conditions by examining two parameters associated with the effect. Our first aim was to determine whether the effect is specific to faces or occurs also for human bodies. Both face and body images were rated as being more attractive when presented in groups than when presented in isolation, demonstrating that the cheerleader effect is not restricted to faces. Furthermore, the effect was significantly larger for bodies than faces. Our second aim was to determine whether the cheerleader effect originates from a bias in memory or occurs during perceptual encoding. Participants in the “memory” condition provided attractiveness ratings after images had been removed from the testing screen, whereas participants in the “perceptual” condition provided ratings while the images remained visible, thereby eliminating the memory components of the paradigm. Significant cheerleader effects were only observed in the memory condition. We conclude that the cheerleader effect for faces and bodies is due to a bias in memory and does not occur at an initial stage of perceptual encoding.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 09-2023
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.230674
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2023
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-12-2019
DOI: 10.1111/BJOP.12439
Abstract: Body image disturbance - a cause of distress amongst the general population and those diagnosed with various disorders - is often attributed to the media's unrealistic depiction of ideal bodies. These ideals are strongly gendered, leading to pronounced fat concern amongst females, and a male preoccupation with muscularity. Recent research suggests that visual aftereffects may be fundamental to the misperception of body fat and muscle mass - the perceptual component of body image disturbance. This study sought to establish the influence of gender on these body aftereffects. Male and female observers were randomly assigned to one of four adaptation conditions (low-fat, high-fat, low-muscle, and high-muscle bodies) and were asked to adjust the apparent fat and muscle levels of male and female bodies to make them appear as 'normal' as possible both before adaptation and after adaptation. While neither the gender of observers nor of body stimuli had a direct effect, aftereffect magnitude was significantly larger when observers viewed own-gender (compared with other-gender) stimuli. This effect, which may be due to attentional factors, could have implications for the development of body image disturbance, given the preponderance of idealized own-gender bodies in media marketed to male and female consumers.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-06-2021
DOI: 10.1111/BJOP.12514
Abstract: Estimating the size of bodies is crucial for interactions with physical and social environments. Body‐size perception is malleable and can be altered using visual adaptation paradigms. However, it is unclear whether such visual adaptation effects also transfer to other modalities and influence, for ex le, the perception of tactile distances. In this study, we employed a visual adaptation paradigm. Participants were exposed to images of expanded or contracted versions of self‐ or other‐identity bodies. Before and after this adaptation, they were asked to manipulate the width of body stimuli to appear as ‘normal’ as possible. We replicated an effect of visual adaptation such that the body‐size selected as most ‘normal’ was larger after exposure to expanded and thinner after exposure to contracted adaptation stimuli. In contrast, we did not find evidence that this adaptation effect transfers to distance estimates for paired tactile stimuli delivered to the abdomen. A Bayesian analysis showed that our data provide moderate evidence that there is no effect of visual body‐size adaptation on the estimation of spatial parameters in a tactile task. This suggests that visual body‐size adaptation effects do not transfer to somatosensory body‐size representations.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 20-01-2014
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 02-02-2022
Abstract: Studies suggest that an attentional bias to thin bodies is common amongst those with high levels of body dissatisfaction, which is a risk factor for, and symptom of, various eating disorders. However, these studies have predominantly been conducted in Western countries with body stimuli involving images of White people. In a preregistered study, we recruited 150 Malaysian Chinese women and 150 White Australian women for a study using standardised images of East Asian and White Australian bodies. To measure attentional bias to thin bodies, participants completed a dot probe task which presented images of women who self-identified their ethnicity as East Asian or as White Australian. Contrary to previous findings, we found no evidence for an association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies. This lack of association was not affected by participant ethnicity (Malaysian Chinese vs. White Australian) or ethnic congruency between participants and body stimuli (own-ethnicity vs. other-ethnicity). However, the internal consistency of the dot probe task was poor. These results suggest that either the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies is not robust, or the dot probe task may not be a reliable measure of attentional bias to body size.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 17-07-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-01-2023
DOI: 10.1111/BJOP.12629
Abstract: Previous cross‐cultural eye‐tracking studies examining face recognition discovered differences in the eye movement strategies that observers employ when perceiving faces. However, it is unclear (1) the degree to which this effect is fundamentally related to culture and (2) to what extent facial physiognomy can account for the differences in looking strategies when scanning own‐ and other‐race faces. In the current study, Malay, Chinese and Indian young adults who live in the same multiracial country performed a modified yes/no recognition task. Participants' recognition accuracy and eye movements were recorded while viewing muted face videos of own‐ and other‐race in iduals. Behavioural results revealed a clear own‐race advantage in recognition memory, and eye‐tracking results showed that the three ethnic race groups adopted dissimilar fixation patterns when perceiving faces. Chinese participants preferentially attended more to the eyes than Indian participants did, while Indian participants made more and longer fixations on the nose than Malay participants did. In addition, we detected statistically significant, though subtle, differences in fixation patterns between the faces of the three races. These findings suggest that the racial differences in face‐scanning patterns may be attributed both to culture and to variations in facial physiognomy between races.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-10-2012
DOI: 10.1111/ETH.12022
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2011
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 10-10-2014
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 15-11-2019
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 02-2022
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.211718
Abstract: Attentional bias to low-fat bodies is thought to be associated with body dissatisfaction—a symptom and risk factor of eating disorders. However, the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. In three preregistered experiments, we trained 370 women to attend towards either high- or low-fat body stimuli using an attention training dot probe task. For each experiment, we analysed the effect of the attention training on (i) attention to subsequently presented high- versus low-fat body stimuli, (ii) visual adaptation to body size, and (iii) body dissatisfaction. The attention training had no effect on attention towards high- or low-fat bodies in an online setting (Experiment 1), but did increase attention to high-fat bodies in a laboratory setting (Experiment 2). Neither perceptions of a ‘normal’ body size nor levels of body dissatisfaction changed as a result of the attention training in either setting. The results in the online setting did not change when we reduced the stimulus onset-asynchrony of the dot probe task from 500 to 100 ms (Experiment 3). Our results provide no evidence that the dot probe training task used here has robust effects on attention to body size, body image disturbance or body dissatisfaction.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 15-04-2019
Abstract: Much research on moral judgment is centered on moral dilemmas in which deontological perspectives (i.e., emphasizing rules, in idual rights and duties) are in conflict with utilitarian judgements (i.e., following the greater good defined through consequences). A central finding of this field Greene et al. showed that psychological and situational factors (e.g., the intent of the agent, or physical contact between the agent and the victim) play an important role in people’s use of deontological versus utilitarian considerations when making moral decisions. As their study was conducted with US s les, our knowledge is limited concerning the universality of this effect, in general, and the impact of culture on the situational and psychological factors of moral judgments, in particular. Here, we empirically test the universality of deontological and utilitarian judgments by replicating Greene et al.’s experiments on a large (N = X,XXX) and erse (WEIRD and non-WEIRD) s le across the world to explore the influence of culture on moral judgment. The relevance of this exploration to a broad range of policy-making problems is discussed.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 14-09-2015
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-06-2022
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1068/P6423
Abstract: Facial symmetry, averageness, sexual dimorphism, and skin colour/texture all serve as cues to attractiveness, but their role in the perception of health is less clear. This ambiguity could reflect the fact that these facial traits are not the only cues to health. We propose that adiposity is an important, but thus far disregarded, facial cue to health. Our results demonstrate two important prerequisites for any health cue. First, we show that facial adiposity, or the perception of weight in the face, significantly predicts perceived health and attractiveness. Second, we show that perceived facial adiposity is significantly associated with measures of cardiovascular health and reported infections. Perceived facial adiposity, or a correlate thereof, is therefore an important and valid cue to health that should be included in future studies.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Ian Stephen.