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- Title
The attractiveness of nonface averages: implications for an evolutionary explanation of the attractiveness of average faces.
- Authors
Halberstadt, J; Rhodes, G
- Abstract
Researchers have argued that humans' attraction to average faces reflects an evolved psychological mechanism to identify high-quality mates. If this direct-selection account is correct, there is no reason to expect a similar averageness bias for stimuli that are irrelevant to reproductive fitness. The current study, however, found a strong relationship between averageness and attractiveness for dogs, wristwatches, and birds. The most parsimonious explanation is that humans have a general attraction to prototypical exemplars, and that their attraction to average faces is a reflection of this more general attraction. We tested whether a general preference for familiar stimuli can account for the attractiveness of averageness. This account was not supported for dogs or birds, but could not be ruled out for watches.
- Publication
Psychological science, 2000, Vol 11, Issue 4, p285
- ISSN
0956-7976
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1111/1467-9280.00257