Here we show that women's preferences for femininity (vs. masculinity) in men's faces are decreased after viewing a slideshow of images of highly attractive men, but not after viewing a slideshow of relatively unattractive men. As masculinity is thought to be a cue of men's heritable fitness, and viewing images of highly attractive opposite-sex individuals increases sexual motivation, this may indicate that women increase their preferences for male cues of heritable fitness in circumstances where mating is likely to occur. This context-sensitivity in women's face preferences may, therefore, be adaptive, since decreased preferences for feminine men (i.e. increased preferences for masculine men) when sexual motivation is enhanced may increase offspring viability. Interestingly, we found that viewing images of highly attractive men also decreased women's preferences for femininity in female faces. This latter finding could either reflect increased derogation of attractive (i.e. feminine) same-sex competitors when sexual motivation is enhanced or be a low-cost functionless by-product of a mechanism for increasing preferences for cues of men's heritable fitness when sexual motivation is high. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that recent visual experience with highly attractive opposite-sex individuals influences attractiveness judgments and present novel evidence for potentially adaptive context-sensitivity in attractiveness judgments.
P.E.G. Bestelmeyer B.C. Jones L.M. Debruine A.C. Little D.I. Perrett A. Schneider L.L.M. Welling C.A. Conway 2008 Sex-contingent face aftereffects depend on perceptual category rather than structural encoding Cognition 107 353 365.
H. Blanton M. Gerrard 1997 Effect of sexual motivation on men's risk perception for sexually transmitted disease: There must be 50 ways to justify a lover Health Psychology 16 374 379.
G. Buckingham L.M. Debruine A.C. Little L.L.M. Welling C.A. Conway B.P. Tiddeman B.C. Jones 2006 Visual adaptation to masculine and feminine faces influences generalized preferences and perceptions of trustworthiness Evolution and Human Behavior 27 381 389.
L.M. DeBruine B.C. Jones A.C. Little L.G. Boothroyd D.I. Perrett I. S. Penton-Voak P.A. Cooper L. Penke D.R. Feinberg B.P. Tiddeman 2006 Correlated preferences for facial masculinity and ideal or actual partner's masculinity Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 273 1355 1360.
L.M. DeBruine B.C. Jones L. Unger A.C. Little D.R. Feinberg 2007 Dissociating averageness and attractiveness: Attractive faces are not always average Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 33 1420 1430.
M.L. Fisher 2004 Female intrasexual competition decreases female facial attractiveness Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271 S283 S285.
S.W. Gangestad J.A. Simpson 2000 The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23 573 644.
M.G. Haselton M. Mortezaie E.G. Pillsworth A. Bleske-Rechek D.A. Frederick 2006 Ovulatory shifts in human female ornamentation: Near ovulation, women dress to impress Hormones and Behavior 51 40 45.
Jones, B.C., Debruine, L.M. & Little, A.C. (in press): Adaptation reinforces preferences for attractive faces. Visual Cognition.
B.C. Jones L.M. Debruine A.C. Little R.P. Burriss D.R. Feinberg 2007 Social transmission of face preferences among humans Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274 899 903.
B.C. Jones A.C. Little L. Boothroyd L.M. Debruine D.R. Feinberg M.J. Law Smith R.E. Cornwell F.R. Moore D.I. Perrett 2005 Commitment to relationships and preferences for femininity and apparent health in faces are strongest on days of the menstrual cycle when progesterone level is high Hormones and Behavior 48 283 290.
B.C. Jones D.I. Perrett A.C. Little L. Boothroyd R.E. Cornwell D.R. Feinberg B.P. Tiddeman S. Whiten R. M. Pitman S.G. Hillier D.M. Burt M.R. Stirrat M.J. Law Smith F.R. Moore 2005 Menstrual cycle, pregnancy and oral contraceptive use alter attraction to apparent health in faces Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 272 347 354.
A.C. Little H. Mannion 2006 Viewing attractive or unattractive same-sex individuals changes self-rated attractiveness and face preferences in women Animal Behaviour 72 981 987.
A.C. Little D.M. Burt I.S. Penton-voak D.I. Perrett 2001 Self-perceived attractiveness influences human female preferences for sexual dimorphism and symmetry in male faces Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268 39 44.
A.C. Little L.M. Debruine B.C. Jones 2005 Sex-contingent face aftereffects suggest distinct neural populations code male and female faces Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 272 2283 2287.
I.S. Penton-voak D.I. Perrett D.L. Castles T. Kobayashi D.M. Burt L.K. Murray R. Minamisawa 1999 Menstrual cycle alters face preference Nature 399 741 742.
I.S. Penton-Voak A.C. Little B.C. Jones D.M. Burt B.P. Tiddeman D.I. Perrett 2003 Female condition influences preferences for sexual dimorphism in faces of male humans (Homo Sapiens) Journal of Comprehensive Psychology 117 264 271.
D.I. Perrett K.J. Lee I.S. Penton-voak D.R. Rowland S. Yoshikawa D.M. Burt S.P. Henzi D.L. Castles S. Akamatsu 1998 Effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness Nature 394 884 887.
G. Rhodes 2006 The evolutionary psychology of facial beauty Annual Review Psychology 57 199 226.
G. Rhodes J. Chan L.A. Zebrowitz L.W. Simmons 2003 Does sexual dimorphism in human faces signal health? Proceedings Royal Society of London B 270 S93 S95.
G. Rhodes L.W. Simmons M. Peters 2005 Attractiveness and sexual behavior: Does attractiveness enhance mating success? Evolution and Human Behavior 26 186 201.
A. Riley E. Riley 2000 Controlled studies on women presenting with sexual drive disorder: I. Endocrine status Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy 26 269 283.
J.R. Roney K.N. Hanson K.M. Durante D. Maestripieri 2006 Reading men's faces: Women's mate attractiveness judgments track men's testosterone and interest in infants Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 273 2169 2175.
R. Thornhill S.W. Gangestad 2006 Facial sexual dimorphism, developmental stability, and susceptibility to disease in men and women Evolution and Human Behavior 27 131 144.
R. Thornhill S.W. Gangestad 1999 Facial attractiveness Trends in Cognitive Science 12 452 460.
B.P. Tiddeman D.M. Burt D.I. Perrett 2001 Prototyping and transforming facial textures for perception research IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 1 42 50.
L.L.M. Welling B.C. Jones L.M. Debruine 2008 Sex drive is positively associated with women's preferences for sexual dimorphism in men's and women's faces Personality and Individual Differences 44 161 170.
L.L.M. Welling B.C. Jones L.M. Debruine C.A. Conway M.J. LAW Smith A.C. Little D.R. Feinberg M.A. Sharp E.A.S. Al-Dujaili 2007 Raised salivary testosterone in women is associated with increased attraction to masculine faces Hormones and Behavior 52 156 161.
M. Wilson M. Daly 2004 Do pretty women inspire men to discount the future? Biology Letters 271 S177 S179.