The cheerleader effect is robust to experimental manipulations of presentation time

Abstract

The “cheerleader effect” occurs when the same face is perceived to be significantly more attractive when seen among a group of faces compared to alone. Since perceived attractiveness decreases with additional viewing time, we investigated whether the cheerleader effect occurs simply because the target face is seen for less time in a group than it is alone. Observers rated the attractiveness of each target face twice; once in a group, and once alone. We manipulated the amount of time that each group image was presented for prior to the cue toward the target face (300, 1000, 2000, 3000, or 7000 milliseconds). Faces were perceived to be significantly more attractive in each group condition, regardless of presentation time, replicating the cheerleader effect. Furthermore, uncued presentation time did not modulate the magnitude of this increase, demonstrating that a presentation time discrepancy does not contribute to the size of the typical cheerleader effect.