Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/17729
Appears in Collections:Psychology Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Attraction independent of detection suggests special mechanisms for symmetry preferences in human face perception
Author(s): Little, Anthony
Jones, Benedict C
Contact Email: anthony.little@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: symmetry
preference
detection
bias
face perception
evolution
Issue Date: 22-Dec-2006
Date Deposited: 5-Dec-2013
Citation: Little A & Jones BC (2006) Attraction independent of detection suggests special mechanisms for symmetry preferences in human face perception. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273 (1605), pp. 3093-3099. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3679
Abstract: Symmetrical human faces are attractive and it has been proposed that humans have a specialized mechanism for detecting symmetry in faces and that sensitivity to symmetry determines symmetry preferences. Here, we show that symmetry preferences are influenced by inversion, whereas symmetry detection is not and that within individuals the ability to detect facial symmetry is not related to preferences for facial symmetry. Taken together, these findings suggest that symmetry preferences are indeed driven by a mechanism that is independent of conscious detection. A specialized mechanism for symmetry preference independent of detection may be the result of specific pressures faced by human ancestors to select high-quality mates and could support a modular view of mate choice. Unconscious mechanisms determining face preferences may explain why the reasons behind attraction are often difficult to articulate and demonstrate that detection alone cannot explain symmetry preferences.
DOI Link: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3679
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