Can Beauty be Measured with Photos? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Static and Dynamic Physical Attractiveness Ratings

Abstract

Most studies on physical attractiveness use (static) photos to rate physical attractiveness. This might not reflect how we perceive people in real, dynamic settings. Based on inconsistent previous studies, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the ecological validity of photo-based attractiveness judgements by comparing them to dynamic stimuli ratings. Our literature search resulted in n = 46 effect sizes ( k = 14 studies). Although the overall correlation between ratings of static and dynamic stimuli is high ( r = 0.70, 95% CI [0.52; 0.81]), heterogeneity between studies is high as well ( Q (45) = 168.27, p < 0.0001 and I 2 = 77.71%), which is mostly explained by unreported stimulus quality and within-versus between-rater designs. A Monte Carlo simulation indicated that the small correlations in some previous studies are potentially correlations which had not stabilized yet. Our findings support that the photo-rating method is an ecologically valid approach to assess physical attractiveness.