"Pretty boys do not cry": The role of facial expressions in facial attractiveness rating

Abstract

Facial attractiveness is the concept that has been widely explored in previous studies. The findings suggest that some of the factors that affect aesthetical judgment of faces include symmetry, averageness, and facial expressions. The role of facial expressions is not fully established, but it seems that faces with the facial expression of happiness are rated higher (at least female faces). The aim of our study is to explore whether the presence of facial expressions has a different effect on the aesthetic judgment of female and male faces. Unlike previous studies, in which this was not explicitly controlled, we only considered facial expressions that were correctly recognized at 90% or more. A total of 61 respondents participated in this study. They evaluated female and male faces with the expressions of happiness, anger, sadness, or neutral on several scales: Beautiful, Pleasant, Attractive, and Harmonious. Overall, female faces were rated as more attractive, beautiful, and pleasant, but not harmonious. In addition, faces with the expressions of anger and sadness were rated lower on each scale compared to neutral and happy faces, and sad male faces were rated lower compared to sad female faces. One of the possible explanations for such a result could be the role of the social context in which the society discourages the display of certain emotions, particularly for men. Sad men are seen as weak and weak man are not attractive (because this does not fit into their gender role).