Abstract

Facial attractiveness is an important part of our initial judgments of people and in our ability to determine their compatibility as a mating partner. Just as mating is evolutionarily important, the emotion disgust is one of the most evolutionarily beneficial emotions as it helps keep us away from poisonous and possibly infectious substances or foods. We instinctively avoid people with facial scars and other facial deformities because these are seen as a sign of illness or generally poor well-being. Facial attraction is one component of how we choose a mate. The current experiment examined whether or not being disgusted created an avoidance behavior, in the form of lower attractiveness scores, of individuals who are not scarred similar to our desire to avoid people with scars. Disgust was induced by showing participants a series of disgusting photos prior to making attractiveness ratings of potential mating targets. It was found that individuals who were disgusted did not rate photos significantly different than participants who received a neutral mood induction or a hygienic mood induction. Possible explanations for this finding such as the hygienic induction making participants more aware of pathogens instead of feeling clean are discussed. Future research opportunities into areas like facial surgery are also discussed.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Interpersonal attraction--Research; Aversion--Research; Face--Social aspects; Face perception

Publication Date

12-12-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Experimental Psychology (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Psychology (CLA)

Advisor

John Edlund

Advisor/Committee Member

Andrew Herbert

Advisor/Committee Member

Tina Sutton

Comments

Physical copy available from RIT's Wallace Library at BF242 .P43 2014

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

EXPSYC-MS

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