Turning Heads—The Role of Changing Views and Expressions on Perceived Attractiveness of Unfamiliar Faces

The perceived attractiveness of an unfamiliar face can be affected by its view and its expression. In the real world, heads move, but the effect of dynamic view changes on face attractiveness is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effects of head turn direction and (angry and happy) expression on attractiveness ratings. We found an interaction between the direction of head turn and facial expression with higher ratings for smiling faces turning toward the observer and lowest ratings for angry faces regardless of the direction of head turn (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the relative duration of each face view during a turn was manipulated. Again, we found an effect of facial expression, but results also suggested that the temporal duration at which
each face view was presented affected attractiveness ratings.
Our results have implications for understanding facial attractiveness and suggest an important role for cues of social attention in modulating these perceptual judgments.