Effects of Facial Expressions and Parts on Changes in Facial Attractiveness by Brief Presentation

In the recent development of computer graphics and avatar generation, the synthesis of attractive faces and bodies has gained interest. In cognitive psychology, it is known that the attractiveness of the whole face and facial parts changes with the duration of exposure. Also, facial expressions influence the attractiveness of the whole face and facial parts. In the present study, we investigated how attractiveness judgments for whole faces and parts with facial expressions would change with exposure time. Participants rated the attractiveness of whole faces and facial parts. The faces and face parts expressed either smiling, angry, or neutral expressions. The face stimuli were presented for either 20 ms or 1000 ms. The results showed that the attractiveness ratings of the eyes, mouth, and whole face were higher with the shorter exposure duration. However, the nose became more attractive with the longer exposure. Smiling faces tended to be rated as more attractive and angry faces as less attractive. However, this pattern did not always hold for facial parts. The present results have implications not only for understanding attractiveness judgments in humans, but also for computer graphics and avatar generation in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer vision.