Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect
When confronted with a scene of emotional faces, our brains automatically average the individual facial expressions together to create the gist of the collective emotion. Here, we tested whether this ensemble averaging could also occur for facial attractiveness, and in turn shape 2 related face perc...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1457192023-03-05T15:33:20Z Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect Ying, Haojiang Burns, Edwin Lin, Xinyi Xu, Hong School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Psychology Facial Attractiveness Cheerleader Effect When confronted with a scene of emotional faces, our brains automatically average the individual facial expressions together to create the gist of the collective emotion. Here, we tested whether this ensemble averaging could also occur for facial attractiveness, and in turn shape 2 related face perception phenomena: adaptation and the cheerleader effect. In our first 2 experiments, we showed that adaptation aftereffects could indeed be shaped by ensemble statistics; viewing an increasingly unattractive group of faces conversely increased attractiveness judgments for a subsequently presented face. Not only did group adaptation aftereffects occur, but their effects were equivalent to those observed from the morphed average face of the group, suggesting that the visual system had averaged the group together. In our last 2 experiments, we showed that viewing a target face in an increasingly unattractive group led to the target being perceived as increasingly more attractive: a "cheerleader" effect. Moreover, our results suggest that this cheerleader effect likely comprises of both a social positive effect and a contrastive process, requiring variance between the surrounding and target faces; that is, the visual system appeared incapable of boosting a target's attractiveness when all of the faces in the scene were identical. Furthermore, the mean group attractiveness ratings strongly predicted both the cheerleader effect and adaptation aftereffects, with the latter 2 also interrelated. This suggests that ensemble statistics is the common underlying process linking each of these phenomena. To be perceived as beautiful, being surrounded by unattractive friends may help. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved). Ministry of Education (MOE) Nanyang Technological University Accepted version Supported by a Nanyang Technological University Research Scholarship (HY), a 929 College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Incentive Scheme (HX), and a Singapore 930 Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 1 (HX). Concept of Exp 1 was 931 presented at Asian-Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV), Aug 2015, Singapore. Parts of this 932 research (data from Exp 1 & 3) were presented at the Annual Meeting of Visual Science 933 Society (VSS), May 2017, St. Pete Beach, Florida. The research reported here forms part of 934 H. Ying’s PhD thesis at Nanyang Technological University. All data have been made 935 publicly available via the Open Science Framework (OSF) and can be accessed at 936 https://osf.io/9q7uh/. 2021-01-06T01:53:50Z 2021-01-06T01:53:50Z 2019 Journal Article Ying, H., Burns, E., Lin, X., & Xu, H. (2019). Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 148(3), 421–436. doi:10.1037/xge0000564 0022-1015 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145719 10.1037/xge0000564 30802125 3 148 421 436 en MOE AcRF Tier 1 Journal of Experimental Psychology © American Psychological Association, 2019. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: 10.1037/xge0000564 application/pdf |
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Social sciences::Psychology Facial Attractiveness Cheerleader Effect Ying, Haojiang Burns, Edwin Lin, Xinyi Xu, Hong Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect |
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When confronted with a scene of emotional faces, our brains automatically average the individual facial expressions together to create the gist of the collective emotion. Here, we tested whether this ensemble averaging could also occur for facial attractiveness, and in turn shape 2 related face perception phenomena: adaptation and the cheerleader effect. In our first 2 experiments, we showed that adaptation aftereffects could indeed be shaped by ensemble statistics; viewing an increasingly unattractive group of faces conversely increased attractiveness judgments for a subsequently presented face. Not only did group adaptation aftereffects occur, but their effects were equivalent to those observed from the morphed average face of the group, suggesting that the visual system had averaged the group together. In our last 2 experiments, we showed that viewing a target face in an increasingly unattractive group led to the target being perceived as increasingly more attractive: a "cheerleader" effect. Moreover, our results suggest that this cheerleader effect likely comprises of both a social positive effect and a contrastive process, requiring variance between the surrounding and target faces; that is, the visual system appeared incapable of boosting a target's attractiveness when all of the faces in the scene were identical. Furthermore, the mean group attractiveness ratings strongly predicted both the cheerleader effect and adaptation aftereffects, with the latter 2 also interrelated. This suggests that ensemble statistics is the common underlying process linking each of these phenomena. To be perceived as beautiful, being surrounded by unattractive friends may help. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved). |
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School of Social Sciences |
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School of Social Sciences Ying, Haojiang Burns, Edwin Lin, Xinyi Xu, Hong |
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Article |
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Ying, Haojiang Burns, Edwin Lin, Xinyi Xu, Hong |
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Ying, Haojiang |
title |
Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect |
title_short |
Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect |
title_full |
Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect |
title_fullStr |
Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect |
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Ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect |
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ensemble statistics shape face adaptation and the cheerleader effect |
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2021 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145719 |
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