Abstract: Previous research suggested that the attractiveness rating of a face tends to be similar to the attractiveness of its surrounding faces in the context, resulting in an assimilation effect. However, these results were usually based on the comparison among ratings of the target faces under different attractiveness contexts, without considering the attractiveness rating of the target face in isolation, and might lead to incorrect conclusion on the contextual influence on target evaluation. This study investigated the influence of duration and difference in attractiveness rating between the target and the context faces on the rating of target face. The assimilation effect was measured by taking mean rating of the same face in isolation as a reference value. The results found that attractiveness rating of the target face was similar to the attractiveness of its surrounding face in the context, and the differences between target and context faces led to a continuum effect in assimilation process, i.e., the more different in attractiveness rating between the target and the faces in the context, the smaller in the effect size of an assimilation was observed.

Key words: facial attractiveness, similarity, assimilation effect, continuum effect