Abstract:

The smile expression is reported to significantly enhance the perceived facial attractiveness. However, little is known about how the facial physical attractiveness influence expression dimension, conversely. Here we investigated the in?uence from facial physical attractiveness on perception and expressing habit of smiling and angry expressions.. By rating the uncontrolled expressions on 60 female image persons, we found that impression strength of anger in attractive group was perceived stronger than that in unattractive group, while impression strength of smile expression between two groups was perceived approximately the same. However, when we used the controlled expressions constructed by expression templates on computer-morphing technology, we observed the reversed results that smile expression rather than angry expression was perceived as the stronger impression strength in the attractive group than unattractive group. The discrepancy between these two observations re?ects an increase of physical smiling strength and decrease of physical anger strength on unattractive persons in contrast with attractive persons. Our results provided the further insight into unconscious inclination of emotional expression (expressive habit) in?uenced by facial attractiveness.