Men do not need attentional resources when processing female faces, but need them with male ones; in contrast, women need attentional resources to process the attractiveness of opposite as well as same-sex faces

Automaticity of facial attractiveness perception and sex-specific mating strategies. Lisa Klümper et al. Cognition, Volume 204, November 2020, 104379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104379

Highlights
• The perception of facial attractiveness is not automatic (capacity-free) in general.
• Men show an automatic (capacity-free) processing of females' facial attractiveness but not of males' facial attractiveness.
• Women show no automatic (capacity-free) processing of males' or females' facial attractiveness.
• This pattern makes sense from an evolutionary perspective on different mating strategies of men and women.

Abstract: The current literature shows mixed results regarding whether the perception of facial attractiveness is automatic, i.e. that it operates independently from attentional resources. We argue that an evolutionary perspective on mating strategies provides a comprehensive account of the findings. In two studies, we used the locus-of-slack logic in a psychological refractory period paradigm. Task 1 was a speeded judgment of tone pitch (low vs. high), and Task 2 was a speeded judgment of whether a face was attractive or unattractive on two difficulty levels. Male and female participants judged the attractiveness of opposite-sex faces (Study 1, n = 73) or same-sex faces (Study 2, n = 94) in this paradigm. Results indicate that men do not need attentional resources when processing female faces (Study 1), but require attentional resources when processing same-sex faces (Study 2). In contrast, women need attentional resources to process the attractiveness of opposite as well as same-sex faces.

Keywords: Facial attractivenessAutomaticitySex differencesPRP paradigmLocus-of-slack logic