One appears more attractive in a selfie with other people than in isolation, as long as the other people are equally or less attractive

Change in Evaluation Mode Can Cause a Cheerleader Effect. Claude Messner, Mattia Carnelli and Patrick Stefan Hähener. Front. Psychol., April 21 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.607448

The cheerleader effect describes the phenomenon whereby faces are perceived as being more attractive when flanked by other faces than when they are perceived in isolation. At least four theories predict the cheerleader effect. Two visual memory processes could cause a cheerleader effect. First, visual information will sometimes be averaged in the visual memory: the averaging of faces could increase the perceived attractiveness of all the faces flanked by other faces. Second, information will often be combined into a higher-order concept. This hierarchical encoding suggests that information processing causes faces to appear more attractive when flanked by highly attractive faces. Two further explanations posit that comparison processes cause the cheerleader effect. While contrast effects predict that a difference between the target face and the flanking faces causes the cheerleader effect due to comparison processes, a change in the evaluation mode, which alters the standard of comparison between joint and separate evaluation of faces, could be sufficient for producing a cheerleader effect. This leads to the prediction that even when there is no contrast between the attractiveness of the target face and the flanking faces, a cheerleader effect could occur. The results of one experiment support this prediction. The findings of this study have practical implications, such as for individuals who post selfies on social media. An individual’s face will appear more attractive in a selfie taken with people of low attractiveness than in a selfie without other people, even when all the faces have equally low levels of attractiveness.

Discussion

The goal of this study was to demonstrate that a change in evaluation mode could cause a cheerleader effect. The results show that faces are perceived as more attractive when they are flanked by faces of low rather than high attractiveness, even when the target faces do not differ in attractiveness from the flanking faces. This is in line with the predictions of the change in evaluation mode and that the presence of flanking faces changes the evaluation mode (Hsee and Leclerc, 1998; Hsee and Zhang, 2010).

Contrast Effect and Evaluation Mode

The contrast hypothesis and the evaluation mode do not contradict each other. Both theories argue that judgments are constructed by contrasts. When flanking faces are available, target face attractiveness is evaluated in contrast to flanking faces. The contrast between the target face and the flanking face could cause a cheerleader effect (Ying et al., 2019). However, if no flanking faces are available, observers base their judgment on the contrast with their internal standards (Hsee and Zhang, 2010). This change from an external to an internal standard of comparison could cause a cheerleader effect as well. In our experiment, we minimized the contrast between the target faces and the flanking faces. In the condition with unattractive targets flanked by equally unattractive flankers, we observed a cheerleader effect.

In our experiment, we had no direct measure of the change in evaluation mode. Our argumentation is based on the idea that a contrast between target and flanking face attractiveness is a necessary condition for a contrast effect. Therefore, we selected targets and flankers which are very similar in their degree of attractiveness. However, minimal contrasts between target and flanking face attractiveness still exist. Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility that minimal contrasts cause the cheerleader effect in those conditions as well. However, there are additional results which support our hypotheses. First, when considering faces with low attractiveness with equally low attractive flanking faces the cheerleader effect is greater than when considering highly attractive faces with unattractive flanking faces, although the contrasts are smaller. Second, we calculated the difference between the attractiveness of each target face with equally attractive flankers (minimal contrasts) and with more or less attractive flankers respectively (high contrast). In both conditions with high contrast there was a correlation between the contrast and the cheerleader effect. However, in both conditions with minimal contrast there was no correlation between the contrast and the cheerleader effect.

The aim of this paper is to introduce the idea that a change of evaluation mode is a process which could cause a cheerleader effect. Falsifying other processes is not an aim of this paper. Actually, even small changes could cause other processes to influence the evaluation of facial attractiveness.

Real-Time Rating vs. Memory

This study focused on real-time impressions and not on memory-based judgments. Therefore, the participants rated the attractiveness of faces online while these faces were in view. However, real-time ratings differ from memory-based judgments (Hastie and Park, 1986; Ying et al., 2020). It is possible that visual memory processes have a higher influence on attractiveness ratings when judgments are memory-based but not when they occur in real time. In a recent study, participants evaluated faces after they had disappeared from the screen (Ying et al., 2019). Although the interval was short, the participants gave memory-based judgments. Ying et al.’s results could be interpreted as a mix between cognitive and visual memory processes because they show that facial attractiveness was more favorable when faces were flanked by faces of both low and high attractiveness.

Simultaneous and Sequential Presentation of Faces

Similar to memory-based judgments are situations where people evaluate a face online and compare it with a formerly viewed face. Such situations attest to two opposing influences: on the one hand a face is rated as more attractive when it follows a face of low attractiveness (Pegors et al., 2015; Ying et al., 2019), while on the other hand a face is rated as more attractive when a face of high attractiveness precedes it (Pegors et al., 2015). Therefore, judgments of the perceived attractiveness of flanked faces may differ when they are recalled compared to when they are made in real time. In addition, there is evidence that the cognitive processes differ if the observer evaluates a group of faces simultaneously or sequentially (Ying et al., 2020).

First Impressions vs. Familiar Faces

One important limitation of our study concerns the familiarity of the faces. Similar to other studies of the cheerleader effect, we measured the attractiveness of faces that were unfamiliar to the participants. Therefore, our results are based exclusively on the first impression of these faces. The precise mechanisms by which the attractiveness of a familiar face is influenced by flanked faces remains to be determined. However, attractiveness judgments are not only influenced by physical aspects but also by psychological aspects, such as associations (Rhodes and Zebrowitz, 2002) or sentimental feelings (Yang and Galak, 2015). It is possible that the more an attractiveness rating is influenced by psychological aspects, the less it is influenced by flanking faces.

Highly Attractive Flankers

It seems that a reversal of the cheerleader effect is less likely to occur than the cheerleader effect. In the present study, we found a reversal of the cheerleader effect when target faces were flanked by highly attractive faces only for target faces of low attractiveness, but not when highly attractive target faces were flanked by equally highly attractive faces. Similarly, Ying et al. (2019) reported cheerleader effects and no reversal of the cheerleader effect even when the flankers were attractive. One possible explanation is that in addition to cognitive processes, additional processes, such as averaging in the visual memory, generally increase facial attractiveness in groups.

Extremely Attractive Faces

A further limitation pertains to extremely attractive faces. We did not use extremely attractive faces. The potential to increase the attraction of extremely attractive faces is limited. Therefore, due to the ceiling effect, one would expect no or minimal cheerleader effects for extremely attractive people. In addition, if a person is unambiguously attractive, like Scarlett Johansson or Chris Hemsworth, observers do not need additional information to build their impressions. They have sufficient information for their evaluation, will not contrast them to flanking faces, and will not sample additional information (Simon, 1955; Fiedler and Bless, 2010; Stüttgen et al., 2012). However, for people with more ambiguous levels of attractiveness, such as John C. Reilly or Rebel Wilson, observers will consider the attractiveness of flanking faces (Messner, manuscript in preparation).

Assimilation vs. Contrast

Judgments are not always formed in contrast to something; they can be formed in assimilation toward something as well (Sherif et al., 1958; Mussweiler, 2003; Bless and Schwarz, 2010). Assimilation corresponds to the idea of hierarchical encoding. An explanation of the cheerleader effect based on hierarchical encoding is based on two assumptions: First, observers calculate the mean attractiveness of faces they see simultaneously; second, observers differentiate between the target face and other faces and bias their evaluation of the attractiveness of the target face toward the main attractiveness of the group of other faces. While evidence for the first assumption exists (Luo and Zhou, 2018), no such evidence exists for the second assumption (Luo and Zhou, 2018; Carragher et al., 2019; Ying et al., 2019). However, it is possible that additional redundancy would facilitate differentiation between the target face and the flanking faces and foster hierarchical encoding.

Conclusion

The change in evaluation mode has a high impact on marketing practice. A seller of low-budget products (e.g., a cheap-looking watch) presents the products alongside other low-budget products (other cheap-looking watches), while the seller of luxury goods presents the products separately (Hsee and Leclerc, 1998). This article provides evidence that similar processes are relevant for self-marketing, assuming the goal is that observers evaluate one’s attractiveness highly when one posts selfies on social media. One appears more attractive in a selfie with other people than in isolation, as long as the other people are equally or less attractive. The higher one’s own attractiveness, the less one benefits from this effect; however, it is not beneficial to post a selfie taken with other people in the frame if the attractiveness of these other people is high. Finally, the more unambiguous one’s attractiveness, the less one is affected by flanking faces.