The Role of Holistic Processing in Perceived Attractiveness
Open Access
- Author:
- Frank, Andrea Kristine
- Area of Honors:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Reginald B. Adams, Jr., Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Richard Alan Carlson, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- holistic processing
in-group
out-group
symmetry
attractiveness - Abstract:
- This thesis focuses on the concept of holistic processing and the disruption of it. It reviews the previous literature relating to holistic processing as it relates to symmetry and attractiveness. I hypothesize that when holistic processing is disrupted, faces will be perceived as more symmetrical and attractive. Furthermore, I apply this concept to in-group versus out-group attractiveness, with the prediction that individuals find out-group faces to be more symmetrical and attractive. In the experiment, in-group and out-group faces were artificially created by telling participants that they would be viewing faces of students and alumni from Penn State and the University of Michigan. In reality, these faces were from a data set that did not come from Penn State or the University of Michigan. The faces were presented in a randomized order with a randomized border of either Penn State or University of Michigan logos. The experiment consisted of two studies. In Study 1, participants rated faces on symmetry; and in Study 2, different participants rated faces on attractiveness. I expected differences in ratings of in-group and out-group, same-sex and opposite-sex faces. The results lean towards supporting my hypothesis, but they also show that the relationship between symmetry and attractiveness is more complex than previous research has claimed. Finally, I discuss the implications of this research and future research that can be done to build on my results.