Open AccessCool Guys and Warm Husbands
Author(s) -
Matia Okubo,
Kinya Ishikawa,
Akihiro Kobayashi,
Bruno Laeng,
Luca Tommasi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
evolutionary psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 1474-7049
DOI - 10.1177/1474704915600567
Subject(s) - attractiveness , psychology , facial attractiveness , trustworthiness , social psychology , perception , masculinity , term (time) , general partnership , developmental psychology , physical attractiveness , mate choice , mating , zoology , biology , physics , finance , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , economics , psychoanalysis
While smiling enhances women’s facial attractiveness, the findings are inconclusive for men. The present study investigated the effect of smiling on male facial attractiveness for short- and long-term prospective partners using East Asian and European samples. In Experiment 1 (N = 218), where female participants rated male facial attractiveness, the facilitative effect of smiling was present when judging long-term partners but absent for short-term partners. This pattern was observed for East Asians as well as for Europeans. Experiment 2 (N = 71) demonstrated that smiling male faces engendered an impression suitable for long-term partnership (e.g., high ratings of trustworthiness) while neutral faces produced an impression suitable for short-term partnership (e.g., high ratings of masculinity). We discuss these results in terms of opposing evolutionary strategies in mate choice: heritable benefit versus paternal investment