Cool Guys and Warm Husbands: The Effect of Smiling on Male Facial Attractiveness for Short- and Long-Term Relationships. (11th August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Okubo, Matia; Ishikawa, Kenta; Kobayashi, Akihiro; Laeng, Bruno; Tommasi, Luca
• Is Part Of: Evolutionary psychology. Volume 13:Number 3(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-08-11
• Subjects: facial attractiveness -- facial expression -- romantic relationship -- relationship context; Evolutionary psychology -- Periodicals; Human evolution -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; Biological Evolution; Psychology; Periodicals; 155.705
• DOI: 10.1177/1474704915600567
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1474-7049

Abstract

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.