Vulnerability of facial attractiveness perception to early and multi‐year visual deprivation. Issue 1 (5th April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gupta, Priti; Shah, Pragya; Shrestha, Swochchhanda; Gilad‐Gutnick, Sharon; Ganesh, Suma; Gandhi, Tapan; Sinha, Pawan
• Is Part Of: Developmental science. Volume 26:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-04-05
• Subjects: congenital blindness -- early visual experience -- facial attractiveness perception -- late sight onset -- perceptual development -- sensitive periods of development; Developmental psychology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Comparative -- Periodicals; 155
• DOI: 10.1111/desc.13258
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1363-755X

Abstract

Abstract: Judgments of facial attractiveness invariably accompany our perception of faces. Even neonates appear to be capable of making such judgments in a manner consistent with adults. This suggests that the processes supporting facial attractiveness require little, if any, visual experience to manifest. Here we investigate the resilience of these processes to several years of early‐onset visual deprivation. Specifically, we study whether congenitally blind children treated several years after birth possess the ability to rate facial attractiveness in a manner congruent to normally sighted individuals. The data reveal significant individual variability in the way each newly sighted child perceives attractiveness. This is in marked contrast to data from normally sighted controls who exhibit strong across‐subject agreement in facial attractiveness ratings. This variability may be attributable, in part, to atypical facial encoding strategies used by the newly sighted children. Overall, our results suggest that the development of facial attractiveness perception is likely to be vulnerable to early visual deprivation, pointing to the existence of a possible sensitive period early in the developmental trajectory. Abstract : We have studied face attractiveness perception in an unusual group of children – those who were born blind and gained sight late in life. Reports from these children are significantly different than those of normally sighted counterparts, suggesting a lasting impact of early visual deprivation on this perceptual judgment.