Thesis

Assessing the role of sexually dimorphic and prototypical shape characteristics in social judgments of unmanipulated face images

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2026
Thesis identifier
  • T17675
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 202291028
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Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • Social judgments of faces (e.g., perceptions of a person’s trustworthiness, health, or attractiveness based on their facial appearance) play an important role in social interaction. While many previous studies have suggested that aspects of facial shape, such as sexual dimorphism and prototypicality, drive these social judgments, the methods used to assess social judgments in these studies (forced-choice paradigms using face images in which shape parameters were experimentally manipulated) have been criticised for lacking ecological validity. Consequently, the current work investigated whether shape parameters claimed to play a role in social judgments of faces (e.g., sexual dimorphism, prototypicality) predict social judgments of faces when natural (i.e., unmanipulated) faces were rated individually for health (Chapter 2) and trustworthiness (Chapter 3). Results suggest that measured shape distinctiveness (the converse of prototypicality) plays an important role in health and trustworthiness perceptions (Chapters 2 and 3) but is only weakly correlated with distinctiveness ratings of faces (Chapter 4). By contrast, evidence that measured sexual dimorphism is related to social judgments was limited, only occurring for health perceptions of female faces. Together these findings highlight the role prototypicality plays in social judgments of faces and the potential importance of distinguishing between perceived (i.e., rated) and measured distinctiveness when considering the literature on social judgments of faces. Building on this work, a final study (Chapter 5) found that women’s responses on a hypothetical dating decisions task were strongly related to men’s physical attractiveness, but not perceptions of men’s physical abusiveness, suggesting perceptions of physical attractiveness may play a particularly important role in dating decisions.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Shiramizu, Victor K. M.
  • Jones, Benedict C.
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DOI

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