Facial Skin Coloration Affects Perceived Health of Human Faces

Attractiveness Based Partly on Skin Color. The paper is open access:
We here investigate the role of overall skin color in determining perceptions of health from faces by allowing participants to manipulate the skin portions of color-calibrated Caucasian face photographs along CIELab color axes. To enhance healthy appearance, participants increased skin redness (a*), providing additional support for previous findings that skin blood color enhances the healthy appearance of faces. Participants also increased skin yellowness (b*) and lightness (L*), suggesting a role for high carotenoid and low melanin coloration in the healthy appearance of faces.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are a number of relevant posts by Peter Frost over at 'evoandproud.blogspot.com' which cover some findings about skin pigmentation and sexual attractiveness:

http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-ruddy-beautiful.html
http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2009/10/facial-skin-color-and-sex-recognition.html
http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2009/10/sexual-selection-and-ancestral.html
http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2009/11/skin-bleaching.html

n/a said...

From your first link: "The problem may be that the researchers measured responses only to colors ranging from red to dark blue. No other colors were tested."

In this paper, participants had access to the complete three-dimensional color space, and the preference for ruddiness was replicated (along with preferences for lightness and yellowness).

Anonymous said...

"To enhance healthy appearance, participants increased skin redness"

No way in hell does being ruddy faced make a woman look good.

"a role for high carotenoid and low melanin coloration in the healthy appearance of faces."

Compared to men women do have higher carotenoids and lower melanin in their skin but they don't have more hemoglobin.