No evidence that averaging voices influences attractiveness.

Vocal attractiveness influences important social outcomes. While most research on the acoustic parameters that influence vocal attractiveness has focused on the possible roles of sexually dimorphic characteristics of voices, such as fundamental frequency (i.e., pitch) and formant frequencies (i.e., a correlate of body size), other work has reported that increasing vocal averageness increases attractiveness. Here we investigated the roles these three characteristics play in judgments of the attractiveness of male and female voices. In Study 1, we found that increasing vocal averageness significantly decreased distinctiveness ratings, demonstrating that participants could detect manipulations of vocal averageness in this stimulus set and using this testing paradigm. However, in Study 2, we found no evidence that increasing averageness significantly increased attractiveness ratings of voices. In Study 3, we found that fundamental frequency was negatively correlated with male vocal attractiveness and positively correlated with female vocal attractiveness. By contrast with these results for fundamental frequency, vocal attractiveness and formant frequencies were not significantly correlated. Collectively, our results suggest that averageness may not necessarily significantly increase attractiveness judgments of voices and are consistent with previous work reporting significant associations between attractiveness and voice pitch.

Experiencing beauty in everyday life.

Beauty surrounds us in many ways every day. In three experience sampling (ESM) studies we investigated frequency, category of eliciting stimuli (natural vs human-made) and, the potential moderating role of several individual difference measures on such everyday experiences of beauty in an ecologically valid manner. Further, we explored the impact of such experiences on valence & arousal. Study 1 re-analysed data from a previous study, in line with the current aims. In Studies 2 and 3, we asked participants to report daily experiences of beauty using a mixed random and event-contingent sampling schedule. Mobile notifications (random sampling) prompted participants to take a photo and rate the beauty of their surroundings. Further, current valence and arousal were assessed. Notification frequency and total days of participation differed between these two studies. Participants were able to report additional experiences outside of the notification windows (event-contingent sampling). Our results indicate that we frequently encounter beauty in everyday life and that we find it in nature, in particular. Our results further suggest a mood-boosting effect of encounters with beauty. Lastly, our results indicate influences of individual differences however, these were inconclusive and require further attention.

Tips for the Perfect Lips.

Lip augmentation can correct lip asymmetries, reduce fine lines, define lip shape and Cupid's bow, and add natural fullness to the lips. Achieving a perfect result when injecting lip filler is an art that combines the desire of the patient with the skill of the practitioner and the practitioner's understanding of the surrounding anatomy. It is essential for aesthetic practitioners to prioritize open communication, provide custom-tailored treatments, and have a strong commitment to achieving natural and harmonious results. By following these principles, patients can enjoy the benefits of enhanced lips that boost their self-confidence while maintaining their unique beauty.

A systematic review of the risk of cutaneous malignancy associated with ultraviolet nail lamps: what is the price of beauty?

Gel manicures have become part of a popular personal care service in the last two decades due to increased longevity of the polish and the added strength to the nail plate. Prolonged exposure to nail ultraviolet (UV) lamps is required to cure the gel polish. Despite the increased use of UV nail lamps, there is limited consensus in the literature on the risk of skin malignancy associated with UV nail lamps. The objective of this article was to provide a systematic review of the risk of skin malignancy associated with the use of UV nail lamps and to synthesize evidence-based recommendations on their safe usage. A systematic review of the literature was conducted on the databases, Medline and Embase, in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. The search yielded 2,331 non-duplicate articles. Nine were ultimately included, of which three were case reports, one was a cross-sectional study, and five were experimental studies. The risk of bias per the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines was high or unclear, likely due to the number of case reports included. Prolonged and repeated exposure to UV nail lamps may pose a low risk of skin cancer. It is important to note that the available evidence is weak, and patients should be informed about the limited data to make their own decisions. Dermatologists and other healthcare providers should be updated with the latest evidence to address patients' concerns about gel manicures and suggest practices which can effectively reduce the risk of cutaneous malignancy associated with gel manicures, such as the use of UV-blocking gloves or properly applied sunscreens.

Beauty and health: an intriguing liaison?

The exposure to different form of beauty coming from visual art, music, nature, architecture, improves mental health and exerts neurotrophic effects on different parts of the brain. This in turn improves physical health, prolongs life expectancy, and reduces the risk of serious degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer. These beneficial actions would not be understandable and plausible if one did not accept the mind-body unity. The 'hegemonic' role of the brain in health and illness can be discerned, for example, in the effect of emotions on vital physiological parameters, in the relationships between stress and many medical-clinical pathologies, in the control exercised by the brain over the immune system reflecting also in the inhibition of tumour progression.

The unexplored territory of aesthetic needs and the development of the Aesthetic Needs Scale.

Human needs, and their fulfillment, are the building blocks of human development, personality, and well-being. However, no published paper in the field of psychology has focused on exploring aesthetic needs. Maslow (1986) gave the topic little more than a paragraph; and Dweck [1], in her elegant Unified Theory of Motivation, Personality, and Development, never mentions aesthetic needs. The aim of this article is to describe developing a scale for measuring the intensity of aesthetic needs. The structure, psychometric properties, and criterion-related validity of the scale were verified with three independent samples (total N = 592). The results of an EFA and two CFAs indicated a three-factor structure: 1) the need to aestheticize everyday life (aesthetic experiences of everyday objects and events unrelated to art, such as the presentation of food or the appearance of a workspace, etc.); 2) the need for contact with aesthetic creations (the arts); 3) the need to aestheticize the built and natural environments (urban spaces, architecture, parks, wild nature, etc.). In addition, our criterion-related convergent validity studies have shown that people with high aesthetic needs are characterized by experiencing more intense experiences in contact with works of art, have higher aesthetic competence in art, are more intensely involved in four forms of beauty, have a higher ability to integrate beauty, a stronger trait gratitude, curiosity about nature, greater sensitivity to disgust, and the need for internal and external stimulation. This scale may prove useful in research on individual differences and the psychology of aesthetics.

Beauty is in the nose of the beholder: Fragrance modulates attractiveness, confidence and femininity ratings and neural responses to faces of self and others.

Previous research investigated cross-modal influence of olfactory stimuli on perception and evaluation of faces. However, little is known about the neural dynamics underpinning this multisensory perception, and no research examined perception for images of oneself, and others, in presence of fragrances. This study investigated the neural mechanisms of olfactory-visual processing using electroencephalography (EEG) and subjective evaluations of self- and other-images. 22 female participants evaluated images of female actors and themselves while being exposed to the fragrance of a commercially available body wash or clean air delivered via olfactometer. Participants rated faces for attractiveness, femininity, confidence and glamorousness on visual analogue scales. EEG data was recorded and event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with onset of face stimuli were analysed to consider effects of fragrance presence on face processing, and interactions between fragrance and self-other image-type. Subjective ratings of confidence, attractiveness and femininity were increased for both image-types in pleasant fragrance relative to clean air condition. ERP components covering early-to-late stages of face processing were modulated by the presence of fragrance. Findings also revealed a cross-modal fragrance-face interaction, with pleasant fragrance particularly affecting ERPs to self-images in mid-latency ERP components. Results showed that the pleasant fragrance of the commercially available body wash impacted how participants perceived faces of self and others. Self- and other-image faces were subjectively rated as more attractive, confident and feminine in the presence of the pleasant fragrance compared to an un-fragranced control. The pleasant fragrance also modulated underlying electrophysiological activity. For the first time, an effect of pleasant fragrance on face perception was observed in the N1 component, suggesting impact within 100 ms. Pleasant fragrance also demonstrated greater impact on subsequent neural processing for self, relative to other-faces. The findings have implications for understanding multisensory integration during evaluations of oneself and others.

Vietnamese consumer's perspective on green beauty care products: Exploring the impact of animal welfare concerns and skepticism toward green advertising.

Green consumers increasingly consider animal welfare (AW) in their decision-making, demonstrating a growing awareness of ethical considerations beyond conventional environmental concerns. However, with an increase in greenwashing, skepticism has grown among consumers. Regardless of manufacturers' efforts to enhance consumer awareness via green advertising, consumer skepticism toward these advertisements creates doubt and consequently reduces positive attitudes and intentions to buy green products. This study investigated the variables that impact Vietnamese consumers' decision-making processes toward green beauty care products. Specifically, we focused on the role of AW concerns and skepticism toward green advertising. For this study, we adopted the timulus-response organism (SOR) framework, which is known for its ability to analyze the impact of environmental stimuli (S) on personal perceptions (O), leading to specific responses (R). We elucidated the relationship between concern for AW and green advertising skepticism (GAS) as stimulus factors, green brand trust (GBT) and attitude toward green products (ATT) as organism factors, and three sub-dimensions of behavioral intentions (BI): green purchase intention (GPI), word-of-mouth (WOM), and willingness to pay (WPP) as response factors. We explored the mediating effect of ATT on the relationship between GAS-GPI and AW-GPI. This study involved 386 Vietnamese participants surveyed using convenience sampling. Smart PLS v3.2.9 software was used to analyze the data using structural equation modeling. The hypothesis test using PLS-SEM confirmed that (a) GBT had a positive effect on BI and ATT; (b) ATT had a positive effect on BI; (c) GAS had a negative effect on GBT and WPP, but not on GPI and WOM; and (d) AW had a positive effect on GPI and WOM, but not on ATT and WPP. Surprisingly, this study found insufficient statistical evidence to support the mediating role of ATT in the relationship between GAS-GPI and AW-GPI. This study highlights the importance of integrated advertising and education campaigns in increasing customer awareness toward green products and the significance of comprehending the cultural context when developing marketing strategies, especially in emerging markets such as Vietnam, where environmental concerns are skeptical and AW issues are relatively new. The study delved into the Vietnam market and specifically examined beauty care products labeled as "not tested on animals." Additionally, we addressed a gap in the existing research by investigating the combined influence of AW concerns and GAS on the formation of green behavioral intentions (GBI).

"My wife made me": motivations for body and beauty work among older Korean and Chinese migrant adults in Australia.

This article examines how older Korean and Chinese migrants living in Perth, Australia, engage in various beauty, grooming and fitness practices to negotiate "successful ageing" in transnational contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 30 men and women aged between 60 and 89, we examine what social meanings are attached to these practices, and how the transnational context of living in Australia has influenced the participants' perceptions of ageing and presentation of self in later life. Migration in later life is often considered in relation to the 'host' countries values and social practices, which can make it difficult for individuals to settle and feel a sense of belonging especially in later life. In this article, we will illustrate how gender, class, and cultural dispositions intersect and link with possibilities for defining and redefining successful ageing in migrant contexts. This study illustrates how successful ageing emerges as a malleable concept that draws on ideas of an ideal ageing body from the cultural values of the 'home' country, rather than the 'host' country. The findings illustrate how in everyday lived experience, the transnational habitus does not always necessarily result in a 'divided habitus' where the values of the 'home' country and that of the 'host' country are in conflict - even when the migration experience is relatively recent. Quite the contrary, the way the participants utilise everyday beauty, fitness and grooming practices to maintain a future-focused self in the context of 'home' country's age-appropriate body ideals to perform signifiers of 'successful migrant living' point to the positive aspects that appearance management can have on an individual in later life, particularly in migrant contexts.

Structure is beauty, but not always truth.

Structural biology, as powerful as it is, can be misleading. We highlight four fundamental challenges: interpreting raw experimental data; accounting for motion; addressing the misleading nature of in vitro structures; and unraveling interactions between drugs and "anti-targets." Overcoming these challenges will amplify the impact of structural biology on drug discovery.

Racial stereotypes and facial physical attractiveness: exploring their implications in moral assessments in healthcare. / Estereótipos raciais e atratividade física facial: explorando suas implicações nas avaliações morais em saúde.

In this study of 333 participants, we investigated how racial stereotypes and facial attractiveness impact moral evaluations in healthcare. We used pictures of faces with different levels of attractiveness in moral dilemma scenarios, performing statistical analyses such as ANOVA and ANCOVA to examine these complex interactions. We found that physical attractiveness positively influences moral evaluations only in low moral conflict scenarios and does not apply to high conflict or impersonal situations. The relationship between self-declared skin color and participants' gender was only confirmed in a specific scenario, highlighting the complexity of these influences. Hypotheses three and four, which suggested that participants' ethnic and moral identity would suppress the effects of racial stereotypes and facial attractiveness, were not confirmed. However, we observed that the ethnic profile of the faces and the participants' motivation to control prejudice positively influenced moral evaluations. These results are interpreted in light of theories on interpersonal attraction, moral judgment, and intergroup relationships, providing essential insights into the complex dynamics that shape moral evaluations in healthcare.

Neste estudo com 333 participantes, investigamos como estereótipos raciais e atratividade facial impactam as avaliações morais na área de saúde. Utilizamos imagens de rostos com diferentes níveis de atratividade em cenários de dilemas morais, realizando análises estatísticas, como ANOVA e ANCOVA, para examinar essas interações complexas. Descobrimos que a atratividade física influencia positivamente as avaliações morais apenas em cenários de baixo conflito moral, não se aplicando a situações de alto conflito ou impessoais. A relação entre a cor da pele autodeclarada e o sexo dos participantes só se confirmou em um cenário específico, destacando a complexidade dessas influências. As hipóteses três e quatro, que sugeriam que as identidades racial e moral dos participantes suprimiriam os efeitos dos estereótipos raciais e da atratividade facial, não foram confirmadas. Entretanto, observou-se que o perfil étnico dos rostos, junto com a motivação dos participantes para controlar preconceitos, influenciou positivamente as avaliações morais. Esses resultados são interpretados à luz de teorias sobre atração interpessoal, julgamento moral e relações intergrupais, fornecendo insights importantes para as complexas dinâmicas que moldam as avaliações morais na área da saúde.

Beauty work or beauty care? Women's perceptions of appearance in the second half of life.

The prevailing cultural emphasis on women's attractiveness being tied to youth raises questions about how women perceive their appearance in the second half of life. The current qualitative study addresses this issue by posing two questions: how do women over fifty perceive and describe changes in their appearance? And how do they cope with these changes? Five focus group meetings with 19 Israeli women aged 54-76 were held to examine the issue. The meetings were structured around viewing three film clips starring older characters, encouraging the reporting of attitudes and perceptions in response to the clips. Based on a latent thematic analysis, the findings led to the conceptualization of a five-attitude model in response to physical changes in women's appearance: Grief-over the loss of youth and attractiveness; Resentment-over gendered media representations and cultural norms; Avoidance-distancing from one's aged appearance; Care-maintaining grooming routines; and Acceptance-coming to terms with the changes in appearance. Differences in responses between women were interpreted as reflecting a distinction between internal and external locus of control. Those with an external locus of control internalized the judgmental gaze of others, thus, reporting a greater sense of loss. Those with an internal locus of control were better able to accept themselves and focus on grooming rather than conforming to an imagined ideal. Results suggest that the distinction between understanding women's relationship with their appearance in terms of beauty work or beauty care may depend on the woman's locus of control.

"Arrest me, DeleGata!" - gender performativities in the construction of beauty as an aesthetic and discursive weapon of power among female Civil Police chiefs. / "Me prende, DeleGata!" - performatividades de gênero na construção da beleza como uma arma estética e discursiva de poder entre delegadas da Polícia Civil.

This article discusses the performative gender constructions of female police chiefs working in Rio de Janeiro state. Using cartography as a research method, we follow the paths, connections, and construction of femininities, activated and performed by our respondents to establish a place of respect and prominence within and outside the Institution, using beauty as an aesthetic and discursive power tool based on the DeleGata performative class. Cartographic interviews were conducted with nine female police chiefs in Rio de Janeiro state aged 30 to 59. Although the police have historically valued recognized masculine ideals, such as strength and virility, the gender performativities operated by female police chiefs allow for police feminization. The figure/enunciation of DeleGata, who builds an image of the female police chief, implying a unity, signifies producing political subjects, ideas, and values that reach a communicative and performative standard, making visible some woman who adorns - with her beauty - and simultaneously surprises - with her intelligence. The DeleGata thus brings into play apparently antagonistic extremes: beauty-intelligence, sensuality-power, femininity-strength, producing a social and symbolic regimen for the production of bodies and femininities.

O presente artigo aborda as construções performáticas de gênero de delegadas de polícia atuantes no estado do Rio de Janeiro. A partir da utilização da Cartografia como método de pesquisa, acompanhamos percursos, conexões e processos de construção de feminilidades, acionadas e performadas por nossas entrevistadas para constituírem um local de respeito e destaque dentro e fora da Instituição, usando a beleza como ferramenta estética e discursiva de poder, a partir da classe performática DeleGata. Foram realizadas entrevistas de manejo cartográfico com nove delegadas lotadas no estado do Rio de Janeiro, com idades entre 30 e 59 anos. Embora a polícia valorize historicamente ideários reconhecidos como masculinos, como força e virilidade, as performatividades de gênero operadas pelas delegadas permitem uma feminilização da polícia. A figura/enunciação da DeleGata, que constrói uma imagem da mulher delegada, fazendo supor uma unidade, significa a produção de sujeitos políticos, assim como ideias e valores que atingem um padrão comunicativo e performático, visibilizando certa mulher que ornamenta - com sua beleza - e que surpreende - com sua inteligência - ao mesmo tempo. Assim, a DeleGata coloca em ação extremos aparentemente antagônicos: beleza-inteligência, sensualidade-poder, feminilidade-força e produzem um regime social e simbólico de produção de corpos e feminilidades.

Predicting Facial Attractiveness from Colour Cues: A New Analytic Framework.

Various facial colour cues were identified as valid predictors of facial attractiveness, yet the conventional univariate approach has simplified the complex nature of attractiveness judgement for real human faces. Predicting attractiveness from colour cues is difficult due to the high number of candidate variables and their inherent correlations. Using datasets from Chinese subjects, this study proposed a novel analytic framework for modelling attractiveness from various colour characteristics. One hundred images of real human faces were used in experiments and an extensive set of 65 colour features were extracted. Two separate attractiveness evaluation sets of data were collected through psychophysical experiments in the UK and China as training and testing datasets, respectively. Eight multivariate regression strategies were compared for their predictive accuracy and simplicity. The proposed methodology achieved a comprehensive assessment of diverse facial colour features and their role in attractiveness judgements of real faces; improved the predictive accuracy (the best-fit model achieved an out-of-sample accuracy of 0.66 on a 7-point scale) and significantly mitigated the issue of model overfitting; and effectively simplified the model and identified the most important colour features. It can serve as a useful and repeatable analytic tool for future research on facial impression modelling using high-dimensional datasets.

Watching (natural) beauty boosts task performance: testing the nature-as-reward hypothesis.

In two online studies, we tested the "nature-as-reward hypothesis", which suggests that superior cognitive task performance following nature exposure reflects a general performance improvement, driven by the reward value of beautiful things. In both between-subjects experiments, participants viewed either beautiful or less beautiful images for 10 s, comprising beautiful mountain photos (vs. less beautiful mountain drawings) in Study 1 and beautiful fractals (vs. less beautiful pixelated images) in Study 2. Following image exposure, participants engaged in a ticking task requiring them to freely tick up to 200 boxes. Participants had to complete four (Study 1) or five (Study 2) of such ticking tasks, with each task being preceded by either a beautiful or less beautiful image. In Study 1, for a subset of participants the ticking task was framed as a game. We found that in Study 1, ticking declined over the ticking rounds when participants had viewed less beautiful line drawings of mountains, while ticking performance remained unchanged over the rounds after seeing beautiful mountain images. However, when the ticking task was framed as a game, there was no significant difference in ticking performance between the two beauty conditions over the four ticking rounds. In Study 2, participants ticked more boxes over all ticking rounds after viewing images of beautiful fractals compared to less beautiful pixelated images. In line with the nature-as-reward hypothesis, these findings show that brief exposures to beautiful (nature) images can motivate to work and that framing tasks as a game can attenuate this beauty advantage.

Embracing beauty through leftward movements: An ERP study on metaphorical association between hand actions and aesthetic judgments.

In this study, we examined the metaphorical association between aesthetic judgments of faces and horizontal hand movements as well as their cognitive neural mechanisms using a joint categorical response task. In the "aesthetic-action" metaphorical representation situation, participants were asked to classify beautiful/ugly faces by moving the mouse to the left or the right. The results showed that the joint categorization condition "judge beautiful-move mouse left, judge ugly-move mouse right" had a shorter reaction time than the "judge beautiful-move mouse right, judge ugly-move mouse left" condition, which was accompanied by larger amplitudes of the early component N170, EPN, and the late component P300. Combining the behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) results, the present study demonstrated a metaphorical association between horizontal hand actions and aesthetic judgments. It suggested that horizontal hand actions can affect the speed of aesthetic judgments by influencing processing fluency, emotional arousal level, categorization motivation, and attentional resources. These findings provide new perspectives to better understand the cognitive process of aesthetic judgments and provide a basis for applying embodied cognition and metaphor theory to the field of aesthetic psychology.