Facial contrast is a cue for perceiving health from the face.

How healthy someone appears has important social consequences. Yet the visual cues that determine perceived health remain poorly understood. Here we report evidence that facial contrast-the luminance and color contrast between internal facial features and the surrounding skin-is a cue for the perception of health from the face. Facial contrast was measured from a large sample of Caucasian female faces, and was found to predict ratings of perceived health. Most aspects of facial contrast were positively related to perceived health, meaning that faces with higher facial contrast appeared healthier. In 2 subsequent experiments, we manipulated facial contrast and found that participants perceived faces with increased facial contrast as appearing healthier than faces with decreased facial contrast. These results support the idea that facial contrast is a cue for perceived health. This finding adds to the growing knowledge about perceived health from the face, and helps to ground our understanding of perceived health in terms of lower-level perceptual features such as contrast. (PsycINFO Database Record

Coloration in different areas of facial skin is a cue to health: The role of cheek redness and periorbital luminance in health perception.

Looking healthy is a desirable trait, and facial skin color is a predictor of perceived health. However, skin conditions that cause dissatisfaction with appearance are specific to particular facial areas. We investigated whether color variation in facial skin is related to perceived health. Study 1 defined three areas based on color differences between faces perceived as healthy or unhealthy: the forehead, periorbital areas, and the cheeks. Periorbital luminance and cheek redness predicted perceived health, as did global skin yellowness. In Study 2, increased luminance and redness caused faces to be perceived as healthier, but only when the increase was in the periorbital and cheek areas, respectively. Manipulating each area separately in Study 3 revealed cheek redness and periorbital luminance equally increased perceived health, with low periorbital luminance more negatively affecting perceptions. These findings show that color variation in facial skin is a cue for health perception in female faces.

Sclera color changes with age and is a cue for perceiving age, health, and beauty.

Redness or yellowness of the sclera (the light part of the eye) are known signs of illness, as is looking older than one's actual age. Here we report that the color of the sclera is related to age in a large sample of adult Caucasian females. Specifically, older faces have sclera that are more dark, red, and yellow than younger faces. A subset of these faces were manipulated to increase or decrease the darkness, redness, or yellowness of the sclera. Faces with decreased sclera darkness, redness, or yellowness were perceived to be younger than faces with increased sclera darkness, redness, or yellowness. Further, these manipulations also caused the faces to be perceived as more or less healthy, and more or less attractive. These findings show that sclera coloration is a cue for the perception of age, health, and attractiveness that is rooted in the physical changes that occur with age.