why people attracted towards beautiful faces?
Give scientific reason .
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Few visual impressions can be compared to humans’ interest for faces. New research suggests that our brain rewards us for looking at pretty faces.
PhD Candidate Olga Chelnokova together with one of the faces that the participants assessed. Photo: Svein Harald Milde and Guro Løseth.
A quick glimpse of a face provides us with rich information about the person in front of us. Are we acquainted? Man or woman? Happy or angry? Attractive?
In her PhD thesis, conducted at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Olga Chelnokova has explored how our visual system is able to direct attention to the most important information in a face. Her study suggest that evolution has made us experts on faces.
“We are very curious about others’ faces, we read stories in them and evaluate their aestetic value”, says Chelnokova.
Couldn't stop looking
Together with colleagues from the research group Hedonic Pharmacology lab she revealed that the brain reward system – a cluster of regions deep in our brain – is involved in our evaluation of other people’s attractiveness.
“The reward system is involved in generating the experience of pleasure when, for instance, we enjoy tasty food or happen to win a lottery. It turns out that the same system is also engaged in creating the feelings of pleasure when we look at a pretty face”, she says.
Previous research has shown a high level of agreement between people when it comes to evaluationg facial attractiveness. In the current study, the scientists let participants view images of faces pre-rated as most, intermediate, or less attractive. This was done after participants received a small dose of morphin, a drug that stimulates the reward system.
“Participants rated the most attractive faces as even more attractive, and were willing to do more presses on button that let them look at the picture for a longer time. They also spent more time looking at the eyes of the people in the pictures. Importantly, we observed the opposite behaviors when we blocked the reward system with another drug, such that, for instance, our participants gave lower ratings to the most attractive faces,” explains Chelnokova.
The researchers saw no effect from the drugs when participants viewed images of intermediate or less attractive faces.
PhD Candidate Olga Chelnokova together with one of the faces that the participants assessed. Photo: Svein Harald Milde and Guro Løseth.
A quick glimpse of a face provides us with rich information about the person in front of us. Are we acquainted? Man or woman? Happy or angry? Attractive?
In her PhD thesis, conducted at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Olga Chelnokova has explored how our visual system is able to direct attention to the most important information in a face. Her study suggest that evolution has made us experts on faces.
“We are very curious about others’ faces, we read stories in them and evaluate their aestetic value”, says Chelnokova.
Couldn't stop looking
Together with colleagues from the research group Hedonic Pharmacology lab she revealed that the brain reward system – a cluster of regions deep in our brain – is involved in our evaluation of other people’s attractiveness.
“The reward system is involved in generating the experience of pleasure when, for instance, we enjoy tasty food or happen to win a lottery. It turns out that the same system is also engaged in creating the feelings of pleasure when we look at a pretty face”, she says.
Previous research has shown a high level of agreement between people when it comes to evaluationg facial attractiveness. In the current study, the scientists let participants view images of faces pre-rated as most, intermediate, or less attractive. This was done after participants received a small dose of morphin, a drug that stimulates the reward system.
“Participants rated the most attractive faces as even more attractive, and were willing to do more presses on button that let them look at the picture for a longer time. They also spent more time looking at the eyes of the people in the pictures. Importantly, we observed the opposite behaviors when we blocked the reward system with another drug, such that, for instance, our participants gave lower ratings to the most attractive faces,” explains Chelnokova.
The researchers saw no effect from the drugs when participants viewed images of intermediate or less attractive faces.
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A quick glimpse of a face provides us with rich information about the person in front of us. Are we acquainted? Man or woman? Happy or angry? Attractive?
In her PhD thesis, conducted at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Olga Chelnokova has explored how our visual system is able to direct attention to the most important information in a face. Her study suggest that evolution has made us experts on faces.
“We are very curious about others’ faces, we read stories in them and evaluate their aestetic value”, says Chelnokova.
Couldn't stop looking
Together with colleagues from the research group Hedonic Pharmacology lab she revealed that the brain reward system – a cluster of regions deep in our brain – is involved in our evaluation of other people’s attractiveness.
“The reward system is involved in generating the experience of pleasure when, for instance, we enjoy tasty food or happen to win a lottery. It turns out that the same system is also engaged in creating the feelings of pleasure when we look at a pretty face”, she says.
Previous research has shown a high level of agreement between people when it comes to evaluationg facial attractiveness. In the current study, the scientists let participants view images of faces pre-rated as most, intermediate, or less attractive. This was done after participants received a small dose of morphin, a drug that stimulates the reward system.
“Participants rated the most attractive faces as even more attractive, and were willing to do more presses on button that let them look at the picture for a longer time. They also spent more time looking at the eyes of the people in the pictures. Importantly, we observed the opposite behaviors when we blocked the reward system with another drug, such that, for instance, our participants gave lower ratings to the most attractive faces,” explains Chelnokova.
The researchers saw no effect from the drugs when participants viewed images of intermediate or less attractive faces.
Theory of evolution
Is it possible that the human brain has evolved to reinforce behaviors that are evolutionary favourable for us as a species? It very well could have, according to the scientists.
In her PhD thesis, conducted at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Olga Chelnokova has explored how our visual system is able to direct attention to the most important information in a face. Her study suggest that evolution has made us experts on faces.
“We are very curious about others’ faces, we read stories in them and evaluate their aestetic value”, says Chelnokova.
Couldn't stop looking
Together with colleagues from the research group Hedonic Pharmacology lab she revealed that the brain reward system – a cluster of regions deep in our brain – is involved in our evaluation of other people’s attractiveness.
“The reward system is involved in generating the experience of pleasure when, for instance, we enjoy tasty food or happen to win a lottery. It turns out that the same system is also engaged in creating the feelings of pleasure when we look at a pretty face”, she says.
Previous research has shown a high level of agreement between people when it comes to evaluationg facial attractiveness. In the current study, the scientists let participants view images of faces pre-rated as most, intermediate, or less attractive. This was done after participants received a small dose of morphin, a drug that stimulates the reward system.
“Participants rated the most attractive faces as even more attractive, and were willing to do more presses on button that let them look at the picture for a longer time. They also spent more time looking at the eyes of the people in the pictures. Importantly, we observed the opposite behaviors when we blocked the reward system with another drug, such that, for instance, our participants gave lower ratings to the most attractive faces,” explains Chelnokova.
The researchers saw no effect from the drugs when participants viewed images of intermediate or less attractive faces.
Theory of evolution
Is it possible that the human brain has evolved to reinforce behaviors that are evolutionary favourable for us as a species? It very well could have, according to the scientists.
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