The Influences of Ethnicity, Gender, and Skin-tone in Ratings of Facial Attractiveness

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of ethnicity, gender, and skin-tone (light versus dark) on ratings of facial attractiveness. Oculomotor activity was measured to understand visual attention. The study assessed the influence of rater and stimuli variables (i.e., ethnicity, gender, skin-tone). Black and White female and male faces were duplicated resulting in light-toned and dark-toned versions. Each face category had three stimuli. Participants rated the face’s attractiveness, familiarity, and future parenting ability after being displayed on a computer screen. The number of regions evaluated and the proportion of time spent per region was recorded for each participant. Seven hypotheses were made: 5 regarding the subjective ratings (none of which reached statistical significance) and 2 regarding oculomotor activity. H1: Faces of same ethnicity, gender, and skin-tone would be rated as more attractive by matched participants. Comparison of the means was consistent with the hypothesis for light-toned Black and dark-toned White faces. H2: Light-toned Black females would be rated more attractive than dark-toned, while the reverse would be true for White females. Comparison of the means was consistent with the hypothesis. H3: Females would rate dark-toned males more attractive than light-toned. Comparison of the means was consistent with this hypothesis. H4: White females would rate Black stimuli as more attractive than White males, but no differences between ratings made by non-white females and males. Comparison of the means was consistent for the former part of this hypothesis. Comparison of the means was neither consistent nor significant for non-white raters. H5: Non-white males would rate White females more attractive than ratings by non-white females. Non-white male raters did not rate White female stimuli as more attractive than non-white female raters. H6: Males would view more regions of opposite sex faces than females. Support was found to disconfirm this hypothesis. Females and males both viewed more regions of male faces. H7: Raters would view more regions of other-ethnicity faces. Comparison of the means revealed both White and non-white raters viewed more regions of White faces (not statistically significant). Overall, provisional support was found for influences of skin-tone in both subjective ratings and oculomotor activity.