Title :
Face is beautiful: Aesthetic evaluation of pareidolian faces
Author :
Takahshi, Kuniyuki ; Watanabe, K.
Author_Institution :
Res. Center for Adv. Sci. & Technol., Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract :
The present study investigated the relation between the face-likeness of pareidolian faces and aesthetic evaluations of them. The pareidolian faces consisted of a facial contour, left and right eyes, and a mouth. Positions of the facial parts were randomly determined. In the experiment, participants were asked to evaluate the face-likeness, beautifulness, and uncanniness of the pareidolian face stimuli. The results suggested that the face-likeness and beautifulness correlated positively, while the face-likeness and uncanniness correlated negatively. Thus, face-likeness of pareidolian faces would have positive influence on the aesthetic evaluation of them. However, detail analyses regarding the eye positions revealed that the faces with outer-side eyes were rated as more beautiful than the faces with inner-side eyes, while the face-likeness of the faces with inner-side and outer-side eyes were comparable. Thus, the facial configuration, in particular eye positions, would differently influence the face-likeness and the beautifulness. These results implied that the higher face-likeness led to the more beautifulness, yet the underpinning processes of the face-likeness perception and the beautifulness perception might be partly separable.
Keywords :
human factors; humanities; visual perception; aesthetic evaluations; eye positions; face-likeness; facial configuration; facial contour; outer-side eyes; pareidolian face stimuli beautifulness; pareidolian face stimuli uncanniness; pareidolian faces; Electroencephalography; Mouth; TV; Face perception; face-likeness; facial aesthetic; pareidolia; uncanny;
Conference_Titel :
Knowledge and Smart Technology (KST), 2014 6th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Chonburi
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-1423-4
DOI :
10.1109/KST.2014.6775404