Objectives

To test whether intra-sexual selection has influenced perceptions of male facial hair. We predicted that beards would increase the speed and accuracy of perceptions of angry but not happy facial expressions. We also predicted that bearded angry faces would receive the highest explicit ratings of masculinity and aggressiveness, whereas higher prosociality ratings would be ascribed to clean-shaven happy faces.

Methods

A total of 106 participants, ranging from 17 to 59 years of age (M = 27.27, SD = 10.03); 59 were female and 47 were male (44.3%) completed an emotion categorization tasks and an explicit ratings task. Participants viewed faces of the same men when bearded, clean-shaven, and 10 days of natural growth (i.e. stubble) when posing angry and happy facial expressions.

Results

Angry facial expressions were categorised most rapidly and with the greatest accuracy on bearded faces, followed by faces with stubble then clean-shaven faces. Conversely, happy facial expressions were categorised most rapidly and with the greatest accuracy on clean-shaven faces, followed by stubbled faces then bearded faces. Irrespective of facial expression, full bearded faces received the highest ratings of masculinity followed by faces with stubble then clean-shaven faces. Aggressiveness ratings were highest for angry faces with full beards, followed by angry faces with stubble, with clean-shaven angry faces receiving the lowest ratings. In contrast to our prediction, bearded smiling faces were rated as significantly more prosocial than stubbled and clean-shaven smiling faces.

Conclusions

These findings contribute further evidence that men’s beardedness represents an intra-sexually selected badge of status that enhances nonverbal threat potentially by augmenting underlying masculine facial structures.

中文翻译：

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胡须提高面部威胁的速度、准确性和明确判断

目标

测试性内选择是否影响了对男性面部毛发的看法。我们预测胡须会提高对愤怒但不快乐的面部表情的感知速度和准确性。我们还预测，留胡子的愤怒面孔将获得最高的男性气质和侵略性评分，而更高的亲社会评分将归因于剃光胡子的快乐面孔。

方法

共有106名参与者，年龄从17岁到59岁不等（M = 27.27，SD = 10.03）；59 名女性和 47 名男性 (44.3%) 完成了一项情绪分类任务和一项明确的评级任务。参与者在摆出愤怒和快乐的面部表情时，观察同一个人留着胡须、刮得干干净净、自然生长 10 天（即留胡茬）时的面孔。

结果

愤怒的面部表情在胡须脸上的分类速度最快，准确度最高，其次是胡茬脸，然后是剃光的脸。相反，快乐的面部表情在剃光的脸上的分类速度最快，准确度最高，其次是胡茬脸，然后是胡须脸。无论面部表情如何，满脸胡须的脸都获得了最高的男性气质评分，其次是留胡茬的脸，然后是剃光的脸。满脸胡须的愤怒面孔的攻击性评分最高，其次是留着胡茬的愤怒面孔，剃光的愤怒面孔的评分最低。与我们的预测相反，胡子笑脸被认为比留着胡茬和胡子刮得干干净净的笑脸更亲社会。

结论

这些发现提供了进一步的证据，表明男性的胡须代表了一种性内选择的身份标志，通过增强潜在的男性面部结构潜在地增强了非语言威胁。