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Tag: Psichologijos tyrimai

  • Lip Size and Attraction: New Study Finds Men and Women Judge Faces Differently

    A new psychology study suggests lip size can subtly shape how attractive a face is perceived, and that preferences can differ depending on the viewer’s gender. The research also indicates that recent visual exposure can shift what people see as appealing.

    The work was led by Professor David Alais at the University of Sydney and used digitally altered images of faces that varied only in lip size. Participants were asked to rate attractiveness, allowing researchers to isolate lip size as a single factor.

    Gender differences in lip preference

    Across participants overall, ratings tended to favor thinner lips on male-presenting faces and fuller lips on female-presenting faces. When broken down by gender, women showed a stronger preference for fuller lips on female faces, while men more often preferred female faces with unaltered, natural-looking lip size.

    The authors argue the pattern points to observer-dependent standards, meaning judgments are shaped not just by the face being viewed but also by who is doing the viewing. The findings were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

    How fast exposure can shift taste

    The experiments also found an adaptation effect, where brief exposure to plumper or thinner lips changed what participants rated as attractive immediately afterward. After seeing fuller lips, people were more likely to rate fuller lips as attractive in subsequent faces, with a similar shift after exposure to thinner lips.

    Notably, the effect appeared even when participants adapted to lips presented without the full face context, suggesting the brain may encode lip size as a distinct feature. Researchers say this kind of rapid recalibration has been observed in other areas of visual preference.

    Implications for cosmetic trends and body image

    With lip augmentation widely promoted through celebrity culture and social media, the study raises questions about how repeated exposure to enhanced features may reset perceived norms. Alais warned that this could contribute to a slide toward ever-plumper ideals, sometimes described as lip dysmorphia.

    “Our research highlights the subjective nature of beauty and the powerful influence of social and cultural factors,” Alais said. The team says more research is needed to understand whether these short-term shifts accumulate into long-term changes in body image and aesthetic expectations.

    In the study, 32 students, split evenly between women and men, rated 168 manipulated faces spanning seven lip sizes from thinner to fuller than a defined norm. Each image was shown briefly, designed to capture quick, instinctive judgments rather than slow deliberation.

  • Cornell study suggests scent can predict platonic chemistry in minutes, and conversations may reshape what we smell

    New research from Cornell University suggests that scent plays a measurable role in how quickly strangers decide whether they could become friends. The study found that, within minutes, people’s reactions to another person’s everyday smell aligned with their impressions after a brief face-to-face chat.

    The work, published in Scientific Reports, examined how odor-based preferences interact with early social encounters. Researchers focused on friendship formation rather than romantic attraction, an area that has historically dominated social olfactory research.

    How the speed-friending test worked

    The study recruited heterosexual women who took part in four-minute speed-friending conversations. Participants also evaluated the everyday scent of other participants using T-shirts that had absorbed their normal, day-to-day odor.

    Researchers reported that individual, highly personal scent preferences predicted how much participants liked their interaction partners after the short conversations. Those patterns were not driven by a single universally appealing or unpleasant smell, but by idiosyncratic taste that varied by person.

    Everyday odor, not lab-made purity

    Instead of isolating a so-called natural body odor, the research leaned into what the authors describe as a signature scent shaped by daily life. That includes choices such as hygiene products, household environment, pets, and other common exposures that can influence how someone smells in real settings.

    In that sense, the study frames scent as part of a broader social signal people carry into first meetings, even if they are not consciously aware of it. The findings suggest smell is registered alongside conversation cues, body language, and other first-impression factors.

    Can a chat change how someone smells?

    One of the most notable findings was that the interaction appeared to work both ways. Participants’ ratings from the live conversation predicted shifts in how they later judged that same person’s T-shirt scent.

    That pattern suggests social experience can reshape odor perception, linking a person’s smell to the quality of the encounter. The researchers argue this feedback loop may help explain why people sometimes warm to someone over time, including on a sensory level.

    While the study focuses on a specific group and a controlled experimental design, it adds to evidence that scent influences social bonding beyond dating. The authors say future work could test whether similar effects appear across broader populations and in more natural social settings.

  • Autism communication study finds no effectiveness gap, pointing to a mismatch in styles

    A new study suggests autistic and non-autistic people can communicate information just as effectively, challenging a common assumption that autism inherently limits social connection. Researchers say many real-world difficulties may stem from mismatched communication styles rather than reduced social ability.

    The research was led by the University of Edinburgh and tested how accurately information was passed along between 311 participants. The team assessed groups made up entirely of autistic people, entirely of non-autistic people, and mixed groups.

    How the communication test worked

    In the experiment, the first participant heard a short story from a researcher and then retold it to the next person in a chain. Each person repeated what they remembered, and the final participant recalled the story aloud.

    Researchers scored how much information was retained at each step to measure communication effectiveness. They found no meaningful differences in accuracy between autistic-only, non-autistic-only, and mixed groups.

    Preference, not performance, stood out

    After the task, participants rated how comfortable the interaction felt, including how friendly, easy, or awkward it seemed. Autistic participants tended to prefer learning from other autistic people, while non-autistic participants often preferred interacting with non-autistic peers.

    The study supports the idea that communication challenges frequently arise when autistic and non-autistic people interact without shared expectations. The authors argue the results add weight to viewing autistic communication as a difference in style, not a deficit.

    Dr Catherine Crompton of the University of Edinburgh said the findings could help shift attention away from attempts to fix autistic communication. She added that reducing misconceptions and improving mutual understanding could help create more inclusive spaces.