The Effect of Facial Attractiveness on Recognition Memory —A Gender Difference in the Influence of Judging Social Factors—

Abstract

We investigated the effect of facial attractiveness on recognition memory after two kinds of judgment task, and found a possible gender differences. In experiment 1, we tested incidental recognition memory after judgment tasks in which participants viewed images of male or female faces, and rated their attractiveness and two social factors (trustworthiness and easiness to speak). The results showed an overall tendency that unattractive faces are recognized better than attractive faces. When woman observed female faces, however, recognition performance was not affected by attractiveness. In experiment 2, participants judged physical features of female faces instead of social factors (as rated in experiment 1), and recognition performance was better for unattractive than attractive faces regardless of the participant’s gender. We found that facial attractiveness affects memory. Moreover, when women see female faces, it appears that the effect of attractiveness on memory depends on whether they attend to social factors.