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A glance is enough to assign psychological attributes to others. Attractiveness is associated with positive attributes ('beauty‐is‐good' stereotype). Here, we raise the question of a similar but negative bias. Are people with facial anomalies associated with negative personal characteristics? We hypothesized that biases against faces with anomalies arise because of negative stereotypes (less warmth and competence) and forms of dehumanization (animalistic and mechanistic). We enrolled 1493 mTurk participants (N = 1306 after exclusion) to assess 31 traits of photographed people using 60 pairs of photographs of the same person before and after plastic surgery. Half anomalous faces had a scar and the other half had a palsy. To calculate warmth and competence, we conducted a principal components analysis of the 31 attributes. Animalistic dehumanization was assessed by averaging reverse‐scored ratings corresponding to moral sensibility and rationality/logic, and mechanistic dehumanization by averaging across reverse‐scored ratings corresponding to emotional responsiveness and interpersonal warmth. We found that both kinds of anomalous faces were seen as less warm, competent and were dehumanized. Our findings suggest that an 'anomalous‐is‐bad' stereotype generalizes regardless of the aetiology of the anomaly. This effect may be related to a reverse halo effect, that is, the horn effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Almost every culture engages actively with the arts. Here, we explored how contextual information about content, artist, and technique impacts aesthetic experience. Contextual information increased aesthetic ratings for artworks in Indian and Northern American participants, especially in people more open to experience, and Northern American participants with low art experience. Contextual information reduced the ingroup bias for artworks, suggesting exposure to art may be a potential vehicle to mitigate prejudice against unfamiliar cultures. Similarities and differences in the routes to broader valuations of liking and beauty point to both anthropological universals and cultural specifics of the aesthetic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between aesthetics and morality has been long debated. The current study manipulated perceived artist morality to systematically explore its influence on aesthetic judgments of paintings. Experiment 1 showed perceived artist morality as indicated by moral appraisal significantly influenced Chinese participants' aesthetic judgments of Chinese landscape paintings. Participants rated their liking and the beauty of paintings, with the result that highly moral artists' paintings were rated significantly higher than paintings of low-morality artists. Experiment 2 used moral behavior descriptions and replicated the finding of perceived artist morality influence on Chinese participants' aesthetic judgments of Chinese landscape paintings, but we did not find this effect on aesthetic judgments of Western landscapes and abstract paintings. Experiment 3 found a cross-cultural discrepancy of the influence of perceived artist morality on aesthetic judgments. We found perceived artist morality influenced Western (Americans and Europeans) participants' aesthetic judgments of all styles of paintings. This study confirmed the influence of perceived artist morality on aesthetic judgments of paintings, and suggested artists who cultivate a highly moral persona can thereby enhance the aesthetic value of their artworks among the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-documented "beauty is good" stereotype is expressed in the expectation that physically attractive people have more positive characteristics. Recent evidence has also found that unattractive faces are associated with negative character inferences. Is what is good (bad) also beautiful (ugly)? Whether this conflation of aesthetic and moral values is bidirectional is not known. This study tested the hypothesis that complementary "good is beautiful" and "bad is ugly" stereotypes bias aesthetic judgments. Using highly controlled face stimuli, this preregistered study examined whether moral character influences perceptions of attractiveness for different ages and sexes of faces. Compared to faces paired with nonmoral vignettes, those paired with prosocial vignettes were rated significantly more attractive, confident, and friendlier. The opposite pattern characterized faces paired with antisocial vignettes. A significant interaction between vignette type and the age of the face was detected for attractiveness. Moral transgressions affected attractiveness more negatively for younger than older faces. Sex-related differences were not detected. These results suggest information about moral character affects our judgments about facial attractiveness. Better (worse) people are considered more (less) attractive. These findings suggest that beliefs about moral goodness and physical beauty influence each other bidirectionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]