Relating visual and vocal attractiveness for moving and static faces

The relationship between visual and vocal attractiveness in males and females as evaluated by men and women was investigated. Participants rated the attractiveness of voices and static faces or voices and moving faces. Rubenstein (2005. Psychological Science, 16, 759–762) suggested that dynamic and static faces are judged by different evaluative standards. Results from the reported experiment suggest that for male participants there was a positive correlation between female vocal and visual (moving or static face) attractiveness. Women rated with higher voice attractiveness were rated as having more attractive faces. For female participants there was a positive correlation between male vocal and moving visual attractiveness but not between male vocal and static visual attractiveness. In addition, no significant correlation between the attractiveness of male static faces and that of male moving faces was found, highlighting differences in rated attractiveness when judging either moving or static faces (Rubenstein, A. J. 2005. Psychological Science, 16, 759–762). Finally, there was no correlation between vocal and visual attractiveness (moving or static) for same-sex judgements. Results are discussed with regard to perceptual and evolutionary perspectives.