First gender, then attractiveness: Indications of gender-specific attractiveness processing via ERP onsets

We followed an ERP-based approach to gain knowledge on the dependence and temporal order of two essential processes of face perception: attractiveness and gender. By combining a dual-choice task with a go/nogo-paradigm focusing on the LRP and N200-effect, we could estimate the processing times and onsets of both types of face processing. The analyses of the LRP revealed that gender aspects were processed much earlier than attractiveness. Whereas gender was already analysed 243.9 ms post-stimulus onset, attractiveness came into play 58.6 ms later, i.e. after a post-stimulus onset delay of 302.5 ms. This resulting pattern was mirrored by the analyses of the N200-effect, an effect available mainly frontally which is supposed to correlate with the inhibition of inappropriate responses. Taking the onset of the N200 effect as an estimator for the moment at which information has been processed sufficiently for task decision, we could trace the N200 effect at 152.0 ms for go/nogo-decision on gender, while not as early as 206.7 ms on attractiveness. In sum, processing of facial attractiveness seems to be based on gender-specific aesthetic pre-processing, for instance via activating gender-specific attractiveness prototypes which show focused processing of certain facial aspects.