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Relationship between perceptual and structural variation of human faces: cross-cultural comparison
Pavlovič, Ondřej ; Kleisner, Karel (advisor) ; Třebický, Vít (referee) ; Marcinkowska, Urszula (referee)
ONDŘEJ PAVLOVIČ RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEPTUAL AND STRUCTURAL VARIATION OF HUMAN FACES: CROSS- CULTURAL COMPARISON ABSTRAKT The perception of facial features is a fundamental aspect of human culture, influencing daily interactions and relationships. This thesis explores the cross-cultural dynamics of facial perception. First, the theoretical introduction establishes the centrality of facial perception across cultures. Empirical studies included in this thesis elucidate the convergence and divergence of attractiveness standards among cultures. Additionally, this thesis explores the interplay between facial shape dimorphism, color dimorphism, and typicality across a wide variety of populations. The context of Vietnamese immigrants in the Czech Republic offers a unique lens to study the impact of the sociocultural environment on facial perception and preferences. By analyzing attractiveness assessments provided by Czech Europeans, Czech Vietnamese, and Asian Vietnamese raters for Czech and Vietnamese faces, the studies included in this thesis further elucidate the convergence and divergence of attractiveness standards across these groups. The results of these studies underscore the role of facial averageness as a universally significant trait in attractiveness judgments. Studies added to the appendix explore...
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Visual attention to faces in intersexual and intrasexual selection
Pátková, Žaneta ; Třebická Fialová, Jitka (advisor) ; Lukavský, Jiří (referee) ; Stirratt, Michael (referee)
This thesis focuses on visual attention towards faces in intersexual and intrasexual selection. It consists of two main parts. The first part begins with a brief overview of the intersexual and intrasexual selection mechanisms. Within the framework of intersexual selection, facial attractiveness is discussed, with its putative link to health and immune system function. Within the framework of intrasexual selection, the thesis focuses on perceived facial dominance and formidability and their connection to actual characteristics. Moreover, specific facial traits and morphological features connected with judgements of attractiveness, dominance, and formidability are described. Given the scarce evidence of direct visual attention towards facial features connected with judgements of facial attractiveness and dominance or formidability, we discuss the eye-tracking method, which can measure direct visual attention. A brief summary of eye-tracking studies focusing on visual attention to faces, especially during attractiveness and dominance assessments, is provided. Finally, the thesis focuses on how individual sensory modalities (visual, olfactory and vocal) relate to each other in the perception of individuals and the detection of cues to an individual's quality. The second part of this thesis includes...
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Preferences for markers of health status in humans
Jíchová, Františka ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Fiala, Vojtěch (referee)
Several evolutionary hypotheses suggest that different organisms have evolved systematic preferences for markers of mate health. These markers may provide clues to an individual's immunocompetence, current health status, and health history. Correct recognition of good health helps to select a quality partner who can offer advantages such as good genetic qualities that can be passed on to offspring, can participate more effectively in the care of offspring, and thus does not put the individual at risk of infection. Awareness of these markers may be important not only in mate choice but also in other social interactions in which it is important mainly to correctly estimate current health and possibly avoid interaction with an infectious individual. Preference for markers of health in humans may be based, for example, on visual cues in the face, such as color, sexual dimorphism, skin texture, or an assessment of overall stature. Markers may also be olfactory, where an unattractive odor may indicate the presence of a potential disease. Last but not least, there are acoustic markers. However, the interaction of the manifestations of each modality may also be important. The aim of my bachelor thesis is to provide a theoretical overview of the association of current health, immunocompetence and health...
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Facial attractiveness and skin color and texture
Kolingerová, Agáta ; Pátková, Žaneta (advisor) ; Pokorný, Šimon (referee)
The main aim of this thesis is, in the form of a literature review and critical evaluation, to summarize the available findings from scientific research on the influence of skin color and texture on facial attractiveness. The first part briefly introduces some of the evolutionary perspectives on attractiveness and then the aspects primarily studied in the past that affect facial attractiveness, i.e., symmetry, averageness and sexually dimorphic features. The main section of this thesis is devoted to other important traits affecting facial attractiveness, that is, skin color and texture. Topics discussed include individual skin color traits (i.e., redness, yellowness, lightness and homogeneity of color), while this thesis tries to describe their association with actual health or physical condition. The influence of culture and gender on the perception of these traits is also included. Regarding skin texture, the topics of acne, scars, radiance and wrinkles and their effect on perceived attractiveness are discussed. Similarly to color traits, potential influences of culture and gender are also presented. Keywords attractiveness, color, texture, skin, perception, health
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Morphological and behavioural changes during menstrual cycle in catarrhine primates
Molnárová, Kristýna ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Másílková, Michaela (referee)
Females of Old World monkeys and apes (Catarrhini) exhibit a menstrual cycle, during which changes in skin colouration and/or sexual swellings can be observed in some species, located mainly in the anogenital region and around the ischial callosities, but also on the chest, abdomen or face. These morphological changes can be compared with changing hormone levels and also the way males respond to them, which is reflected in the degree of visual attractiveness. The odour of females may also be attractive to males, and with changes in the odour over the cycle, males could assess the reproductive status of females based on olfactory inspection. Males may also assess female readiness to mate through behavioural changes, which include various proceptive displays such as different gestures, facial expressions, vocalizations and the presentation of morphological changes, among others. The aim of this thesis is to summarize and critically review the available literature dealing with morphological and behavioural changes during the menstrual cycle in females of Old World monkeys and apes. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the possible function of these cyclical changes, such as those related to male competition, increased paternal care and reduced risk of infanticide. Furthermore, hypotheses...
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The Effect of Cultural and Natural Heritage on Tourism Attractiveness in Slovakia
Kling, Alexander ; Šťastná, Lenka (advisor) ; Kantová, Klára (referee)
The Effect of Cultural and Natural Heritage on Tourism Attractiveness in Slovakia Abstract This thesis questions a traditional understanding of cultural and natural heritage as two of the main determinants of tourism attractiveness. The motivation to write it was that in Slovakia, there are multiple locations with plentiful natural and cultural monuments, but since some of them are popu- lar tourist destinations, the others are relatively unknown from the tourism perspective. Based on the review of the existing academic literature, the au- thor understands the concept of attractiveness as a phenomenon composed of the attributes of a certain attraction or location and tourists' perception of the destinations. Therefore, the models connect both aspects of the tourism system - supply and demand for tourism. The dependent variable repre- senting demand is the number of visitors in accommodation establishments per district in 2018 or this value per capita. The main independent vari- ables are the number of national cultural monuments and national natural monuments and reserves, the variables typical for a tourism product. De- spite the estimates of their effects seem to be clearly positive and significant, especially for nature, before including additional explanatory variables and their logarithmic...
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Association between human body odour and health status
Schwambergová, Dagmar ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Vinkler, Michal (referee)
The subject of this thesis is to evaluate a link between changes in body odor and health status in humans. The main aim was to create a theoretical overview of the available studies concerning humans, which are compared with studies conducted on mammals. Alteration of body odor due to the ongoing disease may negatively influence not only the odor attractiveness of a potential partner, but also may cause changes in behavioral response to a chemical stimulus for other members of the species. One may assume formation of perceptual adaptations exhibiting sensitivity to markers of health status in both sexes. Recognition of ill individuals may be crucial during social interactions, to prevent transmission of pathogens, but in mate choice the health status may also serve as an important indicator of resistance to infection, which can affect the viability of the offsprings. The main contribution of this thesis is to summarize the knowledge and insights into the area related to changes in body odor, depending on the health status. Keywords body odor, health, sexual selection, attractiveness, olfactory perception
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Cross-cultural perception of attractiveness and its correlates: the role of visual modalities
Fiala, Vojtěch ; Kleisner, Karel (advisor) ; Třebický, Vít (referee)
This work reviews the literature on the topic of intercultural perception of human attractiveness with special focus on recent videostimuli-using research. The first section introduces several basic perspectives on ecological-evolutionary view of attractiveness. The next section deals with intercultural differences in attractiveness perception dicussing possible explanations of these differences. The third chapter focuses on faces of people of cross-culture origin and usage of composite stimuli and artificially manipulated stimuli in inter-cultural research. The fourth chapter examines the usage of videostimuli in attractiveness research. I also add information about intercultural usage of videostimuli as far as these are available. Finally, I discuss a possible source of result ambiguity and highlight the potential use of videostimuli in intercultural research of attractiveness perception. Keywords Attractiveness, intercultural perception, videostimuli, cross-culture origin, composite images, averageness, masculinity, feminity
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Changes in preferences for heterozygosity in MHC genes across the menstrual cycle
Ptáčková, Kateřina ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Janotová, Kateřina (referee)
5 Abstract Products of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays key role in immune system of vertebrates. Prior studies on different vertebrate species show, that heterozygosity in MHC genes is linked to more efficient immune system and preferred in mate choice. Results of human studies are ambivalent, which can be due to the effect of some modulating factors like reproductive status. Therefore, our aim was to test heterozygosity related preferences in faces, odor and voice across menstrual cycle. Our sample consisted of 51 men and 52 women, from which 23 used hormonal contraception and 29 had natural cycle. They were genotyped in -A, -B and -DR alleles. All odor stimuli, face photos and voice records were rated on seven-point scale in both follicular and luteal phase. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for the analysis. Changes in ratings across the menstrual cycle and heterozygosity were most discernible on voice ratings. Voices of homozygous males were rated more attractive than voices of heterozygous males especially in follicular phase. Similar shift to higher ratings in follicular phase was manifested in ratings of homozygous male faces, but the difference between homozygous males and heterozygous males was not significant. Women with natural cycle also rated voices higher in their follicular phase...
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