PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- People's preference for a pretty face, and ascribing positive traits to go with that beauty, may be hard-wired across cultures, researchers say.
In a series of experiments, Ingrid Olson of the University of Pennsylvania and Christy Marshuetz of Yale University tested subjects, who accurately distinguished beautiful from ugly faces with views that lasted just a fraction of a second.
Researchers also found that pretty faces sparked faster responses to positive words also on the screen -- a trend that did not hold true for a beauty of a house.
"Faces hold a special power for us, perhaps more so than art or objects," Olson said. "This favoritism, while poorly understood, seems to be innate and cross-cultural.
"The beauty bias has a real influence upon us, something we should be mindful of when dealing with others," she said.
The study was published in the American Psychological Association journal Emotion.
