Beauty by contrast: How hair color and background color influence skin appearance

Skin appearance significantly impacts how we perceive someone's age, health, and attractiveness. While skin condition plays a role, previous research has shown that adjacent surfaces like eyebrows, eyes, and lips also influence perceived skin appearance. A new study published in the journal Perception explores whether this effect extends to the contrast between facial skin and surrounding surfaces.

In the first experiment, faces were framed by an oval with a background color either high or low contrast compared to the skin tone. Even without altering the faces themselves, participants perceived skin on faces with the high-contrast oval as more even than those with low-contrast backgrounds. The second experiment aimed to see if this effect could apply to real-world scenarios by altering hair lightness.

Participants still perceived skin on faces with decreased hair lightness as more even than on faces with increased hair lightness. Professor Carlota Batres of Franklin and Marshall College, who led the study, explains that these findings indicate skin appearance is influenced by contrast between skin and surrounding surfaces, whether background color or hair color.

Previous research has found that black clothing is perceived as more attractive than red, blue, green, yellow, or white clothing, as it may increase attractiveness through perceived fashionableness. However, the current study suggests that black could also enhance attractiveness due to the increased contrast it creates, leading to a more even perception of skin.

Additionally, previous research has linked attractive ratings to women having their hair down, longer hair, and medium-length hair, which may all contribute to increased contrast around the face and perceived skin evenness based on these new results.