The color of your hair may change how even your skin looks to others
Darker hair and black backgrounds can make facial skin appear more even, according to new research in Perception. The skin itself was never altered, suggesting contrast around the face shapes how others perceive it.
A recent study published in the journal Perception suggests that the color of a person's hair and the background behind them may influence how their skin appears to others. The findings, led by Carlota Batres from Franklin & Marshall College, found that darker hair and black backgrounds tended to make facial skin appear more even.
This visual effect occurs due to a brain mechanism called contrast gain control, which evaluates the brightness and texture of a specific region relative to its surroundings. The researchers conducted two experiments to explore whether altering contrast outside the face, such as changing hair lightness or background color, could still trick the eye into perceiving smoother skin.
In the first experiment, 45 white women aged 19 to 79 were photographed with neutral expressions. Researchers created two versions of each face, one against a high-contrast black background and the other against a skin-colored background. Participants rated the evenness of the skin on a scale of one to seven, with higher scores indicating more even skin.
The results showed that faces presented against the high-contrast black background were perceived as more even, scoring an average of 4.18 out of 7, compared to 3.95 when presented against the low-contrast skin-colored background. The effect was consistent across different ages. The second experiment involved selecting images featuring a sharp visual boundary between hair and skin, with 41 white women aged 19 to 79.
The researchers altered the lightness of the hair to create two versions of each face: one with lighter hair and one with darker hair. Participants then rated the skin evenness of these 82 images, and faces with darker hair were perceived as having more even skin, with an average score of 4.06, compared to 4.01 for lighter hair.
The effect was not statistically significant for younger faces. These findings suggest that everyday styling choices like hair color and background can impact how healthy and attractive a person appears to others, highlighting the complex nature of human visual perception.
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