How Personality Traits Affect the Perception of Facial and Vocal Attractiveness

Background: Previous research has found an association between attractiveness and personality traits, but the neural mechanisms are largely unknown. Method: We used a Stroop-like paradigm combined with EEG recordings to investigate how personality traits affect the perception of facial and vocal attractiveness. Twenty-three female participants classified the attractiveness of male faces and male voices paired with positive or negative personality trait words. Results: The behavioral results indicate that personality trait words that are semantically congruent with attractiveness levels facilitate the perception of attractiveness, whereas incongruent trait information produces the opposite effect. Event-related potentials revealed that the influence of personality trait words on facial attractiveness was primarily related to motivated attention as indicated by the late positive component. In the voice task, personality trait words impacted vocal attractiveness processing first during semantic integration (N400 component) and then modulated motivated attention. Conclusions: These results suggest that alleged personality traits modify attractiveness processing in faces and voices in relatively late and partially modality-specific stages.