ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Perception Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1600306
Simulated intra-individual skin color changes and their impact on facial attractiveness across Japanese, Chinese, and Caucasian faces
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shiseido (Japan), Yokohama, Japan
- 2Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Understanding the influence of facial features on attractiveness is important for the development of cosmetics that improve attractiveness. Although it is known that changes in skin color affect attractiveness, few studies have investigated whether changes in skin color within individuals affect attractiveness, or whether these effects vary across geographic and cultural contexts. Therefore, through online surveys, we aimed to investigate changes in visual attractiveness due to intra-individual changes in skin color, using images of Japanese, Chinese, and Caucasian faces. Method: Ten patterns of skin color change were applied to the average faces of Japanese, Chinese, and Caucasian men and women in their 20s. Using online surveys,1,200 Japanese, 1,518 Chinese, and 1,200 Italian participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of the facial images on a 5-point Likert scale. Results: Changes in attractiveness associated with changes in skin color were observed in all surveys. Furthermore, we found geographic, cultural, and sex differences in changes in attractiveness associated with changes in skin color. Conclusion: The results indicate that intraindividual changes in skin color can alter facial attractiveness. Furthermore, changes in attractiveness in response to skin color changes may vary according to facial sex and geographic and cultural backgrounds.
Keywords: facial attractiveness, Facial Perception, Survey, Chinese, japanese, Caucasian
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 21 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Koizumi, Nagashima, Hirao and Ohira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Koyo Koizumi, Shiseido (Japan), Yokohama, Japan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.