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Shared brain activity for aesthetic and moral judgments: implications for the Beauty-is-Good stereotype.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Tsukiura, T; Cabeza, R
Published in: Social cognitive and affective neuroscience
January 2011

The Beauty-is-Good stereotype refers to the assumption that attractive people possess sociably desirable personalities and higher moral standards. The existence of this bias suggests that the neural mechanisms for judging facial attractiveness and moral goodness overlap. To investigate this idea, we scanned participants with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they made attractiveness judgments about faces and goodness judgments about hypothetical actions. Activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex increased as a function of both attractiveness and goodness ratings, whereas activity in the insular cortex decreased with both attractiveness and goodness ratings. Within each of these regions, the activations elicited by attractiveness and goodness judgments were strongly correlated with each other, supporting the idea of similar contributions of each region to both judgments. Moreover, activations in orbitofrontal and insular cortices were negatively correlated with each other, suggesting an opposing relationship between these regions during attractiveness and goodness judgments. These findings have implications for understanding the neural mechanisms of the Beauty-is-Good stereotype.

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Published In

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1749-5024

ISSN

1749-5016

Publication Date

January 2011

Volume

6

Issue

1

Start / End Page

138 / 148

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Time Factors
  • Stereotyping
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Oxygen
  • Morals
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Judgment
 

Citation

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Tsukiura, T., & Cabeza, R. (2011). Shared brain activity for aesthetic and moral judgments: implications for the Beauty-is-Good stereotype. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6(1), 138–148. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq025
Tsukiura, Takashi, and Roberto Cabeza. “Shared brain activity for aesthetic and moral judgments: implications for the Beauty-is-Good stereotype.Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 6, no. 1 (January 2011): 138–48. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq025.
Tsukiura T, Cabeza R. Shared brain activity for aesthetic and moral judgments: implications for the Beauty-is-Good stereotype. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience. 2011 Jan;6(1):138–48.
Tsukiura, Takashi, and Roberto Cabeza. “Shared brain activity for aesthetic and moral judgments: implications for the Beauty-is-Good stereotype.Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan. 2011, pp. 138–48. Epmc, doi:10.1093/scan/nsq025.
Tsukiura T, Cabeza R. Shared brain activity for aesthetic and moral judgments: implications for the Beauty-is-Good stereotype. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience. 2011 Jan;6(1):138–148.
Journal cover image

Published In

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1749-5024

ISSN

1749-5016

Publication Date

January 2011

Volume

6

Issue

1

Start / End Page

138 / 148

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Time Factors
  • Stereotyping
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Oxygen
  • Morals
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Judgment