Richard Russell - Research

Perceiving age, health, sex, and beauty in the face

Most of my research involves explaining our perception of faces in terms of physical differences between different kinds of faces. For example, the physical anthropology community has shown that male skin is darker than female skin. I have shown that while male skin is darker than female skin, male eyes and lips are not much darker than female eyes and lips. The result is greater contrast in female faces between the eyes, mouth and the rest of the face. People use this sex difference in facial contrast to decide the sex of a face and how masculine or feminine it is. Manipulating this facial contrast has opposite effects on male and female attractiveness. Interestingly, cosmetics exaggerate this sex difference, which suggests that cosmetics are used to manipulate sex differences to make the female face more feminine, and hence attractive.

Batres, C., Russell, R., & Workowski, M. (In press) Makeup applied to facial features increases perceived skin evenness. Vision Research

Batres, C., Jones, A.L., Barlett, C.P., Porcheron, A., Morizot, F., & Russell, R. (In press) Makeup works by modifying factors of facial beauty. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

Kramer, S.S., & Russell, R. (2022) A novel human sex difference: Male sclera are redder and yellower than female sclera. Archives of Sexual Behavior 51(6): 2733-2740

Batres, C., Porcheron, A., Courreges, S., & Russell, R. (2021) Professional Versus Self-Applied Makeup: Do Makeup Artists Add Value? Perception 50(8): 709-719

Batres, C. & Russell, R. (2020) Examining the influence of cosmetics on jury decisions Cosmetics 17(3): 64

Russell, R., Batres, C., Jones, A.L., & Porcheron, A. (2019) A role for contrast gain control in skin appearance Journal of Vision 19(13): 11

Batres, C., Porcheron, A., Latreille, J., Roche, M., Morizot, F., & Russell, R. (2019) Cosmetics increase skin evenness: evidence from perceptual and physical measures. Skin Research and Technology 25: 672-676

Batres, C., Kramer, S.S., DeAngelis, C.G., & Russell, R. (2019) Examining the 'cosmetics placebo effect'. PLOS ONE 14: e0210238

Russell, R., Batres, C., Courreges, S., Kaminski, G., Soppelsa, F., Morizot, F., & Porcheron, A. (2019) Differential effects of makeup on perceived age. British Journal of Psychology 110: 87-100

Batres, C., Porcheron, A., Kaminski, G., Courreges, S., Morizot, F., & Russell, R. (2019) Evidence That the Hormonal Contraceptive Pill Is Associated With Cosmetic Habits. Frontiers in Psychology 9: 1459

Jones, A.L., Porcheron, A., & Russell, R. (2018) Makeup changes the apparent size of facial features. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 12: 359-368

Jones, A.L., Batres, C., Porcheron, A., Sweda, J., & Russell, R. (2018) Positive facial affect looks healthy (postprint). Visual Cognition 26: 1-12

Batres, C., Russell, R., Campbell, L., Simpson, J., Milroy, A., & Cronk, L. (2018) Evidence that makeup is a false signal of sociosexuality. Personality and Individual Differences 122: 148-154

Russell, R., Kramer, S.S., & Jones, A.L. (2017) Facial contrast declines with age but remains sexually dimorphic throughout adulthood. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology 3(4): 293-303

Porcheron, A., Mauger, E., Soppelsa, F., Liu, Y., Ge, L., Pascalis, O., Russell, R., & Morizot, F. (2017) Facial contrast is a cross-cultural cue for perceiving age.Frontiers in Psychology 8: 1208

Russell, R. (2017) The Illusion of Sex. In Shapiro, A.G. & Todorovic, D. (Eds.) The Oxford Compendium of Visual Illusions Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mileva, V.R., Jones, A., Russell, R., & Little, A. (2016) Sex differences in the Perceived Dominance and Prestige of Women With and Without Cosmetics (preprint). Perception 45(10): 1166-1183

Russell, R., Porcheron, A., Sweda, J.R., Jones, A.L., Mauger, E., & Morizot, F. (2016) Facial contrast is a cue for perceiving health from the face (preprint). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 42(9): 1354-1362

Jones, A.L., Porcheron, A., Sweda, J.R., Morizot, F., & Russell, R. (2016) Coloration in different areas of facial skin is a cue to health: The role of cheek redness and periorbital luminance in health perception (preprint). Body Image 17: 57-66

Jones, A.L. Russell, R., & Ward, R. (2015) Cosmetics alter biologically based factors of beauty: Evidence from sex differences in facial contrast. Evolutionary Psychology

Russell, R., Sweda, J.R., Porcheron, A., & Mauger, E. (2014) Sclera Color Changes With Age and is a Cue for Perceiving Age, Health, and Beauty. Psychology and Aging, 29(3): 626-635

Porcheron, A., Mauger, E., & Russell, R. (2013) Aspects of facial contrast decrease with age and are cues for age perception.PLOS ONE, 8(3): e57985.

Russell, R. (2012) Cosmetics use: psychological perspectives. In Cash, T. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Russell, R. (2010) Why cosmetics work. In Adams, R., Ambady, N., Nakayama, K., & Shimojo, S. (Eds.) The Science of Social Vision. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 186-203

Russell, R. (2009) A sex difference in facial pigmentation and its exaggeration by cosmetics. Perception, (38)1211-1219.

Russell, R. (2003) Sex, beauty, and the relative luminance of facial features. Perception, (32) 1093-1107.

Face Recognition: Prosopagnosia and Super-Recognizers

Prosopagnosia (also called face blindness) is an impairment in the recognition of faces. More information about prosopagnosia can be found at www.faceblind.org. Some people are the opposite of prosopagnosic, and have excellent face recognition ability. I have named these people "super-recognizers".

Russell, R., Chatterjee, G., & Nakayama, K. (2012) Developmental prosopagnosia and super-recognition: no special role for surface reflectance processing. Neuropsychologia, (50)334-340

Russell, R., Duchaine, B., & Nakayama, K. (2009) Super-recognizers: People with extraordinary face recognition ability. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(2), 252-257.

New Yorker article on super-recognizers in London's Metropolitan Police.
BBC World Service radio piece on super-recognizers. The segment on super-recognizers runs from minute 13:07 to 22:29.

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?

Although there is significant agreement about the relative attractiveness of different people, the agreement is far from complete. I am also very interested in individual differences in attractiveness preferences, and how they can be affected by relationships, experiences, and learning.

Germine, L., Russell, R., Bronstad, P.M., Blokland, G.A.M., Smoller, J.W., Kwok, H., Anthony, S.E., Nakayama, K., Rhodes, G., & Wilmer, J.B. (2015) Individual aesthetic preferences for faces are shaped mostly by environments, not genes. Current Biology, 25(20): 2684-2689

Chen, H., Russell, R., Nakayama, K., & Livingstone, M. (2010) Crossing the "Uncanny Valley": adaptation to cartoon faces can influence perception of human faces. Perception, (39)378-386.

Bronstad, P. M., Langlois, J.H. & Russell, R. (2008) Computational models of facial attractiveness judgments. Perception, (37)126-142.

Bronstad, P. M. & Russell, R. (2007) Beauty is in the "we" of the beholder: Greater agreement on facial attractiveness among close relations. Perception, (36)1674-1681.

Representations for Face Recognition

It is commonly assumed that shape is the dominant feature for face recognition, as is the case for most object classes. However, research that I have conducted with Ken Nakayama at Harvard, Pawan Sinha at MIT and Irving Biederman at the University of Southern California, and work by others (especially Alice O'Toole at the University of Texas at Dallas), has shown that surface reflectance and shape properties are about equally important for face recognition.

Russell, R., Chatterjee, G., & Nakayama, K. (2012) Developmental prosopagnosia and super-recognition: no special role for surface reflectance processing. Neuropsychologia, (50)334-340

Russell, R. & Sinha, P. (2007) Real world face recognition: The importance of surface reflectance properties. Perception, (36)1368-1374.

Russell, R., Biederman, I., Nederhouser, M., & Sinha, P. (2007) The utility of surface reflectance for the recognition of upright and inverted faces. Vision Research, (47) 157-165.

Sinha, P., Balas, B. J., Ostrovsky, Y., & Russell, R. (2006) Face recognition by humans: 19 results all computer vision researchers should know about. Proceedings of the IEEE, 94(11) 1948-1962.

Russell, R., Sinha, P., Biederman, I., & Nederhouser, M. (2006) Is pigmentation important for face recognition? Evidence from contrast negation. Perception, (35) 749-759.