The Advantage of Low and Medium Attractiveness for Facial Composite Production from Modern Forensic Systems

• Published in: Journal of applied research in memory and cognition Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 381 - 395
• Main Authors: Richardson, Beth H., Brown, Charity, Heard, Priscilla, Pitchford, Melanie, Portch, Emma, Lander, Karen, Marsh, John E., Bell, Raoul, Fodarella, Cristina, Taylor, Sarah Ashley, Worthington, Mikaela, Ellison, Lauren, Charters, Philippa, Green, Dannii, Minahil, Simra, Frowd, Charlie D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washigton Elsevier Science 01-09-2020; Elsevier Inc; Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
• Subjects: Engineering Psychology; EvoFIT; Facial attractiveness; Facial composite; Familiarity; Female; Forensic Psychology; Human; Male; Memory; Naming; Physical Attractiveness; PRO-fit; Rating; Systems Design; Teknisk psykologi; Victim; Witness; Witnesses; Facial composite; Witness; Facial attractiveness; EvoFIT; PRO-fit; Victim
• ISSN: 2211-3681; 2211-369X; 2211-369X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.06.005

Recognition following long delays is superior for highly attractive and highly unattractive faces (cf. medium-attractive faces). In the current work, we investigated participants' ability to recreate from memory faces of low, medium, and high physical attractiveness. In Experiment 1, participants constructed composites of familiar (celebrity) faces using the holistic EvoFIT system. When controlling for other variables that may influence face recognition (memorability, familiarity, likeability, and age), correct naming and ratings of likeness were superior for composites of low attractiveness targets. Experiment 2 replicated this design using the feature-based PRO-fit system, revealing superiority (by composite naming and ratings of likeness) for medium attractiveness. In Experiment 3, participants constructed composites of unfamiliar faces after a forensically relevant delay of 1 day. Using ratings of likeness as a measure of composite effectiveness, these same effects were observed for EvoFIT and PRO-fit. The work demonstrates the importance of attractiveness for method of composite face construction.
General Audience Summary
Across three experiments, the impact of attractiveness on composite construction was explored. Witness participants constructed faces from memory using two modern production systems (holistic and feature-based) of target faces with low, medium, and high rated attractiveness. We show that faces with different degrees of attractiveness produce facial composites with varying levels of accuracy and that this is dependent on the face construction method used. Practically, this research allows police practitioners to more accurately gauge the effectiveness of their composites based on perceived attractiveness while also providing a theoretically grounded understanding of the factors that influence composite construction.