ИСТИНА

Perception of attractiveness is known to be associated with facial expressions: positive expressions increase perceived attractiveness, while negative expressions decrease it. It was also shown that neutral faces are often perceived as emotional, as different facial morphotypes vaguely resemble facial expressions. In the present study we examined the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on perception of facial attractiveness. Photographs of neutral faces were presented separately for 2 seconds for each participant (N = 49). After each photograph was presented, participants had to rate its attractiveness on a scale from 1 to 9. The level of EI was measured by using the Test of emotional intelligence (Russian language adaptation of MSCEIT v. 2.0). We found significant negative correlation between the ability to identify emotions and the attractiveness ratings. According to the parameter of the ability to identify emotions, the subjects were divided into two extreme groups. The group with the high ability to identify emotions rated faces as significantly less attractive than the group with the low level of ability. There were found no significant differences in the average fixation duration, saccade amplitude, as well as in dwell time spent in the areas of eyes, nose, nose bridge and lips between two extreme groups. Both the general EI and the other trees of ability were not associated with attractiveness ratings.