Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - Do dominant-looking males have brown eyes? A further investigation of the role of iris colour for dominance perception
AU  - Kočnar T
AU  - Drbalová KR
AU  - Kleisner K
Y1  - 2012
VL  - 50
IS  - 1
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 25
EP  - 31
KW  - Eye colour
KW  - Perceived dominance
KW  - Facial appearance
KW  - Cross-cultural comparison
N2  - 
N2  - The eyes represent a conspicuous facial element of unique appearance; they play an important role in signalling and communication within many animal species including humans. In this paper, we investigate the possible influence of eye colour on the perception of dominance. This research is based on our previous study (Kleisner et al., 2010: Pers. Individ. Dif. 49: 59-64) showing that eye colour had a significant effect on perceived dominance. Facial photographs of university students were rated for perceived dominance. To control for a possible idiosyncratic effect of selected facial photographs, the two distinct samples were compiled. The first sample of photos consisted of 80 faces and the second of 120 faces; both were of students from the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague. The rating of photographs was performed by volunteers from three different regions: Prague, Usti nad Labem (both Czech Republic), and Tartu (Estonia). Controlling for sample and location, we showed that there is no statistically significant relationship between eye colour and perceived dominance: Prague (P = 0.822), Usti nad Labem (P = 0.778), and Tartu (P = 0.565). These negative results thus contradict the previous study, wherein males with brown eyes were perceived as more dominant than males with blue eyes. In this study we consider the possible local-specific differences and confounding random factors which might be responsible for the previous positive results on an association between eye colour and the perception of dominance.
ER  -