:unav

:unav

Empirical findings predominantly support a happiness superiority effect in visual search and emotion categorization paradigms and reveal that social cues, like sex and race, moderate this advantage. A more recent study showed that the facial attribute attractiveness also influences the accuracy and speed of emotion perception. In the current study, we investigated whether the influence of attractiveness on emotion perception translates into a more general evaluation of moods when more than one emotional target is presented. In two experiments, we used the mood-of-the-crowd (MoC) task to investigate whether attractive crowds are perceived more positively compared to less attractive crowds. The task was to decide whether an array of faces included more angry or more happy faces. Furthermore, we recorded gaze movements to test the assumption that fixations on happy expressions occur more often in attractive crowds. Thirty-four participants took part in experiment 1 as well as in experiment 2. In both experiments, crowds presenting attractive faces were judged as being happy more frequently whereas the reverse pattern was found for unattractive crowds of faces. Moreover, participants were faster and more accurate when evaluating attractive crowds containing more happy faces as well as when judging unattractive crowds composed of more angry expressions. Additionally, in experiment 1, there were more fixations on happy compared to angry expressions in attractive crowds. Overall, the present findings support the assumption that attractiveness moderates emotion perception.

:unav

Recently, Machiavellianism was identified as potential mediator explaining gender differences in meat-eating justification strategies, which in turn predicted actual meat consumption. The current study aimed to – on the one hand – replicate this empirical finding and to – on the other hand – investigate the mediating role of the Dark Triad with regard to gender differences in pro-environmental attitudes. Five-hundred-forty-eight participants took part in the study. Women compared to men justified meat-eating less and held more positive attitudes toward the environment. More importantly, we replicated the finding that the association between gender and meat-eating justification strategies was mediated by Machiavellianism. Additionally, the association between gender and pro-environmental attitudes was mediated by psychopathy. These findings support the idea that while Machiavellianism is an important mediator explaining gender differences in meat-eating justification strategies, psychopathy is able to explain gender differences in attitudes toward the environment.