Simply being pretty is apparently not enough to make a face memorable: in the absence of distinctive features, attractive faces leave less of an impression in our memory than unattractive ones, tests by German psychologists show.
That surprised the scientists.
"Previously we assumed it was generally easier to remember faces perceived to be attractive, simply because we enjoy looking at them more," said Holger Wiese, a post-doctoral researcher in psychology and the study's lead author.
Electroencephalograms taken during memory tests suggest that the disruptive "emotional influences" of attractive faces make it more difficult to commit a pretty face to memory.
The research, at the University of Jena, has been published in the scientific journal Neuropsychologia.
The psychologists showed the test persons photographs of faces of similar distinctiveness - half of which had been rated as attractive, the other half as unattractive - for several seconds.
Then the test persons were again shown photographs of faces and asked whether they recognised them. The number of false positives was considerably greater with attractive faces.
When faces do turn out both attractive and memorable, it is because they possess an odd beauty.
The face of US actress Angelina Jolie, whom Wiese said was regarded around the world as a beautiful woman, is memorable because of her distinctively large eyes and full lips, he pointed out.
"We remember such faces rather well."
