by Zoë Pollock
It takes only 13 milliseconds to decide:
[Neuroscientists Ingrid Olson and Christy Marshuetz] exposed men and women to a series of pre-rated faces, some gorgeous and other homely, and asked them to rate their appearance. The twist was that the faces flickered on the screen for only thirteen milliseconds — a flash so fast that the exasperated viewers swore they didn't see anything. Yet when forced to rate the faces they thought they didn't see, the judges were uncannily accurate. Without knowing why, they gave good-looking faces significantly higher scores than unattractive ones.
The takeaway:
To a great extent, first impressions of people's looks are less about choice and culture and cultivated tastes, and more about something deeper and universal. Judging attractiveness seems to happen just as automatically and matter-of-factly as judgng identity, gender, age, and expression.
The Dish 