Farid Pazhoohi

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). My research integrates the fields of cognitive, neuroscience, and social psychology, and relies on several experimental paradigms, including eye-tracking and virtual reality.

Selected Recent Publications:

Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Preferred distance from camera for online interactions and its relation with individual differences in pathogen sensitivity. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 84, 101916.

*Preferred distance from female and male stimuli for online interaction*

In the current study, we aimed to investigate individuals’ preferred distance from a camera for themselves and others while in an online interaction. Preferred distance for an online interaction begins around 80 cm from camera for both for men and women.

Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Unattractive faces are more attractive when the bottom-half is masked, an effect that reverses when the top-half is concealed. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. 7, 6.

Examples of young female and male faces used in Study 1

In this study we investigated the effect of facial masks on the perceptions of facial attractiveness. Our results show that wearing face masks increase the perceived attractiveness of less attractive faces in both young and old people, while face masks do not affect highly attractive faces.

Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2022). The effect of eyelash length on attractiveness: A previously uninvestigated indicator of beauty. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 16(2), 176–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000243

Examples of stimuli varying in eyelash length to eye width ratio; left image 0, middle image .24, and right image .50. Upper row shows examples of the female stimuli, and the lower row shows examples of the male stimuli.

From an evolutionary and biological perspective, we test, and confirm, that the perceived attractiveness of eyelashes dovetails with their predicted value to protect the eyes and signal healthiness to others. Contrary to some beliefs that the attractiveness is increasing with the length of eyelashes on female faces, the preference for eyelash length follows an inverted-U function. This function is observed for both female and male faces.

Pazhoohi, F., Jacobs, O., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Contrapposto Pose Influences Perceptions of Attractiveness, Masculinity, and Dynamicity of Male Statues from Antiquity. Evolutionary Psychological Science.

*A screenshot of a computer’s rendering of the virtual reality environment showing a male statue and a displayed question*

This study provide the first experimental evidence that variations in contrapposto poses in male models affect people’s perception across a range of values, including on their attractiveness. We also provide evidence demonstrating the enhanced sensitivity of art perception within a VR environment.