Research

My primary research focus is social cognition—the study of how we perceive, interpret, and respond to other people. I explore how we form impressions and make judgments about faces and bodies, particularly in relation to traits like attractiveness, trustworthiness, friendliness, dominance, and more. I approach my research questions using a variety of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience techniques, such as eye-tracking, virtual reality, and electroencephalography, as well as observational and ethological methods. I am also interested in human mating and sexual behavior, mate preferences, and the evolutionary roots of individual differences in social and sexual cognition. Below are some of the themes of my previous research:

Proxemics (interpersonal distance) and Social Interactions
Height and Upper Body Size Perception
Neural Correlates of Body Perception
Body Posture Perception
Face Perception
Perception of Physical Disability
Autism Research
Artificial Intelligence, Mind Perception, and Social Robots Perception
Aesthetics and Psychology of Visual Arts
Individual Differences, Life History Theory, and Mate Preferences
Clothing Social Perception
Psychology of Metal Music

Proxemics (interpersonal distance) and Social Interactions

  • Pazhoohi, F., Wing, S. & Kingstone, A. (2025). Social Comfort and Attractiveness Perception: Impact of Prosthetics, Physical Disability, and Comfort Distance on Interpersonal Interactions. Evolutionary Human Sciences.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Wang, J. & Kingstone, A. (2025). Comfort Distance for Online and In-person Interactions: A Virtual Reality Study. Japanese Psychological Science.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Gojamgunde, S., & Kingstone, A. (2023). Give me space: Sex, attractiveness, and mind perception as potential contributors to different comfort distances for humans and robots. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 90, 102088.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Hassan, S. B., & Kingstone, A. (2023). The interacting effects of men’s height and shoulder-to-hip ratio on comfort distance: A virtual reality study. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 1-10.
  • 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.
    Pazhoohi, F., Choi, G., & Kingstone, A. (2021). Larger distances from larger vehicles: effect of vehicle size, viewing side and their facia on comfort distance in virtual reality. Australian Journal of Psychology, 73(2), 179-187.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Silva, C., Lamas, J., Mouta, S., Santos, J., & Arantes, J. (2019). The effect of height and shoulder-to-hip ratio on interpersonal space in virtual environment. Psychological research, 83, 1184-1193.

Height and Upper Body Size Perception

My research on the perception of height and male and female upper body size has explored how these variables, both separately and in combination, affect perception and behavior.

  • Pazhoohi, F., Afhami, R., Chegeni, R., Dubrov, D., Gałasińska, K., Garza, R., …, Pfuhl, G. (2024). Cross-cultural preferences for women’s waist-to-hip ratio and men’s shoulder-to-hip ratio: Data from Iran, Norway, Poland, and Russia. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology.
  • Garza, R., Gonzalez-Elizondo, R., & Pazhoohi, F. (2024). Examining ecological harshness, sociosexuality, and mate value in women’s preferences for men’s height and shoulder-to-hip ratio. Evolutionary Psychological Science.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Arantes, J., Kingstone, A., & Pinal, D. (2023). Neural Correlates and Perceived Attractiveness of Male and Female Shoulder-to-Hip Ratio in Men and Women: An EEG Study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1-19.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Garza, R., & Kingstone, A. (2023). The interacting effects of height and shoulder-to-hip ratio on perceptions of attractiveness, masculinity, and fighting ability: Experimental design and ecological validity considerations. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52(1), 301-314.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Garza, R., Doyle, J. F., Macedo, A. F., & Arantes, J. (2019). Sex differences for preferences of shoulder to hip ratio in men and women: An eye tracking study. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 5, 405-415.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Hassan, S. B., & Kingstone, A. (2023b). The interacting effects of men’s height and shoulder-to-hip ratio on comfort distance: A virtual reality study. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 1-10.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Silva, C., Lamas, J., Mouta, S., Santos, J., & Arantes, J. (2019). The effect of height and shoulder-to-hip ratio on interpersonal space in virtual environment. Psychological research, 83, 1184-1193.

Neural Correlates of Body Perception

  • Pazhoohi, F., Arantes, J., Kingstone, A., & Pinal, D. (2023). Neural Correlates and Perceived Attractiveness of Male and Female Shoulder-to-Hip Ratio in Men and Women: An EEG Study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1-19.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Arantes, J., Kingstone, A., & Pinal, D. (2020). Becoming sexy: Contrapposto pose increases attractiveness ratings and modulates observers’ brain activity. Biological Psychology, 151, 107842.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Arantes, J., Kingstone, A., & Pinal, D. (2020). Waist to hip ratio and breast size modulate the processing of female body silhouettes: An EEG study. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41(2), 150-169.

Body Posture Perception

  • Rostami–Aghoui, M., Floccia, C., Pazhoohi, F. (2025). Infants’ visual preference for expansive and contractive body postures: an eye-tracking study. Visual Cognition.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Jacobs, O., & Kingstone, A. (2024). Gaze preferences to male contrapposto and non-contrapposto postures. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 43(1), 305-318.
  • *Jacobs, O. L. E., *Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2023). Contrapposto posture captures visual attention: An online gaze tracking experiment. Visual Cognition, 1-8.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Garza, R., & Kingstone, A. (2023). Lordosis Posture (Arching the Back) Indicates Sexual Receptivity in Women. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 1-16.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Jacobs, O. L. E., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Contrapposto pose influences perceptions of attractiveness, masculinity, and dynamicity of male statues from antiquity. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 8(1), 46-55.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Garza, R., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Sexual Receptivity Signal of Lordosis Posture and Intra-Sexual Competition in Women. Sexes, 3(1), 59-67.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Macedo, A. F., Doyle, J. F., & Arantes, J. (2020). Waist-to-hip ratio as supernormal stimuli: Effect of contrapposto pose and viewing angle. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 837-847.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Arantes, J., Kingstone, A., & Pinal, D. (2020). Becoming sexy: Contrapposto pose increases attractiveness ratings and modulates observers’ brain activity. Biological Psychology, 151, 107842.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Grammer, K., Macedo, A. F., & Arantes, J. (2020). The effect of women’s leg posture on gazing behavior and perceived attractiveness. Current Psychology, 39, 1049-1054.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Doyle, J. F., Macedo, A. F., & Arantes, J. (2018). Arching the back (lumbar curvature) as a female sexual proceptivity signal: An eye-tracking study. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 4, 158-165.

Face Perception

  • Pazhoohi, F., Wang, J., Aoki, K., & Kingstone, A. (2025). Beyond the surface: How depth alters face perception. Evolutionary Psychological Science.
  • Pazhoohi*, F., Forby*, L., & Kingstone, A. (2025). Facial attractiveness perception in autistic individuals: Facial symmetry and dimorphism. Evolutionary Psychological Science.
  • Pazhoohi, F. (2025). Long Lashes, Mixed Signals: Investigating the effect of eyelash length on perceived health, attractiveness and sexual receptivity. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Aoki, K., Kingstone, A. (2024). Incomplete Faces Do but Masked Faces Do Not Affect Mind Perception. Psychological Reports.
  • Garza, R., Afhami, R., & Pazhoohi, F. (2024). Men’s perceptions of beardedness in a Hispanic and Iranian sample: The role of intrasexual competition on evaluations of attractiveness, masculinity, and fighting ability. Evolutionary Psychological Science.
  • Garza, R., Afhami, R., Mora, J., & Pazhoohi, F. (2023). Perceptions of beardedness for attractiveness, masculinity, fighting ability, and partner quality: A cross-cultural examination among Hispanic and Iranian women. Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiolog.
  • Pazhoohi, F. & Kingstone, A. (2023). Eyelash length attractiveness across ethnicities. Scientific Reports, 13, 14849.
  • 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(1), 1-10.
  • Pazhoohi, F. & Kingstone, A. (2022). On the attractiveness of the eyelash length: a previously uninvestigated indicator of beauty. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 16(2), 176–180.
  • Fiala, V., Třebický, V., Pazhoohi, F., Leongómez, J. D., Tureček, P., Saribay, S. A., Akoko, R. M., & Kleisner, K. (2021). Facial attractiveness and preference of sexual dimorphism: A comparison across five populations. Evolutionary Human Sciences.
  • Marcinkowska et al., (including Pazhoohi, F.). (2021). An exploratory, cross-cultural study on perception of putative cyclical changes in facial fertility cues. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-9.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Forby, L., & Kingstone, A. (2021). Facial masks affect emotion recognition in general population and autistic individuals. PLOS ONE, 16(9): e0257740.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Pazhouhi, S., & Kingstone, A. (2021). Concern about contracting COVID-19 predicts men’s preference for female facial femininity, but not women’s preference for male facial masculinity. Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiology, 7, 17–27.
  • Marcinkowska, et al. (including Pazhoohi, F.). (2019). Women’s preferences for men’s facial masculinity are strongest under favorable ecological conditions. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-10.

Perception of Physical Disability

  • Pazhoohi, F., Wing, S. & Kingstone, A. (2025). Social Comfort and Attractiveness Perception: Impact of Prosthetics, Physical Disability, and Comfort Distance on Interpersonal Interactions. Evolutionary Human Sciences.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Capozzi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Physical disability in romantic partner: Behavioral immune system theory fails to explain why women and men differ in their perceptions of potential romantic partners who are physically disabled. Personality and Individual Differences, 198, 111821.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Capozzi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2021). Physical Disability Affects Women’s but Not Men’s Perception of Opposite-Sex Attractiveness. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 788287.

Autism Research

  • Pazhoohi, F., Forby, L., & Kingstone, A. (2025). Facial Sexual Dimorphism and Attractiveness Perception in High Autistic Trait Individuals. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 1-11.
  • Forby*, L., Pazhoohi*, F., & Kingstone, A. (2024). Autistic traits and Anthropomorphism: The case of vehicle fascia perception. Cognitive Processing.
  • Forby, L., Anderson, N. C., Cheng, J. T., Foulsham, T., Karstadt, B., Dawson, J., Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2023). Reading the room: Autistic traits, gaze behaviour, and the ability to infer social relationships. Plos one, 18(3), e0282310.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Forby, L., & Kingstone, A. (2021). Facial masks affect emotion recognition in general population and autistic individuals. Plos one, 16(9): e0257740.

Artificial Intelligence, Mind Perception, and Social Robots Perception

  • Jacobs, O., Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (in press). Attributing mind to Large Language Models: The effect of exposure and individual differences. International Journal of Social Robotics.
  • Jacobs, O., Pazhoohi, F., Mullen, G., Kingstone, A. (2025). Comparative Designs Reveal Preferences for Human-Generated Rather Than AI-Generated art. Empirical Studies of the Arts.
  • Jacobs, O., Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2024). Large language models have divergent effects on self-perceptions of mind and the attributes considered uniquely human. Consciousness and Cognition.
  • Jacobs, O. L., Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (2023). Self-discrepancies in mind perception for actual, ideal, and ought selves and partners. Plos one, 18(12), e0295515.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Gojamgunde, S., & Kingstone, A. (2023). Give me space: Sex, attractiveness, and mind perception as potential contributors to different comfort distances for humans and robots. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 90, 102088.
  • Jacobs, O., Pazhoohi, F., & Kingstone, A. (preprint). Brief exposure increases mind perception to ChatGPT and is moderated by the individual propensity to anthropomorphize.

Aesthetics and Psychology of Visual Arts

  • Jacobs, O., Pazhoohi, F., Mullen, G., Kingstone, A. (2025). Comparative Designs Reveal Preferences for Human-Generated Rather Than AI-Generated art. Empirical Studies of the Arts.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Jacobs, O., & Kingstone, A. (2024). Gaze preferences to male contrapposto and non-contrapposto postures. Empirical Studies of the Arts.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Jacobs, O., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Contrapposto Pose Influences Perceptions of Attractiveness, Masculinity, and Dynamicity of Male Statues from Antiquity. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 8(1), 46-55.

Individual Differences, Life History Theory, and Mate Preferences

  • Garza, R., Arsuaga, J., & Pazhoohi, F. (2025). Psychopathy predicts the use of physical, verbal, and indirect aggression in women. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.
  • Sayyad, P., Bagherian, M., Pazhoohi, F., & Brown, M. (2025). Women’s anti-deception tactics in mating: A preliminary investigation. Evolutionary Psychological Science.
  • Garza, R., Woolman, E., Pazhouhi, S., Pazhoohi, F. (2025). Daddy’s little girl: The role of life history in paternal investment towards daughters. Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiology.
  • Garza, R., Gonzalez-Elizondo, R., & Pazhoohi, F. (2024). Examining ecological harshness, sociosexuality, and mate value in women’s preferences for men’s height and shoulder-to-hip ratio. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 10, 122-134.
  • Garza, R., Afhami, R., & Pazhoohi, F. (2024). Men’s perceptions of beardedness in a Hispanic and Iranian sample: The role of intrasexual competition on evaluations of attractiveness, masculinity, and fighting ability. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 10, 157-165.
  • Pazhouhi, S., Garza, R., & Pazhoohi, F. (2024). Association of life history strategy and mate retention behavior in men and women. Personality & Individual Differences, 225, 112685.
  • Garza, R., & Pazhoohi, F. (2024). The role of breast morphology on women’s rival derogation tactics. Sexes, 5(3), 163-170.
  • Garza, R., Pazhoohi, F., Byrd-Craven, J. (2023). Ecological influences and visual attention to infant phenotypes. Culture & Evolution, 20(1), 29-41.
  • Garza, R., Pazhoohi, F., Al-Shawaf, L., Byrd-Craven, J. (2023). An eye tracking study examining the role of mating strategies, perceived vulnerability to disease, and disgust in attention to pathogenic cues. Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiology, 9(1), 72-87.
  • Garza, R., & Pazhoohi, F. (2023). Intrasexual competition in women’s likelihood of self-enhancement and perceptions of breast morphology: A Hispanic Sample. Sexes, 4(1), 80-93.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Garza, R., & Kingstone, A. (2022). Sexual receptivity signal of lordosis posture and intra-sexual competition in women. Sexes, 3(1), 59-67.
  • Garza, R., Pazhoohi, F., Byrd-Craven, J. (2021). Women’s perceptions of breast size, ptosis, and intermammary distance: Does breast morphology play a role in women’s intrasexual competition? Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 16(4), 384–403.
  • Garza, R., Pazhoohi, F., Byrd-Craven, J. (2021). Women’s preferences for strong men under perceived harsh versus safe ecological conditions. Evolutionary Psychology, 19(3), 14747049211032351.
  • Pazhoohi, F. & Kingstone, A. (2021). Associations of political orientation, xenophobia, right-wing authoritarianism, and concern of COVID-19: Cognitive responses to an actual pathogen threat. Personality and Individual Differences, 182, 111081.
  • Jacquet*, P. O., Pazhoohi*, F., Findling, C., Mell, H., Chevallier, C., & Baumard, N. (2021). Predictive modelling of religiosity, prosociality and moralizing in 295,000 individuals from European and non-European populations. Nature’s Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 8, 9.
  • Garza, R., Pazhoohi, F., Byrd-Craven, J. (2020).Does ecological harshness influence men’s perceptions of women’s breast size, ptosis, and intermammary distance? Evolutionary Psychological Science, 7(2), 174-183.
  • Pazhoohi, F. & Kingstone, A. (2020). Parasite prevalence and income inequality positively predict beardedness across 25 countries. Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiology, 6(2), 185–193.
  • Pazhoohi, F., Garza R. & Kingstone, A. (2020). Effects of breast size, intermammary cleft distance (cleavage) and ptosis on perceived attractiveness, health, fertility and age: Do life history, self-perceived mate value and sexism attitude play a role? Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiology, 6(1), 75–92.

Psychology of Metal Music

  • DeLecce, T., Pazhoohi, F., Szala, A., & Shackelford, T. (2022). Extreme metal guitar skill: A case of intrasexual competition, intersexual selection, or byproduct? Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.
  • Pazhoohi*, F., Luna*, K., Bischof, W. B., & Kingstone, A. (2021). A life history approach to artistic endeavors and production: The case of metal music. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 8(2), 189-195.
  • Pazhoohi, F., & Luna, K. (2018). Ecology of musical preference: The relationship between pathogen prevalence and the number and intensity of metal bands. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 4, 294-300.