A Scottish university has found AI facial filters that could have the power to influence who people are attracted to.
The research, led by the University of Glasgow, used AI to create real time face transformations to investigate the social signals that influence the beginnings of romantic attraction.
The study is the first to show that using AI to digitally alter smiles during conversations can clearly influence the assumptions individuals make about each other, impacting their own actions and their romantic feelings.
Volunteers were asked to participate in a set of video-conference speed-dating sessions by researchers. During each date, the team used AI transformations to align, or misalign, the smile of participants by either increasing or decreasing their smiling appearance in real team.
The filters are similar to ones commonly found on social media apps including Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok but were highly realistic and not obvious to participants in the study.
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It was found that even though participants were completely unaware their faces were being transformed, it enhanced their romantic attraction towards each other when compared to scenarios when their smiles weren’t aligned.
Participants weren’t seeing their own faces being transformed, but it still affected their own attraction ratings via feedback loops.
The effect of the AI-based smiles was so powerful that they also impacted participants reactions, including their own vocal behaviour and their desire to mirror each other’s facial expressions.
They also believed the other person was more attracted to them when the researchers increased the smiles seen in their dating partner.
At the end of the experiences, they were informed their face had been transformed using filters and informed them about the potential influence the transformations may have had in their interactions.
Dr Pablo Arias-Sarah, lead author of the study from the University of Glasgow’s School of Psychology & Neuroscience, said: “This study highlights the potential impact that face transformation filters, when meticulously calibrated, can have on interpersonal communication.
"From a scientific perspective, it enables us to uncover the social parameters that can modulate the emergence of attraction between two potential romantic partners, and more generally, enable us to study how precise social factors influence how individuals interact with one-another.
“From an ethical perspective, this study allows us to raise interesting ethical questions. In coming years, it seems inevitable that AI-based face and voice filters will become increasingly realistic and prevalent on social media.
"Yet, it remains largely unknown how these technologies might influence the social behaviour of users. As was recently done for other new technologies, for example deep fakes, a clear ethical guideline about the use and regulation of these technologies might be required.”
The study, ‘Aligning the smiles of dating dyads causally increases attraction’ is published in PNAS. The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council, the European Research Council and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
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