Men's and Women's Affective Response to Photographed Subjects Who Differ in Iris-Color,Pupil-Size and Sex

Black-and-white, 8-in. × 10-in. photographs of adult strangers were presented to randomly assigned groups of college men and women. These photographs were identical except that in 2 of them the stranger had light-colored irises and, in the other 2, dark-colored ones. Also, in the light-iris photos, one print had large pupils and the other small. Similarly, in the dark-iris photos, one print had large pupils and the other small. A total of 10 sets of 4 prints each were presented and the students were required to express either positive or negative affect for the stranger in the photograph. In 5 of these sets, the photographic strangers were men and in the remaining 5 they were women. A significant relationship was noted between expressed affect and sex of the photographic stranger and both sexes expressed more positive affect toward men. A nonsignificant effect was obtained for pupil-size, iris-color, and all sex, pupil-size and iris-color interactions.