Who runs The BERL?
The Behavioral Endocrinology Research Lab is run by Dr Amanda Hahn at Humboldt State University.
Dr Hahn is an experimental psychologists interested in how people read faces and the ways in which this relates to experiences they have during their life.
Who programmed this website?
The initial programming of this website was done by Lisa DeBruine while she was employed under a US National Science Foundation International Fellowship (award #0401951).
Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Why can't I login?
Sometimes people can't login because they don't have cookies enabled on their web browser, but this does not seem to be your problem. Make sure you are typing in your username and password exactly the same as when you registered. Go to the password retrieval form if you can't remember your password. If you still have problems logging in, please e-mail us at the address below.
Can I change my password or information?
Yes. Just click on My Account. You can change your username to any unused name. This will not affect the experiments you've already done. The form allows you to change your password or your password retrival question and answer. You can also change your birthdate or sex if you entered them incorrectly when registering. Having accurate information about your age and sex are very important to our scientific research.
Can I retrieve my password if I forgot it?
Yes. Just fill out this password retrieval form. You will have to correctly answer your password retrieval question.
If you have not yet set your password retrieval question and answer, you can do so at My Account if you are logged in. Unfortunately, this won't help if you can't remember your password. You can e-mail us with your username and IP address and we can see what we can do. Otherwise, you may just have to register using a different username.
Where do you get your great icons?
Glyphish creates and sells high-quality icons.
The Noun Project is a superb source of free, high-quality icons. Many of their icons require attribution, so we list these below.
- Handshake designed by Scott Lewis from The Noun Project
- Fly designed by Felipe Perucho from The Noun Project
- Stress designed by Shreya Chakravarty from The Noun Project
- Dream designed by James Stone from The Noun Project
- Weight Lifting designed by Scott Lewis from The Noun Project
- Obesity designed by Ana Felix from The Noun Project
- Invisible designed by Andrew Cameron from The Noun Project
- Detective designed by Simon Child from The Noun Project
- First Aid designed by Anton Khristolubov from The Noun Project
- Stroller from The Noun Project
- Vitruvian Man designed by Jakob Vogel from The Noun Project
- Squat designed by Ben Doherty from The Noun Project
- Headphones from The Noun Project
- Lucha Libre designed by Simon Child from The Noun Project
- Memory designed by Andrew J. Young from The Noun Project
Do I need a particular browser to view your website?
No. This website is accessible to all people using visual browsers (we are working on better support for audio-only browsers). If the website looks strange in your favourite browser, please e-mail us and let us know. If you are looking for a new web browser, FireFox is an excellent free browser for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Why do I need JavaScript enabled to do experiments and demos?
We use JavaScript to perform some calculations needed to randomise trial order which prevents you having to load a new web page for every trial and greatly speeds up the experiments. It also allows us to collect more accurate data on how long the experiments take.
Our JavaScript does not pose a security risk, will never produce pop-ups, and is not used to take any information from your computer or save any files to your computer.
What do we do with your data?
We carry out tests to assess the characteristics people find attractive in faces and voices. We use the answers to the questionnaires to see how things like lifestyle relate to your preferences for the faces and voices. You can see some of the scientific papers we've published on data from this website at our research webpage.
All of your responses are confidential and anonymous. Although we will present average results for our tests, we will never make the answers of a single person public in a way where they can be identified. Your data are stored on a secure server and we will never ask for identifying data, such as your email address, in a way that can link it to your user data. If you have any concerns about the security or the use of your data, do not hesitate to contact us.
What software do you use to manipulate faces?
We use Dr Bernard Tiddeman's PsychoMorph to manipulate faces. We use Praat to manipulate voices.
Can I suggest something?
Sure. Type your suggestion into the box below and we'll see what we can do.