PONE-D-24-24619Investigating a Visceral Measure of Perceived Physical AttractivenessPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Creswell,

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Kind regards,

Jayaprakash Narayana Kolla

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Comments:

1.The authors report on a method where squeezing a device would complement verbal judgments on perceived physical attractiveness of facial images.

2.In the methods, the authors state that the alcohol component of the study does not play a role in this report. But a few lines further down, they say that a PPA task was completed after the second drinking period. This sounds like a contradiction to me. Please explain.

3.The images to assess included 4 male and 4 females. This looks like not enough to get a relevant result. Please explain.

4. How is the squeezing standardized? I assume, different people have different squeezing strength but want to express a similar thing. Whereas the same strength might mean something different to different individuals. Base on this assumption, I also can not see how squeezing strength and verbal expression can be associated.

5. The authors have conveyed the study and its findings clearly and succinctly. This is an important research in social psychology that involves physiological underpinnings. It helps understand and further the study of interpersonal attraction.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors report on a method where squeezing a device would complement verbal judgments on perceived physical attractiveness of facial images.

In the methods, the authors state that the alcohol component of the study does not play a role in this report. But a few lines further down, they say that a PPA task was completed after the second drinking period. This sounds like a contradiction to me. Please explain.

The images to assess included 4 male and 4 females. This looks like not enough to get a relevant result. Please explain.

How is the squeezing standardized? I assume, different people have different squeezing strength but want to express a similar thing. Whereas the same strength might mean something different to different individuals. Base on this assumption, I also can not see how squeezing strength and verbal expression can be associated.

Reviewer #2: The authors have conveyed the study and its findings clearly and succinctly. This is an important research in social psychology that involves physiological underpinnings. It helps understand and further the study of interpersonal attraction.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Investigating a visceral measure of perceived physical attractiveness

PONE-D-24-24619R1

Dear Dr. Creswell,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Jayaprakash Narayana Kolla

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: I do not have further comments. The manuscript looks alright to publish now; the authors have adequately addressed the questions raised in the previous review.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: No

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