Human Facial Attractiveness Research Articles

Neural Correlates and Perceived Attractiveness of Male and Female Shoulder-to-Hip Ratio in Men and Women: An EEG Study.

While there are studies regarding the neural correlates of human facial attractiveness, there are few investigations considering neural responses for body form attractiveness. The most prominent physical feature defining men's attractiveness is their physical fitness and upper body strength. Shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR), a sexually dimorphic trait in humans, is an indicator of men's attractiveness for both men and women. The current study is the first to report on the neurophysiological responses to male and female body forms varying in SHR in healthy heterosexual men and women observers. Electroencephalographic (EEG) signals were acquired while participants completed an oddball task as well as a subsequent attractiveness judgement task. Behavioral results showed larger SHRs were considered more attractive than smaller SHRs, regardless of stimuli and participants' sex. The electrophysiological results for both the oddball task and the explicit judgement of attractiveness showed that brain activity related to male SHR body stimuli differed depending on the specific ratios, both at early and late processing stages. For female avatars, SHR did not modulate neural activity. Collectively the data implicate posterior brain regions in the perception of body forms that differ in attractiveness vis-a-vis variation of SHR, and frontal brain regions when such perceptions are rated explicitly.

Good conduct makes your face attractive: The effect of personality perception on facial attractiveness judgments.

Human facial attractiveness is related to physical features, such as clear complexion and symmetry. However, it is also known that facial attractiveness judgments are influenced by a wide range of non-physical factors. Here, we examined the effect of the personality information of a target person on facial attractiveness judgments. In Experiment 1, participants read a verbal description of a target person (high or low honesty), followed by the presentation of the target face and facial attractiveness rating. The honest personality increased the rated facial attractiveness, replicating a previous report. This "honesty premium" effect was independent of pre-rated facial attractiveness (Experiment 1), target gender, participant gender, and target clothing (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 found that creative personality did not affect facial attractiveness ratings, while an aggressive personality was suggested to decrease the rated facial attractiveness of male targets. We did not find evidence that participants' moods caused these effects. The results suggest that the "what is good is beautiful" stereotype is robust and that facial attractiveness is malleable and dependent on various physical and non-physical information.

Further investigation of the effects of wearing the hijab: Perception of female facial attractiveness by Emirati Muslim men living in their native Muslim country.

The hijab is central to the lives of Muslim women across the world but little is known about the actual effects exerted by this garment on perceptions of the wearer. Indeed, while previous research has suggested that wearing the hijab may affect the physical attractiveness of women, the actual effect of wearing the hijab on perceptions of female facial attractiveness by Muslim men in a Muslim country is largely unknown. Accordingly, this study investigated the effects of the hijab on female facial attractiveness perceived by practising Muslim men living in their native Muslim country (the United Arab Emirates). Participants were presented with frontal-head images of women shown in three conditions: in the fully covered condition, heads were completely covered by the hijab except for the face; in the partially covered condition, heads were completely covered by the hijab except for the face and areas around the forehead and each side of the face and head; in the uncovered condition, heads had no covering at all. The findings revealed that faces where heads were uncovered or partially covered were rated as equally attractive, and both were rated as substantially more attractive than faces where heads were fully covered. Thus, while wearing the hijab can suppress female facial attractiveness to men, these findings suggest that not all hijab wearing has this effect, and female facial attractiveness for practising Muslim men living in their native Muslim country may not be reduced simply by wearing this garment. Indeed, from the findings we report, slight changes to the positioning of the hijab (the partially covered condition) produce perceptions of facial attractiveness that are no lower than when no hijab is worn, and this may have important implications for wearing the hijab in Muslim societies. Finally, we argue that the pattern of effects we observed is not explained by anti-Islamic feeling or cultural endogamy, and that a major contributory factor is that being fully covered by the hijab occludes external features, especially the hair and lateral parts of the head and face, which, when normally visible, provide a substantial perceptual contribution to human facial attractiveness.

A new data-driven mathematical model dissociates attractiveness from sexual dimorphism of human faces

Human facial attractiveness is evaluated by using multiple cues. Among others, sexual dimorphism (i.e. masculinity for male faces/femininity for female faces) is an influential factor of perceived attractiveness. Since facial attractiveness is judged by incorporating sexually dimorphic traits as well as other cues, it is theoretically possible to dissociate sexual dimorphism from facial attractiveness. This study tested this by using a data-driven mathematical modelling approach. We first analysed the correlation between perceived masculinity/femininity and attractiveness ratings for 400 computer-generated male and female faces (Experiment 1) and found positive correlations between perceived femininity and attractiveness for both male and female faces. Using these results, we manipulated a set of faces along the attractiveness dimension while controlling for sexual dimorphism by orthogonalisation with data-driven mathematical models (Experiment 2). Our results revealed that perceived attractiveness and sexual dimorphism are dissociable, suggesting that there are as yet unidentified facial cues other than sexual dimorphism that contribute to facial attractiveness. Future studies can investigate the true preference of sexual dimorphism or the genuine effects of attractiveness by using well-controlled facial stimuli like those that this study generated. The findings will be of benefit to the further understanding of what makes a face attractive.

Biological Bases of Beauty Revisited: The Effect of Symmetry, Averageness, and Sexual Dimorphism on Female Facial Attractiveness

The factors influencing human female facial attractiveness—symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism—have been extensively studied. However, recent studies, using improved methodologies, have called into question their evolutionary utility and links with life history. The current studies use a range of approaches to quantify how important these factors actually are in perceiving attractiveness, through the use of novel statistical analyses and by addressing methodological weaknesses in the literature. Study One examines how manipulations of symmetry, averageness, femininity, and masculinity affect attractiveness using a two-alternative forced choice task, finding that increased masculinity and also femininity decrease attractiveness, compared to unmanipulated faces. Symmetry and averageness yielded a small and large effect, respectively. Study Two utilises a naturalistic ratings paradigm, finding similar effects of averageness and masculinity as Study One but no effects of symmetry and femininity on attractiveness. Study Three applies geometric face measurements of the factors and a random forest machine learning algorithm to predict perceived attractiveness, finding that shape averageness, dimorphism, and skin texture symmetry are useful features capable of relatively accurate predictions, while shape symmetry is uninformative. However, the factors do not explain as much variance in attractiveness as the literature suggests. The implications for future research on attractiveness are discussed.

Judging Others by Your Own Standards: Attractiveness of Primate Faces as Seen by Human Respondents.

The aspects of facial attractiveness have been widely studied, especially within the context of evolutionary psychology, which proposes that aesthetic judgements of human faces are shaped by biologically based standards of beauty reflecting the mate quality. However, the faces of primates, who are very similar to us yet still considered non-human, remain neglected. In this paper, we aimed to study the facial attractiveness of non-human primates as judged by human respondents. We asked 286 Czech respondents to score photos of 107 primate species according to their perceived “beauty.” Then, we analyzed factors affecting the scores including morphology, colors, and human-likeness. We found that the three main primate groups were each scored using different cues. The proportions of inner facial features and distinctiveness are cues widely reported to affect human facial attractiveness. Interestingly, we found that these factors also affected the attractiveness scores of primate faces, but only within the Catarrhines, i.e., the primate group most similar to humans. Within this group, human-likeness positively affected the attractiveness scores, and facial extremities such as a prolonged nose or exaggerated cheeks were considered the least attractive. On the contrary, the least human-like prosimians were scored as the most attractive group. The results are discussed in the context of the “uncanny valley,” the widely discussed empirical rule.

Investigating the effect of wearing the hijab: Perception of facial attractiveness by Emirati Muslim women living in their native Muslim country.

The Hijab and other forms of Islamic veiling are important social, cultural, and religious symbols that are central to the identity of millions of Muslim women across the world. However, despite the large body of literature that exists on the political and socio-cultural aspects of Islamic veiling, little is known about how the appearance of women wearing the hijab is perceived by other Muslim women within their native Muslim country. To throw light on this important issue, the current study focussed on the effects of the hijab on female facial attractiveness perceived by practising Muslim Emirati women living in their native Muslim country (the United Arab Emirates) who themselves wore the hijab as everyday attire. Participants were shown frontal-head images of women in three different conditions: covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face), partially covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face and the hair around the forehead) and uncovered (heads with no covering). The findings showed that faces in images where heads were covered and partially covered by the hijab were rated as equally attractive but both were rated as significantly less attractive than faces in images where heads were uncovered. These findings suggest that, even for practising Muslim Emirati females living in their native Muslim country for whom wearing the hijab is a normal aspect of everyday life, perception of facial attractiveness is compromised by wearing this garment. We argue that this effect of wearing the hijab is not consistent with a preference for one's own cultural group (cultural endogamy) and may, instead, occur because wearing a hijab occludes external features, such as hair and ears, which normally contribute to the perception of human facial attractiveness. In sum, while wearing the hijab may be dominated by male attitudes towards suppressing female attractiveness towards males, the findings from this study suggest that female Muslims too perceive the negative influence of wearing the hijab on female facial attractiveness.

No Compelling Evidence that Preferences for Facial Masculinity Track Changes in Women’s Hormonal Status

Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial-attractiveness judgments, findings suggesting that women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s faces are related to women’s hormonal status are equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest-ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N = 584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women’s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subjects and between-subjects comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men’s faces, particularly when assessing men’s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

Worse Than You Think: Positivity Bias in Evaluations of Human Facial Attractiveness

Attractive people are perceived to be healthier, wealthier, and more sociable. Yet, people often judge the attractiveness of others based on incomplete facial information. Here, we test the hypothesis that people fill in the missing information with positive inferences when judging others’ facial beauty. To test this hypothesis, we conducted five experiments where participants judged the attractiveness of human faces in complete and incomplete photographs. Our data shows that — relative to complete photographs — participants judge faces in incomplete photographs as physically more attractive. This positivity bias is: (i) replicated for different types of face incompleteness, (ii) mostly specific to aesthetic judgments, (iii) stronger for male participants, (iv) specific to human faces (as opposed to pets, flowers, and landscapes), (v) sensitive to participants’ prior expectations about the facial beauty of the people being evaluated, and, (vi) it involves a holistic processing of the faces.

Women's facial attractiveness is related to their body mass index but not their salivary cortisol.

Although many theories of human facial attractiveness propose positive correlations between facial attractiveness and measures of actual health, evidence for such correlations is somewhat mixed. Here we sought to replicate a recent study reporting that women's facial attractiveness is independently related to both their adiposity and cortisol. Ninety-six women provided saliva samples, which were analyzed for cortisol level, and their height and weight, which were used to calculate their body mass index (BMI). A digital face image of each woman was also taken under standardized photographic conditions and rated for attractiveness. There was a significant negative correlation between women's facial attractiveness and BMI. By contrast, salivary cortisol and facial attractiveness were not significantly correlated. Our results suggest that the types of health information reflected in women's faces include qualities that are indexed by BMI but do not necessarily include qualities that are indexed by cortisol. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:352-355, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Koinophilia and human facial attractiveness

When photos of individual faces are combined together to give an averaged face, people find such averaged faces to be more attractive than the original, individual faces. This preference for the average phenotype can be described under koinophilia. In this article, we explore the reasons why averaged faces may be attractive.

Estimating the Sex-Specific Effects of Genes on Facial Attractiveness and Sexual Dimorphism

Human facial attractiveness and facial sexual dimorphism (masculinity-femininity) are important facets of mate choice and are hypothesized to honestly advertise genetic quality. However, it is unclear whether genes influencing facial attractiveness and masculinity-femininity have similar, opposing, or independent effects across sex, and the heritability of these phenotypes is poorly characterized. To investigate these issues, we assessed facial attractiveness and facial masculinity-femininity in the largest genetically informative sample (n = 1,580 same- and opposite-sex twin pairs and siblings) to assess these questions to date. The heritability was ~0.50-0.70 for attractiveness and ~0.40-0.50 for facial masculinity-femininity, indicating that, despite ostensible selection on genes influencing these traits, substantial genetic variation persists in both. Importantly, we found evidence for intralocus sexual conflict, whereby alleles that increase masculinity in males have the same effect in females. Additionally, genetic influences on attractiveness were shared across the sexes, suggesting that attractive fathers tend to have attractive daughters and attractive mothers tend to have attractive sons.

Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder but Ugliness Culturally Universal? Facial Preferences of Polish and Yali (Papua) People

Previous studies suggest that human facial attractiveness is culturally universal. As they were conducted among Western populations and populations strongly influenced by the Western culture, it is not obvious if the preferences would also be the same in populations isolated from this culture. It is also not certain if the agreement would be the same in the case of attractive and unattractive faces. In the presented study participated 103 people from the Yali tribe (Papua, Indonesia) and 99 Poles. Their task was to choose the most attractive and unattractive face of the opposite sex from a set of 4 pictures (one attractive, one unattractive and two average faces of Polish people chosen in a pre-test). We showed significant cross-cultural differences in attractiveness preferences and similarities in choices of unattractive faces. We speculate that across cultures unattractiveness could be assessed on the basis of the same cues to health and biological quality. Attractiveness criteria seem to be more complex, specific to each population, and dependent on the population's ecological conditions and morphological characteristics.

Influence of Partial Masseter Muscle Resection Along With Reduction of Mandibular Angle

The mandibular angle plays an important role in determining the Asian human facial attractiveness. Currently, mandibular angle osteotomy is often reported as the correction of square face appearance due to its prominence. However, no previous study has documented the long-term outcome of partial masseter muscle resection along with reduction of mandibular angle. Our study aims to investigate the outcome and complications of partial masseter muscle resection along with reduction of mandibular angle in long-term follow-up. One hundred fifty-one patients were subjected to the computed tomography scan before and 3 years after surgery. Morphometrical analysis was conducted on all parameters for clinical evaluation, so as to reveal the change of masseter muscle, the postsurgical result, and the complication. All patients were satisfied with the optimal outcome of the reduction of mandibular angle and masseter muscle. Morphometrical analysis indicated that the volume of masseter muscle changed statistically significantly before and after surgery (reduced 21.31 ± 7.64% on left, 20.77 ± 7.45% on right). Complications included swelling and low lip numbness, yet no patients reported infection or facial nerve injury. Partial masseter muscle resection along with reduction of mandibular angle can improve the appearance of the patients greatly, and only a few complications occurred.

Men's judgments of women's facial attractiveness from two- and three-dimensional images are similar

Although most research on human facial attractiveness has used front-facing two-dimensional (2D) images, our primary visual experience with faces is in three dimensions. Because face coding in the human visual system is viewpoint-specific, faces may be processed differently from different angles. Thus, results from perceptual studies using front-facing 2D facial images may not be generalizable to other viewpoints. We used rotating three-dimensional (3D) images of women's faces to test whether men's attractiveness ratings of women's faces from 2D and 3D images differed. We found a significant positive correlation between men's judgments of women's facial attractiveness from 2D and 3D images (r = 0.707), suggesting that attractiveness judgments from 2D images are valid and provide similar information about women's attractiveness as do 3D images. We also found that women's faces were rated significantly more attractive in 3D images than in 2D images. Our study verifies a novel method using 3D facial images, which may be important for future research on viewpoint-specific social perception. This method may also be valuable for the accurate measurement and assessment of facial characteristics such as averageness, identity, attractiveness, and emotional expression.

Perceived facial adiposity conveys information about women's health

Although several prominent theories of human facial attractiveness propose that some facial characteristics convey information about people's health, empirical evidence for this claim is somewhat mixed. While most previous research into this issue has focused on facial characteristics such as symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism, a recent study reported that ratings of facial adiposity (i.e., perceptions of fatness in the face) were positively correlated with indices of poor physical condition in a sample of young adults (i.e., reported past health problems and measures of cardiovascular fitness). These findings are noteworthy, since they suggest that perceived adiposity is a potentially important facial cue of health that has been overlooked by much of the previous work in this area. Here, we show that ratings of young adult women's facial adiposity are (1) better predicted by their body weight than by their body shape (Studies 1 and 2), (2) correlated with a composite measure of their physical and psychological condition (Study 2), and (3) negatively correlated with their trait (i.e., average) salivary progesterone levels (Study 3). Together, these findings present further evidence that perceived facial adiposity, or a correlate thereof, conveys potentially important information about women's actual health.

Influence of the Maxillary Sinus Exposure in Reduction Malarplasty With an L-Shaped Osteotomy

The zygomatic bone forms the prominence of the midface and plays an important role in determining the human facial attractiveness. The Oriental face is mesocephalic, with a prominent zygomatic body and wide zygomatic arch. Nevertheless, as an oval face is considered ideal, reduction malarplasty is always requested by Oriental people. Currently, L-shaped zygomatic osteotomy is often reported in literature yet no previous study has documented the exact outcome of this approach after exposure of the maxillary sinus. The objective of the study was to investigate the outcome and complications of intraoral L-shaped zygomatic osteotomy with the opening of maxillary sinus. All patients were subjected to computed tomography before and 12 months after surgery. All parameters were obtained with morphometric analysis for clinical evaluation, so as to reveal the change in maxillary sinus, postsurgical results, and complications. All patients were satisfied with the optimal outcome of reduction malarplasty. Morphometric analysis indicated that the volume and surface area of maxillary sinus statistically significantly changed before and after surgery. Complications included deeper nasolabial fold, infraorbital nerve injury, and so on, yet no patients reported infection or dental pulp necrosis. Intraoral L-shaped osteotomy of the zygoma can improve the appearance of the patients greatly, and the exposure of maxillary sinus caused only a few complications.

In retreat from nature? Successes and concerns in Darwinian approaches to facial attractiveness

The application of evolutionary biological theory to attractiveness judgments of our own species has revolutionized our understanding of a perenially fascinating phenomenon — the perception of beauty. In this review paper, I hope to briefly discuss how an evolutionary approach has added to our understanding of the psychology of human facial attractiveness judgements. I will also raise some theoretical and methodological concerns, and outline what I feel are the most important outstanding questions in the area.

Explaining human facial attractiveness judgements

Explaining human facial attractiveness judgements

Vocal Attractiveness Increases by Averaging

Vocal attractiveness has a profound influence on listeners-a bias known as the "what sounds beautiful is good" vocal attractiveness stereotype [1]-with tangible impact on a voice owner's success at mating, job applications, and/or elections. The prevailing view holds that attractive voices are those that signal desirable attributes in a potential mate [2-4]-e.g., lower pitch in male voices. However, this account does not explain our preferences in more general social contexts in which voices of both genders are evaluated. Here we show that averaging voices via auditory morphing [5] results in more attractive voices, irrespective of the speaker's or listener's gender. Moreover, we show that this phenomenon is largely explained by two independent by-products of averaging: a smoother voice texture (reduced aperiodicities) and a greater similarity in pitch and timbre with the average of all voices (reduced "distance to mean"). These results provide the first evidence for a phenomenon of vocal attractiveness increases by averaging, analogous to a well-established effect of facial averaging [6, 7]. They highlight prototype-based coding [8] as a central feature of voice perception, emphasizing the similarity in the mechanisms of face and voice perception.