Posted on 05/07/2008 4:26:23 PM PDT by blam
Why Face Symmetry Is Sexy Across Cultures And Species
High and low symmetry composite faces for macaques, Hadza, and Europeans. All images are normalised on inter-pupillary distance to control relative image size, have been made perfectly symmetric, and each high/low pair possesses the average colour information of both. Perceptual differences are then dependent on shape differences between high and low symmetry faces that are independent of symmetry. (Credit: Image courtesy of Public Library of Science)
ScienceDaily (May 8, 2008) — In humans, faces are an important source of social information. One property of faces that is rapidly noticed is attractiveness. Research has highlighted symmetry and sexual dimorphism (how masculine or feminine a face is) as important variables that determine a face's attractiveness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See also: Mind & Brain Social Psychology Relationships Perception Plants & Animals Mating and Breeding Nature Biology Reference Facial symmetry Symmetry (biology) Sex Sex linkage But why are these traits attractive?
One idea is that both traits are adverts of genetic quality or some other aspect of quality such as fertility. An alternative view is that preferences for these traits arise through visual experience and therefore not linked to any underlying biological factors. Faces certainly have the potential to be advertisements of mate 'quality' and one way to examine this idea is to look at interrelationships between proposed adverts of quality.
In a study published in the May 7 issue of the journal PLoS ONE, Anthony Little of the University of Stirling and colleagues show that measurements of symmetry and sexual dimorphism from faces are related in humans, both in Europeans and African hunter-gatherers, and in a non-human primate. In all samples, symmetric males had more masculine facial proportions and symmetric females had more feminine facial proportions.
The findings therefore support the claim that sexual dimorphism and symmetry in faces are signals advertising quality by providing evidence that there must be a biological mechanism linking the two traits during development. For example, individuals resistant to disease may be able to grow both symmetric and sexually dimorphic. Such work also suggests that faces may advertise quality across different human populations and even across different primate species.
The researchers are currently collecting data on human perceptions of facial beauty at http://www.alittlelab.com, which also presents more information about their work.
Journal reference: Little AC, Jones BC, Waitt C, Tiddeman BP, Feinberg DR, et al. (2008) Symmetry Is Related to Sexual Dimorphism in Faces: Data Across Culture and Species. PLoS ONE 3(5): e2106. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002106 [link]
Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
“One idea is that both traits are adverts of genetic quality or some other aspect of quality such as fertility.”
My glasses don’t sit square on my head but I have 5 kids. Put that in you’re “genetic quality”.
Hmmmm. Maybe I should get my wife to an eye Dr....
Now I know why I find Heidi Klum to be so hot! It’s the symmetry....yeah, that’s it!
That’s funny; I guess it’s just a matter of degree of symmetry then, because I remember reading a little while back about a study done where they showed people regular human faces along with faces that were created by mirroring just the left or right side of a face and pasting it onto the other side to create the whole face. In other words, the left and right sides were exact mirrors of each other.
The study showed that the mirrored faces — which were exactly symmetrical — were considered to be “odd” or “less attractive” than the photos of real human faces.
Wanna bet how soon a photo of Nancy or, the ugliest woman in the World, Helen Thomas is posted?
Radical asymmetry.
What I said in #8.Double secret asymmetry.
Oh sorry, I guess I'm not "symmetrical" enough for you guys.
The shadchen [matchmaker] was impressing the young man with the boundless virtues of a female, and ended: “And to look at, she’s a regular picture!”The young man could not wait for his blind date.
But when he accosted the shadchen the next day, his voice was frosty: “Her eyes are crossed, her nose is crooked, and when she smiles one side of her mouth goes down—”
“Just a minute,” interrupted the shadchen. “Is it my fault you don’t like Picasso?”
— Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yiddish.
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