The Effect of Facial Symmetry on Human Attractiveness
Ashley Holubar, Kaitlyn Kutsch, & Kendra Langreck
Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa
BACKGROUND
Every human face has certain characteristics that impact
human attractiveness. Facial features are determined in
humans by prenatal sex steroids during fetal growth (Grammer
et al., 2012). Many experiments have evaluated these facial
characteristics and how they may affect social behavior
towards individuals. This social behavior would include a
teacher’s behavior towards students, employment, marriage
success, jury decisions, and other human encounters
(Cunningham, 1986). Evolutionarily, women with more
symmetrical faces tend to have more biological offspring than
women with less symmetrical face (Grammer and Thornhill,
1994).
INTRODUCTION
Interactions put an important emphasis on an individual’s face,
which is why many studies have examined how facial
symmetry affects human mate preference. Facial features in
human beings have specific characteristics that define bilateral
and asymmetrical facial features (Grammer and Thornhill,
1994). Facial symmetry can be measured and converted into an
overall score. The more symmetrical a face, the higher the
score. In our experiment, we observed what dimensions and
symmetry people preferred in deciding if someone was
attractive.
Our hypothesis was that facial symmetry affects the
attractiveness of human beings. We expect this because certain
facial symmetry could be intrinsically attractive (Cunningham,
1986).
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
Anaface.com scores ranged from 5.44 to 8.32 for men and 5.93 to 8.64 for women.
Ratings by Loras students ranged from 1 to 10 for both men’s and women’s
pictures. Ratings given by students who took the survey were not significantly
correlated with the anaface.com scores (t=0.595, df=29, p=0.557; Figure 1). The r2
value indicates that 1.2% of the variation in student ratings is explained by the
anaface.com ratings (r2=0.012). When Loras College male students’ scores were
compared to Loras College female students’ scores, the correlation was weak but
significant (r=0.263, df=1, p<0.001; figure 2). When isolating the gender of the
pictures, Loras College male students’ and Loras College female students’ scores
were significantly correlated for the female pictures but not significantly correlated
for the male pictures (r=0.472, df=1, p<0.001; figure 3; r=0.080, df=1, p=0.083;
figure 4). Further analysis showed that the category of Loras females rating male
pictures was weakly, but significantly correlated with the anaface.com scores
(r=0.084, p=0.042, df=1). The ratings of Loras males of female pictures was not
significantly correlated with anaface.com scores (r=0.001, df=1, p=0.981).
This image shows the seventeen facial points that are analyzed in
anaface.com and used to calculate an individual’s overall rating of
attractiveness.
MATERIALS & METHODS
First, thirty pictures, fifteen males and fifteen females, from
the Baldwin Wallace University men’s and women’s soccer
roster were analyzed for facial symmetry on anaface.com.
This program analyzes seventeen points on each individual’s
face to compute one score for attractiveness based on the
facial symmetry. All of these student athletes from Baldwin
Wallace University signed an NCAA waiver allowing their
pictures to be used in this experiment. The pictures included
both men and women that are the same age as the Loras
College students who participated in this study. Next, the
pictures were placed in a PowerPoint and shown one picture at
a time to the seventy students, thirty-one of which were males
and thirty-nine were females, from Loras College who were
willing to participate in the study. These participants signed a
consent form and were also asked to put their grade and
gender on the top of their ratings sheet. The participants rated
each face on a scale of one to ten. To analyze the data, we
used SPSS to find the Pearson Correlation and linear
regression. These results looked at how attractive the
participants rate the people in the pictures compared to their
anaface.com symmetry rating.
LORAS.EDU
There was some agreement between genders in rating the
pictures. Male and female Loras College students both had
agreement on rating female pictures, but when it came to the
male pictures there was disagreement among male and female
Loras College student ratings. If everyone had rated each
picture objectively, a stronger relationship could have been
found.
According to our results, symmetry was not a contributing
factor to attractiveness. Evolutionary trends show that humans
look for certain characteristics in mates that would indicate the
ability to produce healthy babies. The attraction to these
characteristics in humans was based on their facial symmetry.
These qualities are still common attractive features in
American culture today.
Although we were very thorough in the design and execution
of our study, we still found that we had errors. Some
participants took the survey in a group setting while others
were by themselves. We believe that group settings created
more negative feedback and participants were more vocal in
their opinions of the pictures in the survey. It is possible that
the group settings could have changed the way that other
participants rated the pictures. Men and women differ in the
preferences they have for same-sex and opposite sex
attractiveness, and in our study, there were a few instances
where some participants unfairly rated people of the same
gender because they felt they could never find someone of the
same sex attractive (Barrett et al., 2002).
To further our study, we would use a larger sample size and
provide more images for people to rate. We would also put
more emphasis on selective features to determine which
features people find to be the most influential in determining
attractiveness. Physical attractiveness is becoming an
increasingly important quality in our society and has many
different aspects one can look in to.
CONCLUSIONS
Figure 1- Correlation of ratings given by Loras College student
participants with the scores from anaface.com. N=30 for the
average rating of each picture on the survey.
Figure 2: The correlation of Loras College female students’
scores with Loras College male students’ scores based on both
male and female pictures.
In this study, the students who took the attractiveness surveys
did not base their ratings solely on facial symmetry. This idea
is supported by our observations that attractiveness and
symmetry were not correlated. However, the Loras student’s
ratings of attractiveness and anaface.com’s analysis of
symmetry were not significantly different, which suggests that
symmetry played some role in attractiveness, but other factors
played a larger role in determining attractiveness.
REFERENCES
Figure 3: The correlation of Loras College female students’
scores with Loras College male students’ scores based on only
female pictures.
Figure 4: The correlation of Loras College female students’
scores with Loras College male students’ scores based on only
male pictures.
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