FACIAL SHAPE AND JUDGMENTS OF FEMALE ATTRACTIVENESS

THE finding that photographic(1-4) and digital(5) composites (blends) of faces are considered to be attractive has led to the claim that att ractiveness is averageness(5). This would encourage stabilizing select ion, favouring phenotypes with an average facial structure(5). The 'av erageness hypothesis' would account for the low distinctiveness of att ractive faces(6) but is difficult to reconcile with the finding that s ome facial measurements correlate with attractiveness(7,8). An average face shape is attractive but may not be optimally attractive(9). Huma n preferences may exert directional selection pressures, as with the p henomena of optimal outbreeding and sexual selection for extreme chara cteristics(10-14). Using composite faces, we show here that, contrary to the averageness hypothesis, the mean shape of a set of attractive f aces is preferred to the mean shape of the sample from which the faces were selected. In addition, attractive composites can be made more at tractive by exaggerating the shape differences from the sample mean. J apanese and caucasian observers showed the same direction of preferenc es for the same facial composites, suggesting that aesthetic judgement s of face shape are similar across different cultural backgrounds. Our finding that highly attractive facial configurations are not average shows that preferences could exert a directional selection pressure on the evolution of human face shape.