Facial attractiveness, symmetry and cues of good genes

Cues of phenotypic condition should be among those used by women in their c hoice of mates. One marker of better phenotypic condition is thought to be symmetrical bilateral body and facial features. However, it is :not clear w hether women use symmetry as the primary cue in assessing the phenotypic qu ality of potential mates or whether symmetry is correlated with other facia l markers affecting physical attractiveness. Using photographs of men's fac es, for which facial symmetry had been measured, we found a relationship be tween women's attractiveness ratings of these faces and symmetry, but the s ubjects could not rate facial symmetry accurately. Moreover, the relationsh ip between facial attractiveness and symmetry was still observed, even when symmetry cues were removed by presenting only the left or right half of fa ces. These results suggest that attractive features other than symmetry can be used to assess phenotypic condition. We identified one such cue, facial masculinity (cheek-bone prominence and a relatively longer lower face), wh ich was related to both symmetry and full- and half-face attractiveness.