Facial attractiveness and preference of sexual dimorphism: A comparison across five populations.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional cross-cultural observational study (non-clinical design analogy).
PubMed 37588529 · doi:10.1017/ehs.2021.33
What was done
The authors evaluated associations between facial sexual dimorphism (both subjective perceived ratings and objective morphological measurements) and perceived facial attractiveness across samples from five countries: Cameroon, Colombia, Czechia, Iran, and Turkey. They also examined potential moderating effects of facial averageness, skin lightness, age, body mass, and facial width.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values, sample sizes, or test statistics. Perceived female femininity was positively related to perceived attractiveness in all five populations. Perceived male masculinity was positively associated with attractiveness only among women in Czechia and Colombia. Morphological measurements of sexual dimorphism and averageness were not consistently associated with perceived sexual dimorphism or perceived attractiveness across populations.
Why it matters
This work indicates that preferences for female facial femininity may be universal, whereas preferences for male facial masculinity vary substantially across populations. It also highlights that objective morphological metrics of sexual dimorphism diverge from human perceptual ratings when predicting attractiveness.
Limits
The abstract reports no sample sizes, effect sizes, or confidence intervals. As an exploratory cross-sectional study based on perceptual ratings, it cannot demonstrate causal mechanisms, nor did it directly quantify the local environmental or socioeconomic factors that might explain cross-cultural variations.
Cited by
- context Hypermasculinized male faces are less attractive to women than average or slightly feminized male faces.