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![]() 27 AUGUST 1998 In a jaw-mashing blow to macho movie men, a Scottish psychologist says that men's faces, on average, are more attractive when they're made slightly more feminine. David Perrett of St. Andrews University used computer graphics to create average faces. Then he allowed research subjects to vary the facial structure to make them slightly more masculine or more feminine. Masculinizing a photo, for example, would enlarge the jawbone, while feminizing it would enlarge the lips or alter the forehead. As expected, both men and women preferred women with a slightly "feminized" face. But in a finding that could flatten the average thin-lipped, jut-jawed, heavy-browed action hero, both men and women also preferred a slight "feminizing" of the men's faces. | ||
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Let's state this plainly: The most attractive male faces looked slightly more feminine than the average male face. And it wasn't just Scots who thought this, but also research subjects in Japan.
More important -- at least to scientists -- it could also undermine current theories of mate selection. Psychologists who take evolution seriously expect men to choose women with faces having a bone structure that reflects the presence of high levels of estrogen, the female sex hormone, which, in turn, is associated with high fertility and longevity. No problem so far -- that's exactly what Perrett and associates found.
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For example, the ability and willingness to take care of children is another trait that evolution might favor. Alternatively, the unusual finding may be revealing something about the reproductive state of the women subjects. Randy Thornhill, professor of biology at the University of New Mexico, says that his work on sexual attractiveness indicates that women have varying preferences during different stages of the menstrual cycle: "I'd predict that if they controlled for female reproductive state, the results would show two kinds of preferences." During the fertile, mid-cycle time, women may be more attracted by high-testosterone males. At other times, they may be more interested in men who seem likely to make a greater investment in the children. (Intriguingly, he says, women who take birth-control pills would be likely to make only "sensible" choices for good providers, since they are never fertile). Yet simply by contradicting previous studies, Thornhill says, Perrett's work is useful. "We have varying results -- that's always important in scientific progress. All these studies are solid, so the question becomes, what is causing this variation?"
Of Arnold Schwarzenegger and gorillas
Yet if women were indeed selecting men with highly "masculine" faces, while men were selecting highly "feminine" women, men's faces would differ dramatically from women's. By questioning the mechanism of selection, Perrett's work offers a reason why they don't differ so much.
So stand back, Chuck Norris. If Perrett is right, the most attractive man may resemble Will Smith, the ace rocket jockey in the movie Independence Day. Is the man tough? You betcha -- no gang of Evil McNasty aliens will rattle him. But is he a good mate? No question. Smith's going to save this Earth if only because it's home to his mate and his child.
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. -- David Tenenbaum ![]() | ||||
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