Sometimes when you see someone, you are automatically attracted to them, but you can’t quite put your finger on why. You can’t help when you are attracted to someone, and sometimes it’s their personality that draws you in, their intelligence, and even sometimes… their symmetrical face?
facesymmetry.com
Studies show that symmetrical faces are preferred and more attractive to others than people who have asymmetrical faces. Similarly shaped eyes and eyebrows, sides of the nose mouth can all fall into the symmetrical category. So why does symmetry matter to attractiveness? Well, see for yourself. Which face below is more attractive to you?
http://faceresearch.org/students/notes/symmetry.pdf
You’re probably thinking the one on the left because you can easily see that it is more symmetrical. But sometimes, it is not that easy to tell and it is a lot more subconscious to why you do or do not find a person attractive. Early Studies broke it down to two hypothesis, “The Evolutionary Advantage view (which proposes that symmetric individuals are attractive because they are particularly healthy) and the Perceptual Bias view (which proposes that symmetric individuals are attractive because the human visual system can process symmetric stimuli of any kind more easily than it can process asymmetric stimuli).” Scientists have ruled out the Evolutionary Advantage and have settled on the Perceptual Bias view because it is easier for humans to process things that are equal and similar.
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“Evolutionary biologist Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico has been studying symmetry for two decades by using scans to digitize faces and bodies” (livescience.com). Thornhill performed a study where he showed both men and women pictures of people of the opposite sex and asked to choose which picture they thought to be more attractive, usually without any obvious features that would make one picture significantly less attractive than the other, so it was all fair game. Men and women both overwhelmingly chose the most symmetric face. This test was an observational study, so it was only as clear and truthful as the participants of the study were. There wouldn’t really be a way to make this sort of study an experimental test, so as far as attraction goes, studies must rely on the opinions of the participants. However, the majority of the participants chose the most symmetrical faces as the most attractive ones, so it is easily said that it is true, symmetry equals attractiveness.
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“Good symmetry shows that an individual has the genetic goods to survive development is healthy, and is a good and fertile choice for mating,” Thornhill told LiveScience in 2006: “It makes sense to use symmetry variation in mate choice,” he said. “If you choose a perfectly symmetrical partner and reproduce with them, your offspring will have a better chance of being symmetric, because you both have good, symmetrical genes.” Also, researcher Daniel Cohen-Or told LiveScience in 2008, “Beauty can be quantified by mathematical measurements and ratios. It can be defined as average distances between features, which a majority of people agree are the most beautiful.”
It would be interesting to have this study performed on people judging pictures of their same sex and see the results. I would imagine that they would be similar to the opposite sex study results.
This article is very eyeopening for me. Symmetry is something that is so visible, yet people tend not to notice unless side by side to another picture. I have noticed with my face how my mouth lacks symmetry, but that is probably just because I see it everyday. In addition to the Tom Cruise teeth, there is another celebrity that has an interesting smile that you probably haven’t noticed before. This is Nick Jonas. While his smile is beautiful, it is different than most with 3 front teeth. I do understand the difficulty with performing experiments on this. Attraction is something that differs per person, so it is difficult to measure and compare. I think the best way to complete an observational study on this subject would be to have a test with the pictures like the ones with the man above right next to each other. If there was a variety of these–different races, different genders, different ages–it would bring more accurate results.
I found your article very interesting and it definitely caught my attention. Your thesis question is if the symmetry of ones face makes them more attractive. Your study said yes, because visually a person can process how stimulated they are easier when the object is symmetric opposed to asymmetric. Even if I am not properly understanding the findings of the Perceptual Bias view it still raised a lot of questions to me such as why the idea of wealth and attractiveness was “ruled out” as you said. How exactly can things that are equal be more easy to process? Even if they are, I don’t understand how that can rule out the idea of being wealthy. I would like to explore the idea that “symmetric individuals are attractive because they are particularly healthy.” If a study was done which gathered a randomized group of young women and asked them to look at a series of pictures of men and see how much they remembered about the person after a period of time and then do the same thing, but have the mans worth below the picture it would be interesting if women were more likely to remember a very good looking man or a very rich man. Another question that I had was that your blog never addressed other ways a person could be attracted to a mate. What if a potential wife had an asymmetric face yet an amazing personality, it is often found that people want kindness over both wealth and certain attractiveness. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/the-myth-of-buying-beauty/374414/
It is interesting that beauty and attractiveness can come down to something as simple as symmetry. However, I do think that this perception is definitely more subconcious. Yes, in most cases the more symmetrical person is more attractive. I am left to wonder if there are other facial features that lend to the symmetrical attractiveness. This is hard science to tap into because so much of it is based on opinion. And, even though the studies you mentioned were observational, reverse causation can probably be ruled out because that doesn’t really make sense. What was the p-value in that study? That would help to know how reliable the results truly are. Here is another study that was conducted on this topic. In this study, faces were manipulated to be more symmetrical and less symmetrical. Just like the results of the studies you mentioned, this one concluded the same thing. The scientists also suggest that this preference may be “biologically based.” All very interesting and all very complex.
I always thought facial symmetry wasn’t much more than a talking point for T.V. shows. When I see people, I never can tell whether or not their faces are symmetrical. Presenting the Evolutionary Advantage view and the Perceptual Bias view added a lot of credibility to your research and I definitely think the latter is plausible. I don’t think, though, that symmetry is the deciding factor in choosing a mate. It could be subconscious, but it does not seem to be as important as the other factors like personality as an example. Also, on the subconscious level, I don’t think we associate symmetry with health. Seeing more studies, especially is they are experimental, would definitely help me shape my views on this topic. Since the cited study was observational, I wonder if confounding variables played a part. Did Thornhill display pictures of the same face, on distorted? Did he show separate faces? Both directions could have led to problems. Either way, I think his findings are most likely not collectively a false positive, though.