It's no surprise that how women determine facial attractiveness is complicated. Unlike many men who may give a woman's body a once-over, and then look at her face, deeming her attractive or unattractive, women, when checking out a man's face, tend to evaluate it on two levels, according to a study that was just published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The first level women use to evaluate men's faces is sexual: they zero in on features like the jawbone, cheekbones, and lips. Then, they look at the entire face for how pleasing the overall aesthetics of the face are.
Researchers set out to prove this dual-process theory by asking two groups of 50 heterosexual women to look at pictures of men's and women's faces.
The first group was given pictures of men and women and told that some of them would be hypothetical dates (sexual) and others hypothetical lab partners (aesthetic). They rated them as attractive accordingly.
For the second group of straight women, they were given the same images, but the faces were split in two with the upper and lower halves shifted in opposite directions. Even with the opportunity to view female faces sexually (that is, feature by feature), the women still rated the attractiveness of female faces aesthetically, and their ratings correlated with the hypothetical lab partner ratings of the first group. When images of men's faces were split in two, however, their rating's correlated with the hypothetical date of the first group, that is, sexually.
The next stop for researchers? Figuring out how cultural differences and hormones play a role in the mechanics of female sexual attraction.
Hanky Panky
Beyond The Valley
Single Dress
Awesome picture. LOVE Paul Newman.
1Best looking man EVER, if you asked me. It would be a shame to split that picture in two...
2Agreed. What was the article about?
3I wonder what the results would be if they had mentioned the bank account numbers or how large their asset is during this study ... I'm just saying. Attractiveness can be easily swayed.
Paul was a handsome man for sure.
4I agree with Briandiesel. Physical appearance is NOT the only measure of attractiveness.
5this study is kind of lame. and mediocre, in my opinion.
6how can anyone affirm or claim that they know and understand how ALL women think and experience sexual attraction just because they analyzed the reactions of 50/100/etc women? Were they at least from different social/racial/cultural backgrounds? 'Cause otherwise it would be even more narrow-minded.
Please, researchers, analyze my brain and thoughts and explain to me why do I believe that the guy in my picture is hot.
Uh, how much money is being spent on these studies? This is stupid.
7Isn't it more fun to see a face and get all hot and bothered without having to know all the biological reasons why? These studies may be interesting for scientists, but it takes the magic away from the rest of us. Let 'em keep their findings to themselves.
8I still (however un-romantic it may be) like to know the science/psychology behind things... One study I did in my experimental psychology class in college actually confirms these results (as far as a woman's attractiveness goes... men look at the body first and women look at other women's faces first) Personally, I think it's interesting!
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