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Sex‐typicality and attractiveness: Are supermale and superfemale faces super‐attractive?
Author(s) -
Rhodes Gillian,
Hickford Catherine,
Jeffery Linda
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1348/000712600161718
Subject(s) - exaggeration , psychology , attractiveness , feminization (sociology) , preference , face (sociological concept) , social psychology , developmental psychology , physical attractiveness , gender studies , social science , psychiatry , sociology , psychoanalysis , economics , microeconomics
Many animals find extreme versions of secondary sexual characteristics attractive, and such preferences can enhance reproductive success (Andersson, 1994). We hypothesized, therefore, that extreme versions of sex‐typical traits may be attractive in human faces. We created supermale and superfemale faces by exaggerating all spatial differences between an average male and an average female face. In Expt 1 the male average was preferred to a supermale (50% exaggeration of differences from the female average). There was no clear preference for the female average or the superfemale (50% exaggeration). In Expt 2, participants chose the most attractive face from sets of images containing feminized as well as masculinized images for each sex, and spanning a wider range of exaggeration levels than in Expt 1. Chinese sets were also shown, to see whether similar preferences would occur for a less familiar race (participants were Caucasian). The most attractive female image was significantly feminized for faces of both races. However, the most attractive male image for both races was also significantly feminized. These results indicate that feminization, rather than sex exaggeration per se , is attractive in human faces, and they corroborate similar findings by Perrett et al . (1998).