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Research Article

Human preferences for sexually dimorphic faces may be evolutionarily novel

Isabel M. Scott, Andrew P. Clark, Steven C. Josephson, Adam H. Boyette, Innes C. Cuthill, Ruby L. Fried, Mhairi A. Gibson, Barry S. Hewlett, Mark Jamieson, William Jankowiak, P. Lynne Honey, Zejun Huang, Melissa A. Liebert, Benjamin G. Purzycki, John H. Shaver, J. Josh Snodgrass, Richard Sosis, Lawrence S. Sugiyama, Viren Swami, Douglas W. Yu, Yangke Zhao, and Ian S. Penton-Voak
PNAS October 7, 2014 111 (40) 14388-14393; first published September 22, 2014; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1409643111
Isabel M. Scott
aDepartment of Life Sciences – Psychology Division, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, United Kingdom;
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Andrew P. Clark
aDepartment of Life Sciences – Psychology Division, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, United Kingdom;
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Steven C. Josephson
bDepartment of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112;
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Adam H. Boyette
cDepartment of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164;
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Innes C. Cuthill
dSchool of Biology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UG, United Kingdom;
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Ruby L. Fried
eDepartment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
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Mhairi A. Gibson
fDepartment of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UU, United Kingdom;
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Barry S. Hewlett
cDepartment of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164;
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Mark Jamieson
gSchool of Law and Social Sciences, University of East London, London E16 2RD, United Kingdom;
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William Jankowiak
hDepartment of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154;
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P. Lynne Honey
iDepartment of Psychology, MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB, Canada T5J 4S2;
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Zejun Huang
jDepartment of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310028, China;
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Melissa A. Liebert
eDepartment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
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Benjamin G. Purzycki
kDepartment of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
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John H. Shaver
kDepartment of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
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J. Josh Snodgrass
eDepartment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
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Richard Sosis
kDepartment of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
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Lawrence S. Sugiyama
eDepartment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
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Viren Swami
lDepartment of Psychology, University of Westminster, London W1B 2UW, United Kingdom;
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Douglas W. Yu
mSchool of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom;
nState Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China; and
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Yangke Zhao
jDepartment of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310028, China;
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Ian S. Penton-Voak
oSchool of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, United Kingdom
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  • For correspondence: i.s.penton-voak@bristol.ac.uk
  1. Edited by Susan T. Fiske, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved August 19, 2014 (received for review May 27, 2014)

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Significance

It is a popular assumption that certain perceptions—for example, that highly feminine women are attractive, or that masculine men are aggressive—reflect evolutionary processes operating within ancestral human populations. However, observations of these perceptions have mostly come from modern, urban populations. This study presents data on cross-cultural perceptions of facial masculinity and femininity. In contrast to expectations, we find that in less developed environments, typical “Western” perceptions are attenuated or even reversed, suggesting that Western perceptions may be relatively novel. We speculate that novel environments, which expose individuals to large numbers of unfamiliar faces, may provide novel opportunities—and motives—to discern subtle relationships between facial appearance and other traits.

Abstract

A large literature proposes that preferences for exaggerated sex typicality in human faces (masculinity/femininity) reflect a long evolutionary history of sexual and social selection. This proposal implies that dimorphism was important to judgments of attractiveness and personality in ancestral environments. It is difficult to evaluate, however, because most available data come from large-scale, industrialized, urban populations. Here, we report the results for 12 populations with very diverse levels of economic development. Surprisingly, preferences for exaggerated sex-specific traits are only found in the novel, highly developed environments. Similarly, perceptions that masculine males look aggressive increase strongly with development and, specifically, urbanization. These data challenge the hypothesis that facial dimorphism was an important ancestral signal of heritable mate value. One possibility is that highly developed environments provide novel opportunities to discern relationships between facial traits and behavior by exposing individuals to large numbers of unfamiliar faces, revealing patterns too subtle to detect with smaller samples.

  • facial attractiveness
  • evolution
  • cross-cultural
  • aggression
  • stereotyping

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: i.s.penton-voak{at}bristol.ac.uk.
  • Author contributions: I.M.S., S.C.J., and I.S.P.-V. designed research; I.M.S., A.P.C., S.C.J., A.H.B., R.L.F., M.A.G., B.S.H., M.J., W.J., P.L.H., Z.H., M.A.L., B.G.P., J.H.S., J.J.S., R.S., L.S.S., V.S., D.W.Y., Y.Z., and I.S.P.-V. performed research; I.M.S., A.P.C., I.C.C., and I.S.P.-V. analyzed data; and I.M.S., A.P.C., I.C.C., and I.S.P.-V. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1409643111/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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Preferring sex dimorphic faces may be novel
Isabel M. Scott, Andrew P. Clark, Steven C. Josephson, Adam H. Boyette, Innes C. Cuthill, Ruby L. Fried, Mhairi A. Gibson, Barry S. Hewlett, Mark Jamieson, William Jankowiak, P. Lynne Honey, Zejun Huang, Melissa A. Liebert, Benjamin G. Purzycki, John H. Shaver, J. Josh Snodgrass, Richard Sosis, Lawrence S. Sugiyama, Viren Swami, Douglas W. Yu, Yangke Zhao, Ian S. Penton-Voak
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct 2014, 111 (40) 14388-14393; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1409643111

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Preferring sex dimorphic faces may be novel
Isabel M. Scott, Andrew P. Clark, Steven C. Josephson, Adam H. Boyette, Innes C. Cuthill, Ruby L. Fried, Mhairi A. Gibson, Barry S. Hewlett, Mark Jamieson, William Jankowiak, P. Lynne Honey, Zejun Huang, Melissa A. Liebert, Benjamin G. Purzycki, John H. Shaver, J. Josh Snodgrass, Richard Sosis, Lawrence S. Sugiyama, Viren Swami, Douglas W. Yu, Yangke Zhao, Ian S. Penton-Voak
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct 2014, 111 (40) 14388-14393; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1409643111
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