Transcription
Do you think women would prefer this face or this one, or perhaps both? What makes a man attractive tends to be more controversial than what makes a woman attractive.
Male beauty does not always equate to masculinity, as masculinity can signal both positive and negative aspects. For example, a man may be appearing more masculine, stronger, and dominant, but he could also have the negative traits of higher testosterone, leading to more aggression and danger. And so, for a feminine partner, this can present a trade-off that they have to consider between the positive and the negative. And this is a very well-established theory in sociobiology.
As a result, women's definition of attractiveness is actually quite variable. Some prefer more masculine traits, such as thick eyebrows or rectangular eyes, while others may prefer more feminized traits, such as a rounded nose or fuller lips. So, what do women prefer? Well-defined and smooth features, a bearded or clean-shaven face, of mature or youthful appearance, a more masculine or the more androgynous pretty boy look?
In this video, we're going to try to talk a bit about male beauty standards that do exist in the scientific literature. Perhaps the most important indicators of masculinity and attractiveness in men are those that are related to the overall size and shape of the face, such as the mandibular prominence or the jawline. These physical traits are often associated with an individual's hormonal levels and serve as signs of dominant maturity and virility. For example, having high levels of body fat will disguise the face, and it's very apparent to see, and we can logically assume that you're probably not as athletic.
The size of the chin is related to attractiveness in men. Several studies have found that a large chin area, both in length and width, is a desirable feature. Another important trait associated with the perception of facial attractiveness is chin prominence, which refers to the degree in which the chin extends in relation to the rest of the face. This can be measured by considering the different elements of the face. 90 and colleagues found that the most attractive faces were those with chins of average protrusion. This means that the chin with an extension similar to those that you would find in the majority of the population was considered the most attractive, while faces with mild deviations from the average retained some of their attractiveness. The greater the deviation, the less attractive the face was. Interestingly, the effects of retrosion was more pronounced than the effects of protrusion, so having a chin that is too far forward is not as much of a negative as having a chin that is not far enough.
Another feature that impacts attractiveness is the shape and prominence of the jaw. Men typically have wider jaws than women, so a wide jaw is a sign of masculinity. Gilsky and colleagues discovered that jawbone prominence and facial height are two of the three most important features for perceptions of masculinity, the other being eyebrow thickness. Windhager and colleagues studied the influence of jaw shape on perceptions of attractiveness in their paper, "Geometric Morphometrics of Male Facial Shape in Relation to Physical Strength and Attractiveness." The authors analyzed different types of male profiles: strong, high body fat, dominant, masculine, and attractive. Heavyset profiles share a prominent lower jaw, but the jawline is rounder in men with higher body fat and more angular in strong individuals. On the other hand, slender faces have more angular jawlines compared to the heavy surfaces. In other words, a rounded lower third is a sign of higher body fat, which is considered an undesirable characteristic for sexual attractiveness. Interestingly, the authors found that the most attractive profile was the one that had a narrower jaw and an angular, well-defined jawline. On the other hand, women tend to rate male faces with a prominent lower jaw as more dominant, but not necessarily as more attractive. Think of the drill sergeant, Minecraft Steve, square jaw, compared to maybe say, a K-pop boy band member who has a more feminized but slender and attractive jawline. Which one would women more likely choose? Probably not the drill sergeant jaw.
Finally, cheekbone prominence, while still having an impact on perceived masculinity and attractiveness, was found to be less important. In conclusion, features in the lower third of the face, particularly the shape and size of the jaw and the chin, as well as the overall facial height, are important indicators of male facial attractiveness.
One of the most distinct characteristics of male faces is the presence of facial hair. So, what is the impact of facial hair on attractiveness? Beards are generally considered signals of both positive aspects, such as experience or dominance, and negative ones, such as aggressiveness. In a study conducted by Dixon and colleagues, titled "The Masculinity Paradox," the authors studied several aspects of facial hair in men. They arrived at the interesting conclusion that light and heavy stubble faces were more attractive than either full-bearded and clean-shaven faces. In other words, the amount of hair that you have on your face does matter.
In addition, by digitally manipulating the photographs used in the study, they discovered that very masculine and very feminine male faces were less attractive than faces of average masculinity when they were clean-shaven. This implies that beards disguise extreme masculine or feminine traits, presenting the face as more smooth, soft, or average, and therefore making it more attractive. Not only does the amount of facial hair matter, but it also matters in regards to its distribution. The same authors described in their paper, "The Role of Facial and Body Hair Distribution in Women's Judgments of Male Sexual Attractiveness," that men with more evenly and continuously distributed facial hair were perceived as more sexually attractive than individuals with more patchy hair. That should be common sense to most men.
In this video, we also showed that having a beard was beneficial for men with smaller jawlines and significantly increased their attractiveness and masculinity. In conclusion, having a beard can definitely impact a man's attractiveness and masculinity, although the results are different depending on his underlying bone structure. And paying attention to that actually matters a lot more on whether you should have a beard or not.
People usually focus on the eyes when first seeing a face. While big eyes are considered a sign of femininity for women, masculinity is typically associated with a smaller, more rectangular eye size compared to the roundness of the eye itself. When it comes to male attractiveness, women's preference for eye size also depends on the context. For example, Cunningham and colleagues found in their pioneer paper, "What Do Women Want," that generally women prefer larger eyes, both in height and width, that is, the more feminine eye shape. However, Mogilski and colleagues found that smaller, more masculinized eyes were preferred in the context of short-term dating. This aligns with an important characteristic of masculinity perception, which we have discovered in other videos, that more masculine traits are considered attractive for short-term dating prospects, think of one-night stands, hookups, that kind of culture, whereas they are less preferential in long-term dating prospects, such as marriage or a lifelong partner. Despite these discrepancies, both authors agree that eye size is an important aspect of male facial attractiveness.
Another related feature is eyebrow thickness, where interestingly, McGillsky and colleagues found that this feature is even more important than eye size as a signal of masculinity. This means that having thick eyebrows is a stronger indicator of masculinity than having the masculine eye shape. So, when it comes to the eye color itself, we've also made a video on that topic on the channel.
The mouth is the central feature of the lower third of the face, and it often captures some of the most attention, making an important first impression. Masculinity is often associated with an ellipse on average, which is often considered a sign of dominance. Male faces with thin lips are sometimes rated as more attractive than those with thick lips because men typically don't have thick, voluptuous lips compared to women. However, some studies have shown that male faces with full lips can also be considered attractive. So, which one is it? Therefore, it appears that the size of the lips doesn't significantly have a determining factor on attractiveness, as long as they are within proportion, as the ratings of attractiveness do vary depending on other features of the mouth itself, not just the volume of the lips.
So, with that in mind, the size of the mouth does impact attractiveness. Grammar and colleagues have found that men with wider mouths are considered more attractive, possibly because this feature is associated with good health and, more importantly, with proportion. Therefore, mouth size is a robust indicator of attractiveness, more so than lip size.
An interesting question is whether dental aesthetics have any impact on male attractiveness. It is reasonable to expect that men with better dentition, in other words, teeth and gum health, are considered more attractive. However, how significant is the impact of this dental appearance? In Baker and colleagues' paper, "Objective Assessment of the Contribution of Dental Aesthetics and Facial Attractiveness in Men via Eye Tracking," their experiment: the subjects were ranked according to their facial attractiveness and the level of dental treatment that they required. Then, the authors showed these pictures to women and used eye-tracking technology to find out which areas of the face captured more attention. For both highly attractive and unattractive men, women paid attention to facial features in the following order: the eyes, the mouth, and the nose. However, for men of average attractiveness, the attention shifted to the mouth. This means that for average men, women pay more attention to the mouth, and thus dental aesthetics do have a very important role on your facial appearance.
In addition, the effect depends on the level of dental treatment needed by the subject himself. In the most severe conditions, visual attention was shifted to the mouth irrespective of the overall attractiveness level. And perhaps you've seen this for yourself, where somebody may have a very beautiful face, but they open their mouth, and their teeth may not be in the best shape, and that does unfairly capture a lot of attention. This means that if the dental status of the individual is severe, no matter how attractive he is, he will most likely benefit from dental treatment. Interestingly, visual attention to the mouth of feminine faces never exceeded that compared to the eyes. These results suggest that in men, the attention to anesthetic dentition is more pronounced, and that dental aesthetics have more of an influence on men than they do on women.
Let's talk about the nose. So, the nose is the central feature of the face, and it's very eye-catching. As with other traits, while there is consensus that a slim and small nose is an attractive feature on women because women typically have smaller noses than men, making it a sexually dimorphic feature, it seems that men can get away with a lot more nose shapes and sizes. In agreement with this idea, Cunningham and colleagues found in their research that the nose is a poor predictor of attractiveness, meaning that they did not find a strong correlation between nose size and perceived attractiveness in men. Just look at Adrian Brody. On the other hand, Grammar and colleague states that a large nose, just like a wide mouth, is indicative of good health and therefore it is considered attractive. However, some studies have found that male faces which were feminized by reducing the nose size were perceived as again more attractive, just like the lips. This one really depends on the face itself and other features. So, unlike women, apparently nose size is not a particularly important trait with respect to attractiveness in men, and men do get away with a lot more when it regards the nose shape itself, as long as it is within the average proportion and size that's seen in the male population, and it doesn't disturb the overall symmetry of the face.
A rather unusual but quite interesting trait that can impact attractiveness is facial scarring. Many studies have shown that in Western societies, facial scarring has a negative impact on attractiveness, since it provides evidence of past trauma or illness and may suggest a risk-taking personality, which can be considered undesirable in long-term dating prospects. However, in the paper titled "Facial Scarring Enhances Males Attractiveness for Short-Term Relationships," Burris and colleagues show that post-traumatic scarring, even non-severe facial scarring, can enhance perceptions of attractiveness in men for short-term, but not for long-term relationships, as it could be considered a sign of masculinity, violence, aggression, all of the negative aspects basically culminate into the scarring. This means that as long as the scars are superficial, in other words, not deforming or causing deformation of the face, women can consider them to be attractive in potential short-term partners. We've made a full video on the subject, which you'd like to know more about, or the influence on facial attractiveness, that's the one to watch. Interestingly, facial scarring did not enhance perceptions of attractiveness on feminine subjects, where the study provides an interesting example of an unexpected feature that under certain contexts could make a face more attractive, especially for men.
So, to round out this video, women are attracted to men who exhibit a variety of attributes physically speaking, and the different traits are preferred in different situations. There is a significant influence on the dating context when it comes to women's preferences in men. This means that women prefer different types of men for short-term versus long-term dating prospects. Under certain circumstances, particularly for short-term relationships, women tend to seek men who are more sexually matured and dominant, perhaps maybe for protection, aggression, or just risk-taking behavior. In these situations, male attractiveness is related to features that express maturity and dominance, such as a larger chin and jaw or thicker facial hair. On the other hand, women sometimes prefer less massive faces, especially in a long-term major context. Features such as larger eyes or a smaller nose, which reflect general babyishness, immaturity, and neoteny, express these attributes, which could link to being a more empathetic father figure for children later on.
And so, if you'd like to learn more about your facial features, whether you fall into the first or the second category, how you can change the way that you look, and overall get a general assessment of your facial characteristics, you can head over to the Crew's website and get a report performed by a team of doctors and dentists for an analysis and breakdown of your face. As always, that's on the Crew's website, and I'll catch you all in the next one.