Sexual dimorphism and attractiveness in Asian and White faces |
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| Authors: | Ian D. Stephen Darby L. H. Salter Kok Wei Tan Chrystalle B. Y. Tan Richard J. Stevenson |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia;2. Perception in Action Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia;3. ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia;4. School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading Malaysia, Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia;5. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia |
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| Abstract: | Marriages between White men and Asian women are over twice as frequent as those between White women and Asian men. Recent research has proposed that this imbalance may be explained by the finding that, on average, White men are perceived as more attractive than Asian men, and Asian women are perceived as more attractive than White women, possibly because Asian faces are perceived as more feminine than White faces. Here, we explore whether Asian faces are perceived as more feminine than White faces. Thirty-five Malaysian Chinese (20 male) and 30 Australian White (12 male) participants manipulated 100 face photographs (50 Asian; 50 White; half male) on a masculinity/femininity axis to optimize attractive appearance. As predicted, White women’s faces were increased more in femininity than Asian women’s faces, and White men’s faces were feminized more than Asian men’s faces to optimize attractiveness. These findings suggest that White faces are perceived as more masculine than Asian faces. |
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| Keywords: | Sexual dimorphism facial attractiveness masculinity |
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