title: Estimating the sex-specific effects of genes on facial attractiveness and sexual dimorphism.
abstract: Human facial attractiveness and facial sexual dimorphism (masculinity-femininity) are important facets of mate choice and are hypothesized to honestly advertise genetic quality. However, it is unclear whether genes influencing facial attractiveness and masculinity-femininity have similar, opposing, or independent effects across sex, and the heritability of these phenotypes is poorly characterized. To investigate these issues, we assessed facial attractiveness and facial masculinity-femininity in the largest genetically informative sample (n = 1,580 same- and opposite-sex twin pairs and siblings) to assess these questions to date. The heritability was ~0.50-0.70 for attractiveness and ~0.40-0.50 for facial masculinity-femininity, indicating that, despite ostensible selection on genes influencing these traits, substantial genetic variation persists in both. Importantly, we found evidence for intralocus sexual conflict, whereby alleles that increase masculinity in males have the same effect in females. Additionally, genetic influences on attractiveness were shared across the sexes, suggesting that attractive fathers tend to have attractive daughters and attractive mothers tend to have attractive sons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA, dorian.mitchem@colorado.edu.
authors.forename: Dorian G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Mitchem
authors.forename: Alicia M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Purkey
authors.forename: Nicholas M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Grebe
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.forename: Christine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Garver-Apgar
authors.forename: Timothy C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.forename: Rosalind
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arden
authors.forename: John K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hewitt
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Medland
authors.forename: Nicholas G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Brendan P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Zietsch
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Keller
mesh_terms: D001504:Beauty; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012725:Sexual Behavior