title: Human preferences for sexually dimorphic faces may be evolutionarily novel.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences - Psychology Division, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Isabel M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences - Psychology Division, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112;
authors.forename: Steven C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Josephson
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164;
authors.forename: Adam H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Boyette
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UG, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Innes C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Cuthill
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
authors.forename: Ruby L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Fried
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UU, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Mhairi A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164;
authors.forename: Barry S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Hewlett
authors.affiliation: School of Law and Social Sciences, University of East London, London E16 2RD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jamieson
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154;
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jankowiak
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB, Canada T5J 4S2;
authors.forename: P Lynne
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Honey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310028, China;
authors.forename: Zejun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Liebert
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
authors.forename: Benjamin G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Purzycki
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Shaver
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
authors.forename: J Josh
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Snodgrass
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sosis
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
authors.forename: Lawrence S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Westminster, London W1B 2UW, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Viren
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Swami
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom; State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China; and.
authors.forename: Douglas W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310028, China;
authors.forename: Yangke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, United Kingdom i.s.penton-voak@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ian S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Penton-Voak
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001504:Beauty; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D010551:Personality; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: aggression; cross-cultural; evolution; facial attractiveness; stereotyping