title: Variation in Women's Preferences Regarding Male Facial Masculinity Is Better Explained by Genetic Differences Than by Previously Identified Context-Dependent Effects.
abstract: Women's preferences for masculine versus feminine male faces are highly variable. According to a dominant theory in evolutionary psychology, this variability results from adaptations that optimize preferences by calibrating them to certain contextual factors, including women's self-perceived attractiveness, short- versus long-term relationship orientation, pathogen disgust sensitivity, and stage of the menstrual cycle. The theory does not account for the possible contribution of genetic variation on women's facial masculinity preference. Using a large sample (N = 2,160) of identical and nonidentical female Finnish twins and their siblings, we showed that the proportion of variation in women's preferences regarding male facial masculinity that was attributable to genetic variation (38%) dwarfed the variation due to the combined effect of contextual factors (< 1%). These findings cast doubt on the importance of these context-dependent effects and may suggest a need for refocusing in the field toward understanding the wide genetic variation in these preferences and how this variation relates to the evolution of sexual dimorphism in faces.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Queensland QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia zietsch@psy.uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Brendan P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Zietsch
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Queensland.
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Queensland.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sherlock
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Abo Akademi University Department of Behavioural Sciences and Philosophy, University of Turku.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jern
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D057227:Femininity; D005387:Finland; D005824:Genetics, Behavioral; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: behavior genetics; evolutionary psychology