Comparing theory-driven and data-driven attractiveness models using images of real women’s faces

Abstract

Facial attractiveness plays a critical role in social interaction, influencing many different social outcomes. However, the factors that influence facial attractiveness judgments remain relatively poorly understood. Here, we used a sample of 594 young adult female face images to compare the performance of existing theory-driven models of facial attractiveness and a data-driven (i.e., theory-neutral) model. Our data-driven model and a theory-driven model including various traits commonly studied in facial attractiveness research (asymmetry, averageness, sexual dimorphism, body mass index, and representational sparseness) performed similarly well. By contrast, univariate theory-driven models performed relatively poorly. These results (1) highlight the utility of data driven models of facial attractiveness and (2) suggest that theory-driven research on facial attractiveness would benefit from greater adoption of multivariate approaches, rather than the univariate approaches that they currently almost exclusively employ.

Biological bases of beauty revisited: The effect of symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism on female facial attractiveness

“…more factors than what current theories have described, even if those theoretical factors do offer some predictive ability. Other factors like facial adiposity and body mass index [110,111] or representational sparseness [112] may contribute more to predictive power and explaining more variance [79].…”

“…Female faces are used as they typically show higher agreement among observers, and theories indicate attractiveness and biological function is more closely tied in females than males [3,44]. It is important to note that studies that have set out to quantify the effect sizes of these factors of attractiveness in unmanipulated faces with sophisticated methods have found that they explain very small amounts of variance generally [78,79].…”

Contributions of shape and reflectance information to social judgments from faces

“…This might be because both types of information provide perceivable cues for attractiveness. People judge a person as attractive in the presence of (i) less bulk around the cheeks and upper neck (Coetzee, Perrett, & Stephen, 2009;Fisher, Hahn, DeBruine, & Jones, 2014;Holzleitner et al, 2019;Nakamura & Watanabe, 2019;Rantala et al, 2012;, and (ii) darker brows and eye lines and more yellowness in the skin color (b*; Scott, Pound, Stephen, Clark, & Penton-Voak, 2010;Stephen et al, 2012). These two types of visual components are represented in face shape and face reflectance, respectively.…”

“…For instance, judgments 6 of attractiveness have been shown to depend on averageness in terms of shape, but not so much in terms of reflectance (Foo, Simmons, & Rhodes, 2017;Nakamura & Watanabe, 2019;O'Toole, Price, Vetter, Bartlett, & Blanz, 1999;. Because reflectance information also predicted attractiveness judgment (Holzleitner et al, 2019;Nakamura & Watanabe, 2019;, these findings provided preliminary evidence that shape and reflectance can have unique contributions to social judgment.…”

Distribution of facial resemblance in romantic couples suggests both positive and negative assortative processes influence human mate choice

“…Moreover, the physical traits associated with attractiveness in men and women are not identical and, in some cases, even opposite. For example, feminine facial features are attractive in women, while masculine facial features are attractive in men (although the extent to which this is the case is disputed [31][32][33][34][35] ).…”