Digit ratio (2D:4D) predicts facial, but not voice or body odour, attractiveness in men

Ferdenzi, Camille; Lemaître, Jean‐François; Leongoméz, Juan David; Roberts, S. Craig

doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.0544

Cited by 25 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This correlation was stronger for the right hand (the left was only marginally significant), which is consistent with similar results between right-hand 2D:4D and facial symmetry and attractiveness reported by Ferdenzi et al (2011), is interesting in view of recent studies suggesting heritability of 2D:4D ratio is higher in the right hand (Paul, Kato, Cherkas, Andrew, & Spector, 2006; the odor attractiveness-left 2D:4D ratio and odor attractiveness-right 2D:4D ratio correlations were not significantly different). The correlations suggest that individuals with more attractive odor were more likely to have lower (more masculine) ratios.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Indeed, intercorrelations between traits are widely-reported. For example, correlations are seen between face and body attractiveness (Feinberg et al, 2005;, between facial and body odor attractiveness (Rikowski & Grammer, 1999;Thornhill et al, 2003), and between facial attractiveness and the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D, where low ratios are related to masculinity) (Ferdenzi, Lemaître, Leongómez, & Roberts, 2011). Beyond attractiveness, facial masculinity is related to facial symmetry Little et al, 2008), and is also related to the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D, where low ratios are related to masculinity) (Burriss, Little, & Nelson, 2007;Fink, Manning, Neave, & Grammer, 2004;Fink, Seydel, Manning, & Kappeler, 2007;Manning, 2002;but see Ferdenzi et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Body Odor Quality Predicts Behavioral Attractiveness in Humans

et al. 2011

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits covary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focussed on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body-mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during every day conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating, or a rating for long-term partners, by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body Odor Quality Predicts Behavioral Attractiveness in Humans

et al. 2011

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Still others use monophthong vowel sounds (e.g., /a/ and /i/ in English). These stimuli are most common in studies on voice preference (Bruckert et al, 2010;Collins, 2000;Feinberg, Jones, DeBruine, et al, 2005;Ferdenzi, Lemaître, Leongómez, & Roberts, 2011). The use of vowels is beneficial in two regards.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice attractiveness: Influence of stimulus duration and type

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Voice attractiveness is a relatively new area of research. Some aspects of the methodology used in this domain deserve particular attention. Especially, the duration of voice samples is often neglected as a factor and happens to be manipulated without the perceptual consequences of these manipulations being known. Moreover, the type of voice stimulus varies from a single vowel to complex sentences. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the extent to which stimulus duration (nonmanipulated vs. normalized) and type (vowel vs. word) influence perceived voice attractiveness. Twenty-seven male and female raters made attractiveness judgments of 30 male and female voice samples. Voice samples included a single vowel /a/, a three-vowel series /i a o/, and the French word "bonjour" (i.e., "hello"). These samples were presented in three conditions: nonmanipulated, shortened, and lengthened duration. Duration manipulation was performed using the pitch synchronous overlap and add (PSOLA) algorithm implemented in Praat. Results for the effect of stimulus type showed that word length samples were more attractive to the opposite sex than vowels. Results for the effect of duration showed that the nonmanipulated sound sample duration was not predictive of perceived attractiveness. Duration manipulation, on the other hand, altered perceived attractiveness for the lengthening condition. In particular, there was a linear decrease in attractiveness as a function of modification percentage (especially for the word, as compared with the vowels). Recommendations for voice sample normalization with the PSOLA algorithm are thus to prefer shortening over lengthening and, if not possible, to limit the extent of duration manipulation-for example, by normalizing to the mean sample duration.

show abstract

“…Previous studies have focused on either subjective masculinity ratings of two-dimensional (2D) facial stimuli [30], or measurements between standardized landmarks on 2D photographs [17,[31][32][33][34]. Distances based on 2D photographs are unreliable as they change with the camera distance, angle and optics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal testosterone exposure is related to sexually dimorphic facial morphology in adulthood

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prenatal testosterone may have a powerful masculinizing effect on postnatal physical characteristics. However, no study has directly tested this hypothesis. Here, we report a 20-year follow-up study that measured testosterone concentrations from the umbilical cord blood of 97 male and 86 female newborns, and procured three-dimensional facial images on these participants in adulthood (range: 21-24 years). Twenty-three Euclidean and geodesic distances were measured from the facial images and an algorithm identified a set of six distances that most effectively distinguished adult males from females. From these distances, a 'gender score' was calculated for each face, indicating the degree of masculinity or femininity. Higher cord testosterone levels were associated with masculinized facial features when males and females were analysed together (n ¼ 183; r ¼ 20.59), as well as when males (n ¼ 86; r ¼ 20.55) and females (n ¼ 97; r ¼ 20.48) were examined separately ( p-values , 0.001). The relationships remained significant and substantial after adjusting for potentially confounding variables. Adult circulating testosterone concentrations were available for males but showed no statistically significant relationship with gendered facial morphology (n ¼ 85, r ¼ 0.01, p ¼ 0.93). This study provides the first direct evidence of a link between prenatal testosterone exposure and human facial structure.

show abstract

Digit ratio (2D:4D) predicts facial, but not voice or body odour, attractiveness in men

Cited by 25 publications

References 55 publications

Body Odor Quality Predicts Behavioral Attractiveness in Humans

Body Odor Quality Predicts Behavioral Attractiveness in Humans

Voice attractiveness: Influence of stimulus duration and type

Prenatal testosterone exposure is related to sexually dimorphic facial morphology in adulthood

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About