Partnership status and the temporal context of relationships influence human female preferences for sexual dimorphism in male face shape

Abstract

Secondary sexual characteristics may indicate quality of the immune system and therefore a preference for masculinity may confer genetic benefits to offspring; however, high masculinity may be associated with costs of decreased paternal investment. The current study examined women's preferences for masculinity in male faces by using computer graphics to allow transformation between feminine and masculine versions of individual male faces. We found that preferences for masculinity are increased when women either have a partner or are considering a short-term relationship. Such preferences are potentially adaptive, serving to: (i) maximize parental investment and cooperation in long-term relationships by biasing choices towards feminine faced males, and (ii) maximize possible good-gene benefits of short-term or extra-pair partners by biasing choices towards masculine faced males. We also found that individuals using oral contraception do not show the above effects, indicating that such hormonal intervention potentially disrupts women's choices for evolutionarily relevant benefits from males.

Facialmetric similarities mediate mate choice: sexual imprinting on opposite-sex parents

“…However, this is not the case, since only one's opposite-sex parental prototype influences one's mate choice. This is in line with the results of observations and experiments among animals and humans ( Vos 1995;Little et al 2002b;Bereczkei et al 2004). A study using molecular techniques has shown significantly higher HLA allele matches between the donors of a woman's most preferred donor and a woman's father than between the preferred donors and her mother ( Jacob et al 2002).…”

“…These findings appear to support the sexual imprinting hypothesis and provide additional evidence for the results that have been found in former studies (Bereczkei et al 2002(Bereczkei et al , 2004Little et al 2002b). Young adults show facial similarity to their partner's opposite parent that may come from a socialization process: children learn the particular features of the opposite-sex phenotype during childhood, and later they prefer long-term mates who show a certain degree of similarity to this parent.…”

“…Using a computer-graphic method, it was found that women born to 'old' parents (over 30) were more attracted to older faces than those born to younger parents, and men's preferences for female faces were R e t r a c t e d influenced by their mother's age and not their father's age in a long-term relationship (Perrett et al 2002). A study that examined hair and eye colour of male and female participants, their partners and their parents found positive correlations between parental characteristics and actual partner characteristics (Little et al 2002b). The partners' hair and eye colour resembled that of the opposite-sex parent but not that of the same-sex parent.…”

Body Odor Quality Predicts Behavioral Attractiveness in Humans

“…(1 = very unlikely, 7 = very likely). The two contexts were used because they can shift responses in subtle but statistically detectable manner (Little, Jones, Penton-Voak, Burt, & Perrett, 2002;Roberts, Little et al, 2005) and give some insight into the selection pressure underlying the preference: those expressed more strongly in the long-term context indicate relatively higher attention to cues of paternal investment, while preferences more strongly expressed in the general attractiveness context may emphasize cues of good genes (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000).…”

Concordant preferences for actual height and facial cues to height

“…-scrolling to one side of the face would not always make the face appear taller). Such interactive tests have been successfully used in previous face research (Little, Jones, Penton-Voak, Burt, & Perrett, 2002;Perrett et al, 1998).…”