Women are, on the whole, considered more attractive than men. It is an opinion held by most men, and, perhaps more surprisingly, by most women too.
That is the conclusion of a wide-ranging study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. Led by neuropsychologist Eugen Wassiliwizky at the Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, the research found that both sexes, on average, rate women as more attractive than men.
A shared standard of beauty
The findings draw on data from 52 studies conducted across 76 countries, covering most of the world’s cultures and ethnicities. In total, 28,500 participants, both men and women, ranked 17,000 faces by attractiveness. Every face was photographed from the front and without makeup.
What stands out is how closely the ratings aligned, even though the participants came from so many different countries. On average, a typical female face was judged more attractive than 60 percent of male faces.
Curiously, despite the enduring fascination with the topic, this appears to be the first time the phenomenon has been verified scientifically.
The fairer sex
Charles Darwin himself mused on female beauty, observing that women were commonly described as “the fairer sex.” He also pointed out that in most other mammals and birds, it is the males that carry the more striking looks. The manes of male lions and the tail feathers of peacocks are familiar examples. In humans, the pattern is plainly reversed.
The question is why, and the researchers have no firm answer. Pinning down the evolutionary forces behind the effect is difficult. Still, it appears that both sexes share an innate pull toward rounder faces, which read as more feminine. The team suggests this may be because such faces more closely resemble those of young children.