Conscientiousness ( efficient/organized vs.Openness to experience ( inventive/curious vs.Research indicates that facial symmetry is correlated with the 'big-five' model of personality. Main article: Big Five personality traits Personality and Big Five personality traits Therefore, symmetrical transformation of older faces generally increases their attractiveness while symmetrical transformation in young adults and children will decrease their attractiveness. Progressive changes occurring throughout life in the soft tissues of the face will cause more prominent facial asymmetry in older faces. Aging įacial symmetry is also a valid marker of cognitive aging. symmetry Įxperiments suggest that symmetry and averageness make independent contributions to attractiveness. This is most likely caused by the uneven strengths of contralateral neural connections between the left hemisphere of the brain (linguistic localization) and the right side of the face. For example, during speech, most people (76%) tend to express greater amplitude of movement on the right side of their mouth. Highly conspicuous directional asymmetries can be temporary ones. The symmetry of the nose seems to be more important than that of the lips. Also, studies have shown that nearly symmetrical faces are considered highly attractive as compared to asymmetrical ones. While studies employing the composite faces produced results that indicate that more symmetrical faces are perceived as more attractive, studies applying the face-half mirroring technique have indicated that humans prefer slight asymmetry. More symmetrical faces are perceived as more attractive in both males and females, although facial symmetry plays a larger role in judgments of attractiveness concerning female faces. Attractiveness įacial symmetry has been found to increase ratings of attractiveness in human faces. For example, if the nose of an individual is slightly bent to the right side, then mirroring the right side of the face will lead to an over-sized nose, while mirroring the left side will lead to an unnaturally small nose. Fluctuating asymmetry Ĭonclusions derived from face mirroring, however, have been called into question, because it has been shown that mirroring face-halves creates artificial features. This aurofacial asymmetry is very small in young adults (0.5 degree), but much larger in small children (4 degrees). As predicted by this theory, the eyes, nose and mouth are, on average, located slightly to the left of the axis through the ears. A theory of directional asymmetries in the human body is the axial twist hypothesis. Directional asymmetry ĭirectional asymmetry is a systematic asymmetry of some parts of the face across the population.

The human face also has systematic, directional asymmetry: on average, the face (mouth, nose and eyes) sits systematically to the left with respect to the axis through the ears, the so-called aurofacial asymmetry. įacial bilateral symmetry is typically defined as fluctuating asymmetry of the face comparing random differences in facial features of the two sides of the face. For instance, in mate selection, people have been shown to have a preference for symmetry. Along with traits such as averageness and youthfulness it influences judgments of aesthetic traits of physical attractiveness and beauty. While symmetrical faces (leftmost image) are perceived to be attractive, completely symmetric faces ( a and b) are disconcerting and are not perceived as normal.įacial symmetry is one specific measure of bodily symmetry.

Perfect face structure