Thursday, November 20, 2014

Facial Symmetry

The more symmetrical an individuals face is the more physically attractive that person is. Facial symmetry has been associated with the manifestation of the 'Big 5' personality traits. A common method of research used to investigate the relationship between facial symmetry and attractiveness involves manipulating the symmetry of faces. In order to do so, sophisticated computer graphic methods are used. Commonly, perfectly symmetrical faces are displayed to subjects along with the original, participants are asked which face is more attractive.  Two explanations for this is the evolutionary advantage which demonstrates that symmetric faces are attractive because symmetry indicates how healthy an individual is. Also, the perceptual bias has to do with our visual hard wiring that makes it easier to process symmetric stimuli rather than asymmetric stimuli. I would agree with the evolutionary theory because human instinct is to find a mate and reproduce. If the mate is more attractive it is due to the symmetrical aspects of their physical composition which is the reasoning behind their beauty. The link below shows very attractive celebrities that have very symmetrical left and right sides of their faces which is why they are found high in beauty by the public.
http://www.suggest.com/celebs/2726/the-two-faces-of-12-celebs#slide/3

3 comments:

  1. This is really interesting, I've heard this through the grapevine, but I wasn't sure how accurate it was. Now I see that its actually factual.

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  2. I heard about this on an episode of Criminal Minds! I found it pretty interesting that our brain can recognize facial symmetry without us actually realizing we're doing it.

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  3. I also saw that episode Julia. I looked through the photos on the link and many of the celebrities still look the same when viewing the right and the left. However, Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlet Johansson look like two different people!

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