Study of 1.5 Million Ratings Finds Women’s Faces Score Higher, Gap Fades by Age 80
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 26
Study of 1.5 Million Ratings Finds Women’s Faces Score Higher, Gap Fades by Age 80
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 26
Summary
Ratings from 52 studies in 76 countries found women’s faces were judged more attractive than men’s, with the difference shrinking steadily from age 18 and nearly disappearing in people’s 80s.
The dataset covered more than 1.5 million ratings of 17,000 faces by nearly 30,000 raters, making it the largest test yet of the long-debated “gender attractiveness gap.”
Researchers said the pattern held across cultures and sexual orientations, and women gave other women the highest scores while giving men the lowest; self-ratings erased the gap.
The analysis suggests facial structure may explain part of the effect, with rounder faces generally preferred and male-female facial differences narrowing with age.