Early Bloomers Pick Prized Faces

Whether one prefers pretty boys to rugged types, or strong-featured women to doe-eyed waifs, may reveal more about a person than we realize.

R. Elisabeth Cornwell, a researcher at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, and her colleagues at the Perception Lab, have developed software that subtly tweaks facial features to produce more "masculine" or "feminine" versions of the same face.

In one study, Cornwell found a link between age of sexual maturation and face-shape preference: Men who chose hyperfeminine female faces—characterized by larger eyes and smaller noses—were more likely to have reached puberty sooner and lost their virginity earlier, while women who became sexually active at a younger age opted for hypermasculine men, those with squarer chins and wider jaws.

Cornwell speculates that these preferences could reflect social status, since exaggeratedly male or female faces are often considered more attractive. Since adolescents who mature earlier have the pick of the dating litter in adolescence, they may cultivate a taste for these more prized faces, the researchers theorize. This would jibe with previous studies that have found humans seek out partners similar to themselves.

Cornwell also has a hunch that sex hormone levels could influence face preferences, and is planning to measure hormone concentrations directly in a follow-up study.