Global Preference for Female Faces Confirmed by Largest Cross-Cultural Study

A meta-analysis of facial attractiveness ratings across 76 countries finds that, on average, female faces receive higher scores than male faces. The effect appears among heterosexual, gay, bisexual and lesbian raters and persists across cultures. The gender gap narrows after age 18 and disappears by about age 80; self-ratings eliminate the gap.

The Guardian

The researchers compiled the world’s largest facial-attractiveness dataset, merging 52 studies. It holds over 1.5 million ratings of 17 000 faces from nearly 30 000 raters. On average, a female face outranks about 60 % of male faces. The gap is strongest in Western samples and slightly weaker elsewhere. Men’s faces tend to be more rectangular, women’s more rounded, and rounder faces receive higher scores.

The Guardian

The study, published in *Proceedings of the Royal Society B*, is led by Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. He calls the pattern “super robust” and says its worldwide consistency challenges purely cultural explanations. While noting possible evolutionary roots, he warns the data cannot confirm such mechanisms and urges caution in causal inference.

The Guardian

The authors note the study does not explain why female faces are preferred and avoid attributing the gap to sexual selection. Susan Sontag’s 1972 essay on the “double standard of aging” is cited to illustrate cultural pressures linking women’s value to youth and beauty, suggesting social norms may still shape perceptions despite the cross-cultural pattern.

The Guardian

• “This is a super robust effect and we see it across cultures. Female faces are evaluated as more attractive than male faces regardless of all the other factors,” — Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics

The Guardian

• “What is most surprising is that women give other women the highest ratings and give the lowest ratings to men.” — Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky

The Guardian

• “Usually when we see an effect across the whole world it’s hard to see a purely cultural explanation for that,” — Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky

The Guardian

• “The older the faces, the less we see a gap between the perceived attractiveness of male and female faces,” — Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky

The Guardian

• “Male and female faces become more and more similar with age, the structural differences shrink, and this might be the reason the gap is melting.” — Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky

The Guardian

The analysis does not identify causal mechanisms behind the gender gap. It offers no direct evidence linking the preference to evolutionary selection or specific cultural practices, and the reported “slightly weaker” gap in non-Western regions lacks quantitative detail.

The Guardian

The authors propose further work to separate cultural, developmental and evolutionary influences on facial attractiveness, including studies of infant-like facial cues and longitudinal perception changes to explain why the gap narrows with age.

The Guardian