Is there no beauty in sexually dimorphic eyes? Facial attractiveness and White Europeans ocular morphology-Brief communication

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 6;18(4):e0284079. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284079. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

The link between human ocular morphology and attractiveness, especially in the context of its potential adaptive function, is an underexplored area of research. In our study, we examined the association between facial attractiveness and three sexually dimorphic measures of ocular morphology in White Europeans: the sclera size index, width-to-height ratio, and relative iris luminance. Sixty participants (30 women) assessed the attractiveness of the opposite-sex photographs of 50 men and 50 women. Our results show that in both men and women, none of the three measures was linked to the opposite sex ratings of facial attractiveness. We conclude that those ocular morphology measures may play a limited role in human mate preferences.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Beauty*
  • Body Weights and Measures / methods
  • Body Weights and Measures / psychology
  • Esthetics / psychology
  • European People* / psychology
  • Eye* / anatomy & histology
  • Face* / anatomy & histology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Iris / anatomy & histology
  • Male
  • Photography
  • Sex Characteristics
  • Sex Factors
  • White People* / psychology

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Grant 21-10527S from Grantová Agentura České Republiky (Czech Science Foundation; https://gacr.cz/). KK is the recipient of this grant. Other authors received no specific funding for this work. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.