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Facial Beauty and the Correlation of Associated Attributes: An Empirical Aesthetic Database Study

Singh, P; Birkett, L; Dhar, S; Krumhuber, E; Mosahebi, A; Ponniah, A; (2024) Facial Beauty and the Correlation of Associated Attributes: An Empirical Aesthetic Database Study. Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery-Global Open , 12 (1) , Article E5382. 10.1097/GOX.0000000000005382. Green open access

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: The pursuit of understanding facial beauty has been the subject of scientific interest since time immemorial. How beauty is associated with other perceived attributes that affect human interaction remains elusive. This article aims to explore how facial attractiveness correlates with health, happiness, femininity, and perceived age. We review the existing literature and report an empirical study using expert raters. METHODS: A peer-reviewed database of 2870 aesthetic female faces with a global ethnic distribution was created. Twenty-one raters were asked to score frontal images on the attributes of health, happiness, femininity, perceived age, and attractiveness, on a Likert scale of 0–100. RESULTS: Pearson correlation coefficients (“r”) were calculated to correlate attributes, with multiple regression analyses and P values calculated. Strong positive correlation was found between attractiveness and health (r = 0.61, P < 0.05), attractiveness and femininity (r = 0.7, P < 0.05), and health and femininity (r = 0.57, P < 0.05); medium positive correlation between health and happiness (r = 0.31, P < 0.05); and small positive correlation between happiness and femininity (r = 0.21, P < 0.05). A neutral relationship was observed between perceived age and happiness (0.01, P = 0.75), and medium negative correlation between perceived age and attractiveness (−0.32, P < 0.05), health (−0.36, P < 0.05), and femininity (−0.31, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study illustrates a positive correlation between the positive attributes of health, happiness, femininity and attractiveness, with a negative correlation of all characteristics with increasing perceived age. This provides insight into the complexity of human interaction and provides a holistic view of attraction as being a gateway to the reflexive perception of other attributes. The implications encourage an aesthetic focus on facial reconstruction.

Type: Article
Title: Facial Beauty and the Correlation of Associated Attributes: An Empirical Aesthetic Database Study
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000005382
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/gox.0000000000005382
Language: English
Additional information: © 2024 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Surgical Biotechnology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10186437
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